Check out the Navy General Board’s incredible history website

I’ve been writing for a US website, the Navy General Board, for a couple of years now. They are building up a wide array of reference articles on naval history, a fair number of them by Yours Truly.

Henry Grace a’Dieu (‘Henry, by Grace of God’) – also known as the ‘Great Harry’. Public domain, via Wikipedia.

The NGB have a strong presence on Facebook and a major website – and that’s only the beginning. Now, you might think naval history isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, as it were (or, if you’re in the Royal Navy, cup of cocoa with a knob of butter in it). Personally I think naval history has something for just about everybody. Get this:

• Where did the term ‘cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey’ really come from? Well, you’ll learn it at NGB. I know. I wrote the article: https://www.navygeneralboard.com/was-cold-enough-to-freeze-the-balls-off-a-brass-monkey-a-naval-phrase/
• Steampunk afficionados! Ever heard of the coal-fired torpedo? You have now, thanks to Chris Knupp’s article on this amazing piece of history: https://www.navygeneralboard.com/coal-torpedo-secret-weapon-of-the-confederacy/
• And which early sixteenth century English monarch managed to name his biggest warship, very loosely, ‘Me… thank God!’. Well, that’s there too. Clue: he ate a lot of roasts and had a lot of wives. Check it out at: https://www.navygeneralboard.com/where-did-the-term-battleship-come-from/

There is, of course, a lot more – from the way the 5’3″ Admiral Sir Thomas ‘Tom Thumb’ Phillips managed to under-estimate the Japanese to First World War spy stuff, and the adventure of Germany’s last U-boat in southern waters – off my home town, Napier, in 1945.

Jump over and check it out!

Copyright (c) Matthew Wright 2019