The British Commission for Maritime History awards a small number of £75 prizes each year for undergraduate dissertations in the broad field of maritime history. The Commission’s aims are to encourage students to pursue maritime questions in their final year research, and to reward the best of that work.

Subjects eligible for consideration reflect the Commission’s view of maritime history as a wide-ranging discipline. It includes topics such as shipping, seafaring, ports, seapower, maritime labour, coastal communities, trade, exploration, shipbuilding, navigation, and fishing, and embraces a wide range of political, economic, social, technological and cultural approaches.

Josephine O’Dowd, undergraduate student of the University of Warwick History Department is one of the 2018 award winners for her dissertation, Nutmeg: ‘The Headiest and Most Blood Soaked of the Spices’. What Were the Implications of the Nutmeg Trade between 1599 and 1621?

Please see the website of the British Commission for Maritime History for details of all the 2018 winners.