The bridge and forward turrets of
H.M.S. Hood, c. 1937
My interest as a historian lies in communities and institutions, specifically warships and navies. I am concerned not only with how individuals relate to these communities and institutions, but how each relates to the wider society around them. Like many in the field, I came to naval history through a youthful fascination with warships as structures of immense power and complexity which perform their work in the most hostile of environments. But the structure and appearance of a ship is one thing, her life and functioning quite another. My aim is to recreate that life as fully as I can and in doing so bring naval history to a wider audience than will ever be reached by focusing solely on battle and career histories or by means of a purely technical approach to the subject—fundamental though these elements are. What was it really like to serve in a capital ship in war and peace? How did it feel to be a member of her ship’s company, or to be part of the Royal Navy or the U.S. Navy? Above all, why did some ships—notably Hood and Arizona—become powerful cultural symbols in their own right?
If a reader can put himself in the position of someone labouring in the boiler rooms in temperatures of 140º F, of being on the receiving end of an aerial attack or carousing ashore in the tropics, then the historian has succeeded in detaching the subject from the present and placing it in its own time and context—and the reader likewise.