Naval gazing

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking and writing about late nineteenth and early twentieth century naval history and naval wargaming.

At the age of sixteen it was my ambition to join the Royal Navy and train to be a naval officer … but during a careers interview I was made aware that my eyesight wasn’t good enough to become anything other than an engineer, and I wanted the possibility that I could end up commanding a ship. (During the 1960s engineering officers could not proceed up the career ladder to command a warship. I understand that this situation has not changed.)

I then decided to look at joining the Army, but my scoliosis proved a bar to this career choice. In the end I went into private banking when I left school and eventually, I trained to be a teacher, a career I followed for forty years.

Despite all of these setbacks, I retained my interest in all things naval, and looking at my bookshelves, I have as much space devoted to naval topics as I do to almost everything else. Over the years I’ve taken part in wargames played using Fred Jane’s Naval War Game rules (and created my own set of equipment to fight battles using them) and Fletcher Pratt’s Naval War Game rules. I’ve also written a book of gridded naval wargames and built numerous model wargame ships.

My latest naval research project has involved looking at the various tactics and technologies developed and used by both sides during the Battle of the Atlantic … and I have a suspicion that this might well lead to the development in a game based on my research.