Merchant Seamen in the Ports of Southampton and Glasgow, 1910-1926
Matt Vaughan-Wilson
My research interests centre on the labour movement in late Victorian/Edwardian Britain. I am particularly interested in internal dissent within trade unions, inter-union rivalry, the nature of trade union militancy and the influence of local and sectional peculiarities on the development of distinct cultures of organisation and action at the local level. These are themes which I explore in my PhD thesis on merchant seamen in the ports of Southampton and Glasgow, 1910-1926.I will shortly be completing this thesis and plan to continue working on maritime labour at a postdoctoral level, extending my existing research on strikes and trade unionism into a broader social history of seafaring, focusing particularly on discipline on board ship and desertion in foreign ports.