Best Vrak Podcasts (2024)

1
The Dreadnought Hoax 42:41

3d ago42:41

42:41

The Dreadnought Hoax is one of the most fantastical events of all naval and maritime history. In 1910 four white English people – three men and one woman – pretended to be members of the Abyssinian royal family, complete with black face make up, false beards and magnificent robes, and were given a tour of HMS Dreadnought, the most powerful battlesh…

1
Vrak - The Museum of Wrecks, Stockholm. 24:51

3M ago24:51

24:51

In this episode we visit Vrak - The Museum of Wrecks in Stockholm. Nowhere else in the world are there as many well-preserved wooden wrecks as there are in the Baltic Sea. People have lived on the shores of the Baltic ever since the end of the Ice Age, where they have travelled, sailed, hunted and waged war, for millennia. The Baltic has special wa…

1
The First Naval Architect: Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (1721-1808) 28:29

3M ago28:29

28:29

In this episode we explore the extraordinary life of Frerik Henrik Af Chapman, the man considered the grandfather of naval architecture. Born in Gothenburg in 1721 to immigrant English parents, his father served in the Swedish navy before becoming the manager of a shipyard in Gothenburg. His mother was the daughter of a London shipwright. Frerderik…

1
Sweden's National Maritime Museum 31:31

3M ago31:31

31:31

The third episode in our mini series on Maritime Sweden is a tour of Sweden's National Maritime Museum in Stockholm: Sjöhistoriska Museet. Listen in as Dr Sam Willis is guided around the museum by its curator, Jonas Hedberg. We hear about the founding of the purpose-built maritime museum in the 1930s; explore the extraordinary collection of ship mo…

1
The Vikings in Arab Lands 26:34

4M ago26:34

26:34

One of the most fascinating aspects of Viking history is their voyages east, to Arab lands. Vikings from the geographical area that would become Sweden played an important role in the creation of the political entity known as Rus, and some Scandinavians travelled by river to Arab lands, where they traded slaves for dirhams, and to Constantinople, w…

1
Swedish Naval Power 1500-present 26:38

4M ago26:38

26:38

This episode starts a new mini-series on the maritime history of Sweden, and we begin by exploring Sweden’s fascinating naval history over the last 500 years, and how Sweden’s modern defence thinking has been shaped by its past. Founded in 1522, the Swedish navy is one of the oldest continuous serving navies in the world and its complex history ref…

1
Nelson and the Walrus 15:04

4M ago15:04

15:04

A special episode which explores the young 16 year-old midshipman Horatio Nelson's exploits on the Phipps' expedition in search of a Northeast Passage in 1773, in which he fought off a walrus. The episode is linked to an ongoing project run by St Paul's Cathedral and the University of York '50 Monuments in 50 Voices' which showcases thought-provoki…

1
Great Maritime Innovations 2: Sea Charts 31:21

4M ago31:21

31:21

This episode looks at the fascinating history of sea charts, a subject crucial to the making of the modern world. The world took shape in our minds through the development of the sea chart, which in turn led to colonization, globalisation - a great mixing of the populations of the world that has created our diverse nations and complex history of to…

1
Great Maritime Innovations 1: The Stockless Anchor 27:08

5M ago27:08

27:08

This episode starts a new mini-series on maritime innovations, and we start with one of the most important: the stockless anchor. A Victorian innovation, the stockless anchor transformed seafaring, making it safer and simpler. The stockless anchor was a simple but clever design which presented many advantages over traditional anchors. Previous anch…

1
Freak Ships of the Nineteenth Century: SS Bessemer 33:18

5M ago33:18

33:18

This episode explores ss Bessemer (1874), known as the 'Swinging Saloon Ship.' An experimental cross-channel steamship, Bessemer was designed with a central saloon that moved on gymbals, to counteract the motion of the ship. It was designed to eliminate seasickness. The man behind the idea was the lifelong seasickness-sufferer Sir Henry Bessemer, a…

1
Filming The World's Best Ship Models: Stockholm 24:51

5M ago24:51

24:51

This episode looks at Llloyd’s Register Foundation’s new project Maritime Innovation in Miniature which is one of the most exciting maritime heritage projects of recent years and a leader in terms of innovation in the maritime heritage field. The aim of the project is to film the world’s best ship models. They are removed from their protective glas…

1
The Royal Navy at the time of the Great Fire of London 34:15

5M ago34:15

34:15

The 1660s were a time of great turmoil in England. In 1666 the great fire of London had destroyed much of the country’s capital and just a year earlier the great plague had killed a fifth of the city’s population. In amongst this chaos the new King, Charles II, recently restored to the throne after the English Civil War, began to build an extraordi…

