Full Description
An overview of what destroyers were and how their capacity for heroic deeds captured the popular imagination.
Destroyers, first developed over the course of the late 1880s and 1890s, were fast, manoeuverable warships intended to escort larger vessels and defend them against a wide range of threats. In Britain their speed, nimbleness and capacity for heroic deeds captured the popular imagination, and they became symbolic vessels, encapsulating the fortitude and ingenuity which contemporaries felt characterised the British navy. Based on extensive original research, this book provides both an overview of destroyers' operational roles and how these developed over time and also a detailed examination of destroyers' place within British culture, society and identity. Considering a wide range of sources including news reporting, pageantry, literature, film, art and more, the book reveals how the destroyer as symbol was used as propaganda, fitted in to popular, civic and artistic cultures and affected naval policy, British people's morale and outlook, and international views of Britain's naval power. One striking example of the depth of British people's attachment to destroyers was the scheme during the Second World War for individual towns to each adopt their own destroyer, a scheme which achieved astonishing success, with many small towns raising huge sums sufficient to fund entirely the building of their own destroyer.
Contents
Introduction
Ship Symbolism, Identity and Culture
The Naval Theatre, Identity and Citizenship
Book Structure
Chapter 1. A New Naval Symbol
A Brief History of the Destroyer
Destroyer Etymology
Chapter 2. Navalism and the Business of Self-Promotion, 1895-1914
Popular Navalism and Naval Propaganda
Reviews and 'Fake Wars'
Provincial Naval Theatre and the 'Local' Factor
Chapter 3. Britain's Hard-Bitten Weather-Beaten Defenders, 1914-1919
The Sentinels of Britain
Wartime Propaganda and War Savings Campaigns
Business Rather Than Pleasure
Chapter 4. The Ambassadorial Service, 1919-1939
The Aftermath of War
A Return to Grand Spectacle
Sowing the Seeds of Friendship
Chapter 5. A Destroyer is the Aim! War Savings and Civic Culture, 1939-1945
Warship Weeks and Naval Propaganda
Naval Iconography
Parades and Ceremonies.
Ship Adoptions
Chapter 6. Commemoration, Memory and Legacy
Monuments and Museums
'The Best and the Bravest': Destroyer Men, Memory and Experience
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
