Maritime Media Awards 2022
The Union Jack Club, London
Monday, 22 May 2023

The Desmond Wettern Award for Best Journalism
The Award is made to the journalist whose writing, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, has made the most constructive contribution to generating public awareness of current maritime issues during the qualifying period.
WINNER
- Elizabeth Kolbert
Staff Writer, The New Yorker
NOMINEES
- Iain Ballantyne
Editor, Warships International Fleet Review - Drew Cherry
Editor-in-Chief, IntraFish - Shashank Joshi
Defence Editor, The Economist - Sam Llewellyn
Editor, The Marine Quarterly - Jonathan Saul
Senior Correspondent, Reuters - Tom Seaman
Editorial Director, Undercurrent News - Helen Warrell
Defence & Security Editor, Financial Times

The Mountbatten Award for Best Book
The Award is made to the author of the work of literature published in English during the qualifying period that, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, has contributed most significantly to public awareness of maritime issues.
WINNER
- Alysha Rooks – The Black Joke: The True Story of One British Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade (Icon Books)
NOMINEES
- Robert Ballard – Into the Deep: A Memoir from the Man Who Found Titanic (National Geographic)
- Malcolm and Reg Batten – Shipping on the Thames and the Port of London During the 1940s–1980s (Pen and Sword Transport)
- Claude Berube – On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era (University Alabama Press)
- Mensun Bound – The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance (Pan Macmillan)
- Les Brown – British Sloops and Frigates of the Second World War (Seaforth Publishing)
- Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel – Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World's Most Secretive Industry (Atlantic Books)
- Nick Collins – How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World: Ice Age to Mid-Eighth Century (Pen and Sword)
- Doreen Cunningham – Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales (Virago)
- Saul David – SBS: Silent Warriors - The Authorised Wartime History (William Collins)
- Aidan Dodson and Dirk Nottelmann – The Kaiser's Cruisers, 1871-1918 (Seaforth Publishing)
- Sylvia Earle – Ocean: A Global Odyssey (National Geographic)
- Richard Endsor – The Master Shipwright's Secrets: How Charles II built the Restoration Navy (Osprey Publishing)
- Graeme Ewens – The Life of a Boat: The ‘nautobiography’ of a 90-year-old lifesaver (Buku Press)
- Felipe Fernández-Armesto – Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- John Goodlad – The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture (Birlinn)
- Florian Grisel – The Limits of Private Governance: Norms and Rules in a Mediterranean Fishery (Hart Publishing)
- Monty Halls – Commando: The Inside Story of Britain’s Royal Marines (BBC Books)
- Mark Harris – Harwich Submarines in the Great War: The first submarine campaign of the Royal Navy in 1914 (Helion & Company)
- Stuart Heaver – The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War (The History Press)
- David Hepper – British Warship Losses in the Modern Era (Seaforth Publishing)
- Brian Lane Herder – East China Sea 1945: Climax of the Kamikaze (Osprey Publishing)
- James R Holmes – Habits of Highly Effective Maritime Strategists (US Naval Institute)
- David Hutchings – Illustrated Mauretania (1907): Notable Episodes in the Life of a Legend (The History Press)
- Julia Jones – Uncommon Courage: The Yachtsmen Volunteers of World War II (Adlard Coles)
- Richard M Jones – The 50 Greatest Shipwrecks (Pen and Sword)
- Robert D Jones – To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World's Oceans Shapes the Fate of the Superpowers (Scribner Book Company)
- Alston Kennerley – Bullen's Voyages: The Life of Frank T Bullen: Sailor, Whaler, Author (Seaforth Publishing)
- Angus Konstam – British Gunboats of the Victoria's Empire (Osprey Publishing)
- Christian Lamb – Beyond the Sea - A WREN at War (Mardle Books)
- Mark Lardas – Arctic Convoys 1942: The Luftwaffe cuts Russia's lifeline (Osprey Publishing)
- Brian Lavery – Anson's Navy: Building a Fleet for Empire, 1744-1763 (Seaforth Publishing)
- Simon Medhurst – Titanic: Day by Day: 366 days with the Titanic (Pen and Sword)
- John Messner – A Scottish Blockade Runner in the American Civil War - Joannes Wyllie of the steamer Ad-Vance (Whittles Publishing)
- Tom Nancollas – The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History of Britain in Eleven Vessels (Particular Books)
- Michael North – A World History of the Seas: From Harbour to Horizon (Bloomsbury Academic)
- Captain Chris O’Flaherty RN – Torpedoes, Tea, and Medals: The Gallant Life of Commander D. G. H. 'Jake' Wright DSC** RNVR (Casemate Publishers)
- Lawrence Paterson – The U-Boat War: A Global History, 1939–45 (Osprey Publishing)
- Stephen Roberts – French Warships in the Age of Steam, 1859-1914 (Seaforth Publishing)
- Brian Short – The Band That Went to War: The Royal Marines Band in the Falklands War (Pen and Sword)
- Mark Simmons – Alistair MacLean's War: How the Royal Navy Shaped his Bestsellers (Pen and Sword)
- Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor – The Silver Waterfall: How America Won the War in the Pacific at Midway (PublicAffairs)
- Nicholas Stephenson Smith – Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea: A History of Violence from 1830 to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press)
- Alan Smith – Balchen's Victory: The Loss and Rediscovery of an Admiral and His Ship (Seaforth Publishing)
- Mike Smylie – The Noble Boatbuilders of Fraserburgh (The History Press)
- Guy Standing – The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea (Pelican Books)
- Jeremy Stoke – More Lives Than a Ship’s Cat: The Most Highly Decorated Midshipman in the Second World War (Pen and Sword)
- Daniel Stone – Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic (Dutton)
- Eric Tagliacozzo – In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama (Princeton University Press)
- Chris Terrill – How to Build an Aircraft Carrier: The Incredible Story of the Men and Women Who Brought Britain’s Biggest Warship to Life (Michael Joseph)
- Keith Thomson – Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas (Little, Brown and Company)
- Claes-Göran Wetterholm – Sea of Death: The Baltic, 1945 (The History Press)
- Tracey Williams – Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea (Unicorn Publishing)
- Gordon Williamson – Hitler's Navy: The Kriegsmarine in World War II (Osprey Publishing)
- Matthew Wright – The Battlecruiser New Zealand: A Gift to Empire (Seaforth Publishing)