1
Maritime Scarborough 26:11

6M ago26:11

26:11

This episode looks at the extraordinary maritime history of Scarborough, a port town on the UK's northeastern coast. Famed for its medieval herring fair that features in Simon and Garfunkel's 1960s version of the traditional English ballad 'Scarborough Fair' it has a lesser known but significant maritime history. Once one of the largest shipbuildin…

1
The Titanic Inquiry 5: Annie Robinson 12:34

6M ago12:34

12:34

In this the final episode of our dramatisation of witness testimony from the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, we hear from Annie Robinson. Annie was a First Class Stewardess and one of only three women interviewed at the inquiry. She was asleep when Titanic collided with the iceberg - and this was the second time she had been on a vessel that …

1
The Titanic Inquiry 4: Charles Lightoller 39:53

6M ago39:53

39:53

We continue our dramatisation of witness testimony given at the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry into the Titanic disaster. Today we hear from Charles Lightoller, Titanic's second officer and the most senior officer to survive the disaster. Lightoller is a fascinating character. By the age of 21 he had survived a shipwreck, a cyclone and a ship…

1
Great Sea Fights 11: Leyte Gulf 29:55

6M ago29:55

29:55

The battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 was the largest naval encounter in history and the most decisive naval battle of the Pacific War. By its end the Japanese navy had been eliminated as an effective fighting force and resorted to using suicide attacks. The battle was a huge, sprawling affair - not one battle but in fact four separate naval bat…

1
Admiral Lord Nelson, Trafalgar and Heroic Death at Sea 46:45

6M ago46:45

46:45

On the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805 we look at a question that is central to the legend that grew up around the events of October 1805. How did a naval officer end up with a state funeral with no precedent for someone who was not a member of the Royal Family? How was death perceived in the Royal Navy of the Age of Sail and why did…

1
The Titanic Inquiry 3: Fred Barrett 26:35

7M ago26:35

26:35

In this, the second of our dramatisations of witness testimony given at the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry into the Titanic disaster we hear from Fred Barrett, a stoker from Liverpool. Fred had been tasked with extinguishing a fire and was in one of the boiler rooms when the collision happened. If you are interested in what happened in the bo…

1
The Titanic Inquiry 2: Lady Duff-Gordon 25:47

7M ago25:47

25:47

In this, the first of four dramatisations of witness testimony given at the British Titanic Inquiry of May 1912, we hear directly from Lady Duff Gordon. A First Class passenger, and one of only two passengers interviewed at the inquiry (the other being her husband), Lady Duff Gordon was also one of only three women to give testimony. Along with her…

1
The Titanic Inquiry 1: Introduction 33:08

7M ago33:08

33:08

The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 led immediately to two major inquiries: one in America and one in the UK. The testimony in these enquiries provides a fascinating and valuable glimpse into the tragedy from the words of the people themselves who experienced it. And yet only recently have these testimonies become freely accessible online, thanks to…

1
The Rules and Regulations for Composite Ships 21:48

7M ago21:48

21:48

In the archives of the Lloyd's Register Foundation is a stunning hand-illustrated portfolio of the Rules of Composite Ships. These were a set of rules regulating the construction of this new type of vessel born of the industrial revolution. Half iron and half timber, these 'composite' ships transformed maritime capability whilst at the same time ch…

1
The Maritime Silk Road 29:55

7M ago29:55

29:55

This is episode six of our special mini-series on the maritime history of China and it looks at the Maritime Silk Road. This fascinating topic is far richer and deeper than the name implies. On the one hand we discover all about the ancient maritime trade route by which silk was transported abroad from China – but as you will discover it is far mor…

1
Women Shipbuilders on the Clyde and Tyne 22:52

8M ago22:52

22:52

In this, the third of three dedicated episodes to women in maritime, Cecilia Rose speaks to Dr Nina Baker and Dr Antony Firth about women shipbuilders on the River Clyde and the River Tyne, as part of the ‘Rewriting Women into Maritime History’ project. Dr Nina Baker is an independent researcher who works on the history of women in engineering, foc…

1
'SHE_SEES': Women in Maritime 2 18:10

8M ago18:10

18:10

In this, the second of three episodes dedicated to women in the maritime world, we look at the Lloyd's Register Foundation's ‘Rewriting Women into Maritime History’ project through an artistic lens. Cecilia Rose speaks to Erna Janine - a London based textile artist specialising in Japanese Freestyle Weaving, and Emilie Sandy - a photographer and vi…

1
Rewriting Women into Maritime History 20:04

8M ago20:04

20:04

In this, the first of three dedicated episodes, we explore a new project designed to change our perceptions of the historical role of women in the maritime industry over the centuries. 'Rewriting Women into Maritime History' is run by the Lloyd's Register Foundation and brings together leading maritime organisations. One of the key aims of this pro…

