Naval Leadership in the Age of Sail (1750 -1840)Conference Friday 2 and Saturday 3 December 2011
with the inaugural Colin White Memorial Lectureat The Princess Royal Gallery, National Museum of the Royal Navy, PortsmouthSponsored by :Society for Nautical Research, United Kingdom
The National Museum of the Royal Navy, United Kingdom
The 1805 Club, United Kingdom
The Gunroom, HMS Surprise.org
La Sorbonne et Musée national de la Marine, France
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
THIS conference is the first in an interdisciplinary, international series intended to enhance understanding of the concept of leadership in a naval context. The event in Portsmouth will be the first of four international conferences in preparation for the publication of a comparative study of leadership. It will include the first lecture of an annual series commemorating the life and celebrating the professional work of the late Dr Colin White, the Nelsonian historian.
While leadership is necessary in all ages and at all levels of human activity – in politics, business, science, the arts, defence, education and medicine for example – it is generally acknowledged that the acquisition of the attributes required of leaders is a constant challenge in all societies. However leaders have values and vision which, if understood, can be shared with and help to inspire others.
Studies of leadership tend to be individual and national, and to concentrate either on the personality of leaders under study or the period in which they lived: often they emphasise the leader’s influence, effectiveness and achievements to the prejudice of a study of the intrinsic qualities of legateship. Such studies tend to be overly influenced by contemporary culture and politics, but to be effective a comparative study needs to analyse a period when the leaders’ results are well-known and personalities and traits can be compared objectively.
From the mid-18th century, the Atlantic Empires engaged in a global struggle which saw the decline of the Spanish Navy, the affect of revolution upon the French Navy, and the rise to hegemony of the British Navy.
The international directors and national organisers of the current programme propose to investigate naval leadership in 1750-1840, during the transition from the Old Regime to the Liberal State in Europe, in a context of changing human values in the years between the ages of Enlightenment and of Liberalism, and the concomitant change from gentlemen’s war to total war and wars of annihilation in modern times.
The aim of the conference series is to compare and draw lessons from a study of distinguished leaders in naval politics, administration, and the command of fleets in the period 1750 to 1840, leading to analysis of the immutable traits of leadership which can be inculcated in rising leaders in all fields of endeavour for today and tomorrow.
Speakers include:Professor Emeritus Michael Duffy; Olivier Chaline and Simon Surreaux, Université Paris-Sorbonne; Andrew Lambert; Agustín Guimerá Ravina, CSIC, Madrid; Amiral Remi Monaque; Richard Harding; Agustín Rodríguez González, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid; Carlos Alfaro Zaforteza, Kings’ College, London; Peter Warwick.
Tickets:Conference – Friday and/or Saturday : £25 (each day)
Lunch : £15 (each day) Dinner on Friday evening : £50
Booking via:Lynn Wearn, National Museum of the Royal Navy, at :
lynn.wearn@nmrn.org.uk or by telephone: 02392 727562