Always looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans is back in...

Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans Looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, a French gentleman,...

Pierre Arnoul A distinguished naval administrator, Pierre Arnoul, aged 28, is held responsible for a shipwreck so ousted from his...

Charles Baudin Admiral Charles Baudin, 54 years old, achieves to silence the strong fortress which defends Vera Cruz, considered as...

Joachim d’Alencé, an astronomer, publishes the first release of an annual ephemeris, the ‘ Connoissance des Temps' .   He has worked   on...

Tobias Mayer Tobias Mayer, a German astronomer aged 29, publishes Tabulæ motuum Solis et Lunæ novæ et correctæ, that are tables of the...

SS Sirius Two steamships (or SS in short), Sirius and Great Western , simultaneously cross the Atlantic Ocean from Cork in Ireland for...

Line Ticket The Wright, Thompson, Marshall & Thompson Line, founded last year, has opened the first regular service between New York and...

Royal Sovereign 1701 A new Establishment extends standardisation of warships to a larger number of dimensions – hence the constraints to...

José Antonio de Gaztañeta The shipyards of Orio and Pasajes, west and east of San Sebastian, build six 60-gun ships of the line, three...

Isaac Newton The Longitude Act is passed by   the Parliament ‘ for providing a Publick Reward for such Person or Persons as shall...

On the 22nd of October, three ships of the line, the 90-gun Association , the 70-gun Eagle , and the 50-gun Romney run aground on the...

The British Admiralty establishes a standardisation and a specification of the general dimensions for the next vessels to be built. ¤ ...

Henry Winstantley Henry Winstantley, 54 years old, an engineer and a painter, lights the lighthouse he has built at his own expense on...

William Phips William Phipps or Phips, aged 36, originally a shipwright before becoming a complete ship captain and a famous treasure...

Edmund Halley Edmund Halley, an astronomer and polymath aged 30, presents at the Royal Society a map of the Trade Winds also known as Easterlies. As for the Atlantic ocean, they have been known by the Portuguese since the beginning of the exploration, that is in the first half of the 15th century. As for the Pacific ocean, this is Andrés de Urdaneta (†1568) who brought them to light in 1565 and plotted a map for the Manila galleon route between the Philippines and Acapulco.

Last year, a war broke out between Algiers and France at Dey Baba Hassan’s initiative. It implicitly involves the whole Barbary Coast, so the deys of Tripoli and of Tunis as well. This is a weird escalation from the usual tensions provoked by the Barbary pirates against shipping – a lasting plague. From time to time, an European nation retaliates by destroying a few pirate ships. The last expedition was a British one : with some success for just a while, Admiral John Narbor

Anthony Deane, naval architect expert to the Surveyor of the Navy, and Samuel Pepys, kingpin of the Admiralty, both Members of...

On the 11th of May, thirteen French warships run aground on the reefs of an isolated small archipelago in the West Indies. This is the final act of the Franco-Dutch war which has seen, after the series of setbacks suffered in the North sea in 1672-74, a number of naval victories of the French against the Dutch in the Mediterranean sea, then in Africa at Gorée island, and then in the Caribbean sea. The campaign in the West Indies has been successful so far and Admiral Jean II

The United Provinces and France have been at war for five years. They have been struggling for ruling the seas while the Royal Navy has fallen third. A key character, Samuel Pepys, 44 years old, convinces his peers to initiate an unexpected recovery through an extraordinary investment. Samuel Pepys A member of the Royal Society and positioned as the mainstay at the Admiralty, he became Secretary of Admiralty in 1673 and, the same year, a Member of Parliament. His influence