Maritime history

Professor Jan Bill on the HistoryExtra podcast.

At sea with the Vikings

A painting by Louis Philippe Crepin depicting the battle of Trafalgar, 1805. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar, hour by hour: what happened and why did Britain win?

The ‘Pilgrims’ stride onto American soil in 1620 after crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower, as shown in a 20th-century painting by WJ Aylward (Photo by Getty Images)

The Mayflower

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

A late 18th-century painting of British and French sailors going head-to-head at war

The uncommon lives of common sailors

The Pilgrim fathers arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts on board the Mayflower. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

“They decided that God must be leading them to North America”: the Puritans journey to the Mayflower

Mural of the battle of Actium from 1600

Actium, 31 BC: the beginning of the end for Mark Antony and Cleopatra

The arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia

What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke Island?

Wolfson Prize winner 2020 David Abulafia. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Exclusive podcast David Abulafia on The Boundless Sea

Lemuel F Abbott's famous 1797 portrait of Horatio Nelson. In 1805, the British naval hero promised to speak publicly against the abolition of slavery, but was denied the opportunity by his death at Trafalgar later that year. (Picture by Alamy)

Lord Nelson and slavery: Nelson’s dark side

The pirate John Avery and his crew capture the the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb 's ship in the Indian ocean in the late 17th century. (Photo by Getty Images)

Henry Avery: the legendary 17th-century pirate

Clash between the English Temeraire and the French Redoutable ships during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

9 podcasts about war and military history to listen to right now

The US cutter Spencer attacks U-boat U-175

Second World War

The Battle of the Atlantic: why Britain almost lost to Hitler’s U-boats

Charles Cundall’s painting ‘The Withdrawal From Dunkirk, June 1940’

Second World War

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk

Welcome home: the cruiser 'Exeter' arrives back at Plymouth, c15 February 1940, after taking part in the battle of the River Plate. The action resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship 'Admiral Graf Spee', which had sent several British merchant ships to the bottom of the Atlantic. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The Battle of the Atlantic: the “desperate” WW2 campaign featured in Tom Hanks film Greyhound