Troze articles

Troze is an refereed online journal covering a range of topics, many to do with Cornish and West Country maritime history, and is published by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. The articles cover two themes: general maritime matters and the stories of Cornwall’s maritime past.

As many of these relate to topics we also cover, we have listed links here.

• 17th Century Barbary Piracy and the West Country Fisheries charts the impact of piracy on the West Country in the late C16 and early C17
• The Unlucky Wrecker tells the story of William Pearse of St Gennys, Cornwall who was hanged for wrecking in October 1767, the first victim of the newly-strengthened 1753 Wreck Act. Pearse’s experience tells us much about the activity of wrecking, wrecking laws and the legal process, and what wreckers might have faced if they were caught
• Merchants and Smugglers in C18 Penzance tracks the colourful careers of John and James Dunkin who owned, or part-owned, eleven Penzance-registered ships 1786-1791
• Petates and Fish: Cornish Fishermen Smugglers in the Late C18 puts the perceived romance of Cornish smuggling into the context of its existence as part of the life of the fishing community in Cornwall during the late C18 and into the C19
• Maritime Business in C18 Cornwall: Zephaniah Job of Polperro explores the many activities of this adaptable individual who was involved in legitimate trade, banking, land management, legal services, farming and government contracting; as well as being known as the ‘The Smugglers’ Banker’
• In Search of the Queen Transport commemorates the anniversary of the bicentenary of the wreck of the Queen Transport, in Falmouth Harbour, in 1814, summarising and collating the various sources of information, and placing them in context within the wider studies of shipping history
• A North Cornwall Merchant and Shipowner of the early C19 explores the career of Thomas Pope Rosvear and provides an insight into how merchants in a tiny port like Boscastle operated in a time of industrial expansion and urban growth
• Falmouth Pilots of the early C19 reviews the development of pilotage around our coasts and those in Falmouth
• Captain William King RN, the Admiralty Packet Service and the Hydrographic Office 1823-1829 investigates several aspects of the relationship between Admiralty departments and uses as a case study the publication of the first Admiralty chart of Bermuda which was requested by Captain King for use by the Packet Service
• Letters from a Lovelorn Captain documents a correspondence found hidden in a chair between David Jenkins, the captain of the Heart of Oak and one Eliza Ann Varcoe whom he had met when docked in Pentewan in 1847
• Home from the Sea tells the story of town, a street, two ships, a house and a person: ‘Honest’ Jack Parsons, the last captain of the Crane packet ship which made its last voyage in 1850
• Neglectful or Worse examines some of the more lurid Victorian narratives of wrecking, such as the tales of St. Agnes and Longships lights, and investigates how these stories became distorted over time to become part of the accepted orthodoxy
• An account of the C19th timber trade into Cornwall was sparked by the discovery of a cutting about the suicide in Restronguet of a successful Norwegian sea captain
• Women Aboard Vessels in Late C19 Cornwall examines the data on women on board shipping in Cornwall and considers the reasons for their presence on board, whether temporary or permanent
• Weathering the Storm which covers the first three decades of Falmouth’s operations as a Trust Port
• The Falmouth Time Ball explores the campaign to establish a time ball to aid shipping in Falmouth. It was installed in 1897 but was obsolete by 1920, overtaken by the telegraph
• Cornish Steam Ships and Owners surveys the development of commercial steam navigation in Cornwall, concentrating on contributions by local entrepreneurs. It examines three areas of mercantile activity under steam well represented in the county: coastal and short sea liner operations, ocean tramping, and carriage of coastal bulk cargoes
• A Quaker Record of Maritime Falmouth in WWI looks at a different perspective of war: civilians on the home front who had to deal with the myriad effects of war in the homes and the towns in which they lived
• The English Yachting Narrative looks at the various ways in which yachting has been represented in words, pictures and photography and at how these representations specifically apply to the history of yachting in Cornwall
• Cornish Dockers: their Companies, Cargoes and Consequences  outlines the development of the National Dock Labour Scheme, created in 1947 from the experience gained during the wartime operation of the docks, its progress and demise in the main Cornish ports
• Sir Arthur Quiller Couch and the Sea examines how the deep love of the sea and his love of Fowey influenced the writing of this great Cornishman