Dr Martin Wilcox
BA (Durham) MA (Hull) PhD (Hull)
Senior Research Fellow & Lecturer
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Teaches the following courses: Themes in British Maritime History: The Merchant Navy 20th Century International Maritime History
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I was appointed Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich in March 2006, after completing a BA in History at the University of Durham, and an MA and PhD at the University of Hull, where I also worked for a while as a Research Assistant
From 2006 to 2009 I worked on the Leverhulme-funded project Sustaining the Empire: War, the Navy and the Contractor State 1793-1815, which examined the relationship between the state and the private sector, and the mechanisms by which private resources were mobilised to serve strategic ends. My particular interests within this broader project were the making, administration and enforcement of contracts, and the interaction of the navy with the mercantile community in Britain and overseas. Since the project ended I have continued to research the interaction of the navy and the wider economy, looking especially at Navy Agents, the civilian merchants and bankers who handled sea officers’ finances.
More recently, I have started researching the early history of Greenwich Hospital. I am currently working on a database of all pensioners admitted to the Hospital prior to 1815, which will shed light not only on the Hospital, but on the careers and lives of eighteenth-century seafarers.
My doctoral thesis was in the field of fisheries history, and I have continued to work in this area. In particular I am interested in the expansion and transformation of the industry in the nineteenth century and how the resulting structure has since adapted to economic, ecological and political circumstances, both in the United Kingdom and worldwide.
Finally, I am interested in the history of ports and maritime communities, with a particular interest in the port and city of Kingston upon Hull.
Select Publications
‘The “Poor Decayed Seamen” of Greenwich Hospital, 1705-1763,’ forthcoming.
‘Railways, Roads and the British White Fish Industry, 1920-1970,’ forthcoming.
‘Beyond the North Sea,’ in David J. Starkey and Ingo Heidbrink (eds), A History of the North Atlantic Fisheries, vol. II, forthcoming.
‘The “Mystery and Business” of Navy Agents, c1700-1820,’ forthcoming, International Journal of Maritime History, December 2011.
‘“This Great Complex Concern:” Victualling the Royal Navy on the East Indies Station, 1783-1815,’ Mariner’s Mirror, May 2011.
‘Maritime Business in Eighteenth-century Cornwall, Zephaniah Job of Polperro,’ Maritime Views, September 2010.
(with Roger Knight) Sustaining the Fleet: War, the British Navy and the Contractor State, 1793-1815 (Woodbridge, 2010)
(with Jeffrey Sutton) Sustaining the Fleet: Victualling Contracts and Contractors 1793-1815, Access database available for download from http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/research-areas-and-projects/sustaining-the-empire/
Fishing and Fishermen: A Guide for Family Historians (Pen & Sword, 2009).
‘The Role of Apprenticed Labour in the English Fishing Industry, 1850-1914,’ in Lars U. Scholl and David M. Williams (eds), Crisis and Transition: Maritime Sectors in the North Sea Region 1790-1940 (Bremerhaven, 2008).
‘Concentration or Disintegration? Vessel Ownership, Fish Wholesale and Processing in the British Trawl Fishery, 1850-1939,’ in James E. Candow and David J. Starkey (eds), The North Atlantic Fisheries: Supply, Marketing and Consumption, 1560-1990 (Hull, 2006).
‘Opportunity or Exploitation? Apprenticeship in the British Trawl Fisheries, 1850-1936,’ in Genealogists’ Magazine (December 2004).
‘From Brixham to Hull; The Diffusion of Apprenticeship in the Trawl Fisheries, c1840-1914,’ in Maritime South West 17 (2004).