1
HMS Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine 36:05

8M ago36:05

36:05

The British submarine HMS Poseidon sank off the Chinese coast during normal exercises in 1931 having struck a freighter. Just over half of her crew made it out of the hatches as she sank. Twenty-six remained trapped. Eight of those attempted to surface using an early form of diving equipment specifically designed for submarine escapes. Five of thos…

1
The Six: The Chinese Survivors of the Titanic Disaster 45:07

9M ago45:07

45:07

Of the 2,240 passengers and crew on board RMS Titanic on her fateful last journey, eight were Chinese, all travelling Third Class. Six of those eight survived, an exceptionally high survival rate for any given nationality. Remarkably, four escaped on the same lifeboat as the Titanic’s owner J. Bruce Ismay, while another was the last person rescued …

1
The Maze Collection of Chinese Junks 27:48

9M ago27:48

27:48

In the stores of the London Science Museum is a highly significant collection of ship models of Chinese junks. They were commissioned by Sir Frederick Maze who worked as the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from 1929-1943. Maze was a true Sinohpile and was particularly fascinated by Chinese maritime history. He lived in Chi…

1
The Chinese Shipwrecks of South East Asia 34:05

9M ago34:05

34:05

This episode continues our mini series on maritime China with an episode on Chinese shipwrecks found in Southeast Asia and what they tell us about the development of Chinese shipping and trade from the ninth century onwards. The wrecks include the ninth century Belitung wreck, twelfth century Flying Fish, thirteenth century Java Sea, fifteenth cent…

1
Zheng He and the Chinese Treasure Fleets 33:30

9M ago33:30

33:30

A Ming Dynasty court eunuch, a diplomat, an explorer, a mariner, a Muslim…Zeng He lived from the 1370s to around 1433 and achieved what many have since considered to be impossible. Between 1405 and 1433 Zeng He commanded seven expeditionary voyages. He explored the East China Sea, South China Sea, up through the Straits of Malacca to the Bay of Ben…

1
HMS Captain: Victorian Catastrophe 47:20

10M ago47:20

47:20

The story of HMS Captain is one of the most shocking in naval history. Laid down in 1867 and, unusually, partly funded by the public, she was one of the most innovative warships ever constructed. She had a very low freeboard and two enormous rotating armoured gun turrets situated very close to the waterline in between the upper and lower decks. Tur…

1
A Bronze Age Maritime Treasure: The Uluburun Ship 37:22

10M ago37:22

37:22

The Uluburun ship sank somewhere around 3,400 years ago near what is now Kas in Turkey and was discovered in 1982. The subsequent excavation was carried out at a time when underwater excavation was a new discipline and it had a profound change on the way both that we investigate underwater heritage and understand the ancient world. It still remains…

1
Castaways 37:58

10M ago37:58

37:58

An episode that revels in the extraordinary mix of adventure, horror, myth and fact that makes maritime history the BEST type of history! – We’re finding out about the history of castaways: of people set adrift on open boats, marooned by accident or even on purpose on isolated islands. This is the history of being abandoned; of being adrift; of bei…

1
Aborigines and the Sea 31:12

10M ago31:12

31:12

Indigenous perspectives are a crucial and immensely valuable part of the broad narrative of Australian maritime history. Aboriginal people witnessed the arrival of Macassan, Dutch, French, English and American vessels as these people explored, sought out trepang and harvested whales. Some of their vessels were wrecked and their survivors arrived as…

1
The First Cricket Tour to Australia and the ss Great Britain 26:15

10M ago26:15

26:15

In 1861 the engineering maritime marvel ss Great Britain was chosen to take the first ever English cricket team to Australia. The tour was the brainchild of Melbourne-based businessmen, the caterers and wine merchants Felix William Spiers and Christopher Pond who had failed to persuade Charles Dickens to conduct a lecture tour of Australia. With cr…

1
The Pearling Lugger Penguin 32:57

11M ago32:57

32:57

The pearling industry was one of northern Australia’s major industries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The historic vessel Penguin was built in 1907 for for a pearling company based on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. She is one of the few surviving pearling luggers to retain much of its original construction and layout, and the onl…

1
The Brisbane Dry Dock 31:31

11M ago31:31

31:31

Our mini-series on Maritime Asutralia continues with an episode dedicated to Brisbane's fabulous dry dock. The dock now sits in the grounds of the Queensland Maritime Museum on a bend on the south side of the Brisbane River and contains the magnificent historical vessel HMAS Diamantina, a river class frigate built in the 1940s, and the Carpentaria,…

