Dawlish Chronicles

The splendidly-expressive Yiddish word “schlemiel” describes a person who is invariably unlucky and  whose endeavours are doomed to failure...

Belgium bars the way - August 1914 Amid the many commemorations now in progress about World War 1, “The Great War” as it was known ...

In my recent blog about the loss of the steamer SS Utopia in Gibraltar harbour in 1891 I commented on the fact that for almost a century i...

Bonaparte's fury at the defeat! Nelson’s stunning victory at Aboukir, off the Nile Delta, in August 1798 was to raise his reputatio...

Accounts of naval operations against shore fortifications in the “Age of Fighting Sail” make frequent references to the use of “heated shot...

In my recent blog about the disaster that overcame the SS Utopia in 1891, which resulted in the deaths of 562 Italian emigrants, I comment...

In 1866, at the naval battle of Lissa, in the Adriatic, victory was secured by the Austro-Hungarian fleet over its Italian enemy by means o...