Lt Dr John Harford Harland RNVR

John Harford Harland died on 11 May, a few days after his ninety-fifth birthday. He was a remarkable researcher, historian and friend, and I treasure our conversations and correspondence over many years. John was born in Belfast in 1923, and studied medicine at Queen’s University. Although Northern Ireland was not subject to conscription, he interrupted his medical studies to join the RNVR in 1942. Starting on the lower deck, he served in the elderly coal-burning minesweeper HMS Pangbourne, whose array of steam-driven winches inspired a life-long interest that eventually resulted in ‘Capstans and Windlasses’ (2003). Soon commissioned, he joined coastal forces, where he commanded a Harbour Defence Motor Launch, followed by a Fairmile B Motor Launch, and ended the war as a lieutenant. After the war he completed his medical studies, and then emigrated to Canada where he became a respected anaesthetist. John is best known as the author of ‘Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An Account of the Shiphandling of the Sailing Man-of-war, 1600-1860’ (1984), an extraordinary work of scholarship that required facility in several languages, and is widely regarded as ‘The Book’ on the subject. His interest and knowledge of rigging also led to ‘Ships & Seamanship: The Prints of J.J. Baugean’ (2000). Less well known is his research into Norwegian steam whalers and their influence on the Flower class corvettes of the Second World War, which resulted in ‘Catchers and Corvettes: The Steam Whale Catcher in Peace & War 1860-1960’ (1992), and ‘The Flower Class Corvette AGASSIZ’ (1993).  He made some 90 contributions to the Mariner’s Mirror, over a period of half a century, an achievement that was highlighted in an editorial of Feb 2015, and he also contributed to the Nautical Research Journal and other journals. John donated his maritime library, which comprised nearly three thousand books, a thousand or so ships plans, his notes, research material, photographs and journals to the Naval Marine Archive, Picton, Ontario.