Michael Barritt

Biography

Captain Michael Barritt Royal Navy is a first generation Scot who grew up near the banks of the River Clyde and acquired an early love for ships and the sea. At Glasgow Academy he was prepared for study of Modern History at Pembroke College, Oxford. His tutor there was Piers Mackesy who inspired a deep interest in the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is the author of Nelson’s Pathfinders.

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He joined the Royal Navy as a University Cadet Entrant, and after service in an aircraft carrier and frigate, specialised in hydrographic surveying. He assisted in surveys in most of the regions described in his books, commanded three HM ships, and ended his naval career as  Hydrographer of the Navy and head of the specialisation that provides navigational charts for the British fleet and the wider maritime community, ensuring safe transit and application of sea power. As a specialist adviser he contributed to the capacity building work of the International Hydrographic Organisation, advocating investment in an often neglected and forgotten element of national governance. His extensive research, published in articles and books, seeks to raise awareness of precursors in this field and to encourage those following in their footsteps today.

He is a long-term member of the Navy Records Society, the Society for Nautical Research, and the Hakluyt Society, of which he is a former President. Much of his work has been published in the journals of the last two societies. He has also written articles for The Naval Review, Trinity House Fraternity Review, Aspects of History and other outlets. He is a contributor to the nineteenth century volume of The History of Cartography (in press with the University of Chicago). Eyes of the Admiralty, a study of navigational intelligence gathering on the enemy coast, illustrated by the drawings of John Thomas Serres, was published by the National Maritime Museum in 2008. His research into the origins of the Royal Navy’s hydrographic specialisation and the work of his early predecessors was published in July 2024 by Yale University Press.

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Books

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A Burning Sea
A Burning Sea
A Burning Sea
A Burning Sea
A Burning Sea
A Burning Sea

Articles

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Captain Edward Columbine and the West Africa Squadron

Captain Edward Columbine and the West Africa Squadron

Captain Edward Columbine and the West Africa SquadronPerhaps as a result of his Caribbean experiences, Captain Edward Columbine became convinced of the need to abolish the slave trade, and in 1809 he accepted an Admiralty nomination to join a commission for the examination of the African ...
The Admiral’s Eyes

The Admiral’s Eyes

The Admiral’s Eyes The little pocket notebook is easily missed amongst the Nelson manuscripts in the British Library. In it the admiral noted every alteration of course, with the depth-sounding taken as the Victory came onto a fresh tack, leading the Mediterranean fleet into a new anchorage. ...

Interviews

Michael Barritt

Michael Barritt

Michael Barritt, what first attracted you to naval history?My tutor at Oxford was Piers Mackesy, who was working on seminal books on the period 1793-1815, and this focussed my own interest. My subsequent career as a hydrographic specialist in the Royal Navy broadened my own researches, ...

Book Reviews

Nelson’s Pathfinders, by Michael Barritt

Nelson’s Pathfinders, by Michael Barritt

Nelson’s Pathfinders is essential reading for Naval Historians. It is prescient that it is being published a year after the Admiralty announced it will be withdrawing paper charts and notices to mariners from 2026. For anyone unfamiliar with an Admiralty Chart it is a thing of both artistic ...