The Sailor

Just a little reminder that tomorrow's episode of Amanda Vickery's series on the history of men and masculinity focuses on the archetype of The Sailor. The programme broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 at 09.00 and will be available on iPlayer for a week. (I've been led to believe that radio programmes are available on the iPlayer worldwide, although tv programems are restricted, but I can't confirm that.) The first episode of the series on The Knight was a bit meh, but subsequent episodes on The Gentleman and The Lover have been much better.

The Radio 4 blurb for tomorrow's episode reads as follows:

From the defeat of the Armada to the Battle of Trafalgar, the sailor was the most virile poster boy of British manhood. Any boy worth his salt wanted to run away to sea. National wealth rested on maritime trade and it was the sailor who ensured that Britain ruled the waves. The bravest were lionised and none more so than Horatio Nelson.

Professor Vickery begins on location in Nelson's flagship HMS Victory, with Quintin Colville, curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum. She explores how it was that Nelson became a symbol of the nation, with historian Kathleen Wilson. And there is new research from David Turner, author of a history of disability, about what happened to less famous sailors who were disabled by war. Were they still men?

Sources include songs, 19th century romantic novels, and cinematic representations of Nelson.

The programme is produced by Loftus Audio and there is some additional commentary on their site from Dr Quintin Colville, Curator of Naval History at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich:

( Colourful, charismatic, compelling and manly )