Anderson, Roger Charles, Litt.D., F.S.A. (23 July 1883 - 3 Oct 1976)

     Dr Anderson wrote extensively in the Mariner's Mirror with which he was closely associated [including the use of nom-de-plume 'South Goodwin']. Educated at Winchester and Clare College, Cambridge, he served in the RNVR during WW1, including Mine Layers based in Gibraltar, he was a founding member of the Society for Nautical Research and President from 1931-1960, Honorary Editor of the Mariner's Mirror 1913-23, 1931-32 and 1939-46. He was also an original member of the Board of Trustees of the National Maritime Museum in 1927, and the second Chairman (after Lord Stanhope).

     His own collection of "manuscripts" mainly relating to the Royal Navy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but also including papers on merchant shipping and on the French, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish and Venetian navies are held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, as are many of his books and models which he graciously donated.

     Considered as an expert in early sailing ship rigging and building, his writings are occasionally dull, but always thoroughly trustworthy. George Naish, in his obituary notes on Dr Anderson, noted: "He thrived on facts and figures. He always named the ships, stated the guns they carried, and supplied the Captain with his Christian names."

Bibliography - partial

1910 - Naval wars in the Baltic, 1522-1850

1926 - Book of examinations, 1601-1602, with a list of ships belonging to Southampton in the years 1570-1603. Edited by R. C. Anderson.

1926 - The Sailing-ship

1927 - Rigging of ships in the days of the spritsail topmast, 1600-1720

1939-40 - The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin (2 Vols.)

1946 - Journals and Narratives of the Third Dutch War

1952 - Catalogue of ship-models (scale-models)

1952 - Naval Wars in the Levant 1559-1853

1955 - Seventeenth Century Rigging

1962 - Oared fighting ships from classical times to the coming of steam

1964 - List of English naval captains, 1642-1660. Compiled by R. C. Anderson.

1971 - Sailing-ship; six thousand years of history, (see 1926) by Romola & R. C.

2001? - Short history of the sailing ship (see 1926 and 1971) Romola Anderson and R.C. Anderson.