1
Queensland Maritime Museum 29:10

11M ago29:10

29:10

Our mini-series on the maritime history of Australia continues with a tour of the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane. Dr Sam Willis explores the museum with volunteers and local historical experts Kasper Kuiper and Keith Boulton. We explore the museum's extraordinary collection of ship models including the Orion (1934), Otranto (1925), Orcades …

1
The Hunt for Bismarck 52:44

11M ago52:44

52:44

The pursuit of Germany's most famous battleship is one of the most dramatic stories of the Second World War and one of the best tit-for-tat / an eye for an eye stories in history. It began with Bismarck sinking HMS Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, in May 1941 and ended three days later with Bismarck being hunted by sea and air by a huge British squad…

1
Elizabeth II's Navy 1952-2022 34:43

12M ago34:43

34:43

The passing of the Queen in September has encouraged historians to shine a light on the era of her reign - the 70 years between 1952 and 2022 - an extraordinary period in which the world fundamentally changed several times over. One particularly revealing way to look at this period is through the experiences of the Royal Navy. It’s quite a story. T…

1
Essex Heritage Work Boats 25:43

12M ago25:43

25:43

This episode explores the wonderful Essex coastline – for those of you not familiar with the geography of England, this is the beautiful area a little to the north and east of London. We find out about boats built in Essex and the history of the boatbuilding infrastructure that created them, and in particular about 130 surviving vessels all built i…

1
The Last Convict Ship: The Edwin Fox 32:33

12M ago32:33

32:33

The historic ship Edwin Fox has a remarkable history. Built in Calcutta in 1853, she is the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia; one of the world's oldest surviving merchant ships; she served as a troop ship in the Crimean War; carried indentured servants to the Caribbean from China and immigrants to New Zealand. She is now p…

1
Death at Sea 38:32

1y ago38:32

38:32

With frequent headlines in the news highlighting the plight of refugees suffering shipwreck in the Mediterranean, death at sea is an important contemporary issue. This episode explores the historical context of death sea. The age of sail was a period of expedition and conflict where seafarers were increasingly important to the fortunes of the natio…

1
Mary Celeste: The Mystery Explained 46:00

1y ago46:00

46:00

This episode looks at one of the greatest of all maritime mysteries – the extraordinary tale of the Mary Celeste. On 4 December 1872, in the middle of the Atlantic near the Azores, the brigantine Dei Gratia chanced upon another brigantine. She was under sail but entirely silent, and it soon becomes clear that she was entirely deserted. She was call…

1
Mozambique Island: Maritime Africa 6 39:49

1y ago39:49

39:49

We continue our mini-series on the maritime history of Africa with an exploration of the extraordinarily colourful history of Mozambique Island - a UNESCO World Heritage site complete with fortified city and historical links that take us back to the era of the Portuguese exploration of Africa in the fifteenth century. Vasco da Gama was the first Eu…

1
Ship-Model Maker Extraordinaire: Gerry Westenberg 50:53

1y ago50:53

50:53

The fourth episode on our mini-series on the maritime history of Australia takes us to Perth and the workshop of Gerry Westenberg. Gerry has been hand-crafting scale model ships for well over 50 years and has built more than 130 in that time. He started this lifelong job by trying to modify a 1/600 scale Airfix kit of HMS Ajax to be HMAS Perth...wi…

1
William Dampier and HMS Roebuck 41:59

1y ago41:59

41:59

This is the third episode in our mini series on the maritime history of Australia. In episode one we learned about the arrival of the Dutch in Australia; in episode twp we learned about the Dutch ship Duyfken, the first European ship to land men on the Australian mainland; and today we’re moving on in time to hear about William Dampier and his ship…

1
The Duyfken 38:50

1y ago38:50

38:50

In this the second episode in our mini-series exploring the maritime history of Australia we hear all about the Duyfken - the small dutch ship which, in 1606, is credited as being the first vessel on board of which a European crew first sighted the Australian mainland. To find out more about this ship and this crucial moment in time in global histo…

1
The Dutch Discovery of Australia 39:54

1y ago39:54

39:54

This is the first episode of a new mini-series on the maritime history of Australia. We begin in the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum to learn about the long and fascinating history of the Dutch in Australia. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Elly Spillekom, who worked as the coordinator of t…

1
Maritime Special Forces 2: Combat Divers 39:55

1y ago39:55

39:55

This is the second episode of a two-part mini-series on the history of maritime special forces. In this episode we explore the history of combat divers - an elite within an elite. Combat divers must pass selection twice – firstly into their chosen elite military unit before passing a specialist combat diving qualification. Units are extremely small…

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