To search Naval-History.Net
Dedicated to:
Ordnance Artificer George Smith 1916-1943
HMS Charybdis, MIA
Chief Yeoman of Signals George Smith
DSM, 1888-1977
In Memoriam
Gordon Smith, creator of Naval-History.Net, died peacefully on 16 December 2016 aged 75.
Gordon started the site in 1998, initially with books he had written on the Royal and Dominion Navies of World War 2.
Over the following 18 years, Gordon massively expanded the site to include a wide range of naval history research.
This allowed often hard-to-find and difficult-to-interpret contemporary accounts to be made readily available.
The website was central to Gordon's life.
Through it he was able to pursue his most important goal: to memorialize the brave sailors who served.
Gordon is missed dearly by his family and friends.
Current Project Areas
ROYAL & DOMINION NAVY CASUALTIES by Don Kindell, US Researcher, compiled from original Admiralty Documents, introduced by Capt Christopher Page RN, previously Head of Naval Historical Branch (MOD)
- pre-World War 1
- World War 1, 1914-1918
- Inter-War, 1918-1939
- World War 2, 1939-1945 - background events being added to casualty lists - see by Date, "Phoney War"
- Post-War, 1945-2008
UNITED STATES NAVY, COAST GUARD & MARINE CORPS CASUALTIES from contemporary documents and online US sources
- World War 1, 1917-1918 (contents) - US Navy & Coast Guard, US Marine Corps
- World War 2, 1941-45 (contents) - US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Marine Corps - compiled from ABMC, BuPers, DPAA, DVA, States Lists, USCG, USMC sites by name and by date
Latest World War 2:
Bureau of Naval Personnel Entries by Name (c31,000) + Interim Note on US Navy Casualty Number Totals + Bureau of Naval Personnel Combat Losses by Service/Units: Construction Battalions, Naval Beach Battalions, Underwater Demolition Units/Teams
WW1: US participation and Regia Marina Italiana details
USS Chauncey, Destroyer DD-3 (USN Photo)
UNITED STATES NAVY - Rise to Global Parity, Organisation & Fleet Lists, 1900-1922 - Fleets and Stations, early 1917 - World War 1 & Major Ship Lists in outline
Those Who Served - United States Navy, Coast Guard & Marine Corps Casualties - Medal of Honor, 1915-1918 - Officer Ranks and Enlisted Rates - Flag Officers, 1914-1918
Organisation and Technology - Bureau of Yards & Docks, 1917-1918 - Development of Warship Armour
Contemporary Accounts - Victory at Sea by R. Adm William Sims - On the Coast of France: US Naval Forces in French Waters - US Marine Corps in the World War - Chronology of US Marine Corps in the World War
NEW: REGIA MARINA ITALIANA - Flag Officers and Warships, 1915-1918
TRANSCRIPTIONS OF SHIPS’ LOG BOOKS
HMAS Warrego, destroyer
(State Library of Victoria)
ROYAL NAVY LOG BOOKS OF THE WORLD WAR 1-ERA:
314 logs online, 350,000 pages transcribed.
These include logs from ships present at the Battle of the Falklands, at Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and the China Station.
Follow this link for brief details of all ships.
USCGC Unalga (I) (USCG Photo)
UNITED STATES LOG BOOKS OF THE 19th & 20th CENTURIES:
Navy, Revenue Cutter Service/Coast Guard and Coast & Geodetic Survey ships operating mostly in the Arctic and in the Pacific Ocean.
Volunteers at Old Weather, a citizen science/history project, transcribe weather and historical data from the ships' logs. The historical transcriptions are published here, before and after they are edited by Naval-History volunteers. For more details, or to find out how to join in, visit the Old Weather Forum.
The forum also contains information about a sister project, Old Weather: Whaling, in which volunteers gather weather and ice data from US whaling ships, from the age of sail to the age of steam.