The Donald Gosling Award for Best Television or Film Production
The Award is made to the director, producer, or other person responsible for making the film or television programme, released or broadcast in the United Kingdom during the qualifying period, that in the opinion of the Awards Committee has made the most significant contribution to the public understanding of maritime matters.
WINNER
- Alessandra Bonomolo & Tom Cook
Why Ships Crash
Windfall Films (BBC Two)
NOMINEES
- Nicolas Brénéol
Titanic: Building the World's Largest Ship
Ah! Production (Channel 4) - David Gilbert
Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom
Screen Story (Channel 4) - Christian Hills
Devon and Cornwall: Fishing Lives
True North Productions (Channel 4) - Craig Hunter, Rosy Marshall-McCrae, Russ Leven & Heather McCorriston
What Killed the Whale?
STV Studios (Channel 4) - Ross Kemp & Ed Taylor
Ross Kemp: Shipwreck Treasure Hunter
Honey Bee & Freshwater Films (Sky History) - David Mackay
Saving Lives at Sea
blast! By The Sea (BBC Two) - Mel Mackie
Commando: Britain's Ocean Warriors
Seadog Productions (BBC Two) - John Madden
Operation Mincemeat
Warner Brothers (General Release) - Bob Marsden
Lighthouses: Building the Impossible
October Films (Channel 5) - Rob McCabe
The Sinking of the Costa Concordia: Collision at Sea
ITN Productions (Channel 5) - Kate Ogborn
The North Water
See-Saw Films (BBC Two) - Crispin Sadler
Drain the Oceans
Mallinson Sadler Productions (National Geographic & Channel 5) - Robert Seligman
Vigil
World Productions (BBC One) - Rachel Smith
Warship: Life at Sea
Artlab Films (Channel 5) - Tim Usborne
Submarine: Life under the Waves
Artlab Films (Channel 5) - Mark Williams
Secrets of the River Clyde
Viacom (Channel 5)

The Babcock International First Sea Lord’s Award for Best Use of Digital Media
The Award is made to the team or person who, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, has made the most constructive contribution to generating awareness of current maritime issues through digital media, including websites, handheld device applications, or social media networks.
WINNER
- Into the Blue Podcast
noc.ac.uk/education/educational-resources/into-the-blue-podcast
NOMINEES
- Bismarck Battle
bismarckbattle.com - Endurance22
endurance22.org - GenOcean
genocean.org - The Mariner's Mirror Podcast
snr.org.uk/the-mariners-mirror-podcast - NextGEN MPA/IMO
nextgen.imo.org - The SHIPS Project
shipsproject.org - Thames Sailing Barge Greta
greta1892.co.uk - The Wheelyboat Trust
wheelyboats.org - Wellness Over Waves
wellnessoverwaves.com

The Desmond Wettern Fleet Award
The Desmond Wettern Fleet Award is presented annually to the HM ship, submarine, Naval Air Squadron or Royal Marine Unit that is judged to have made the best contribution to a positive image of the Royal Navy during the year to 30 September.
WINNER
- HMS Defender