Benjamin Redding

Benjamin Redding is Senior Research Associate in Maritime History in the School of History & Art History at the University of East Anglia. His research is currently funded by the Leverhulme Trust. As a maritime historian and a proponent of new naval history, his work explores the interconnections between naval and early modern studies. Dr Redding often uses comparative methodologies in his research, while approaching naval history through social, cultural, and religious lenses. Prior to his time at UEA, he was Teaching Fellow in Early Modern History at the University of Warwick, where he was also awarded his PhD in 2017.

Since 2020, Dr. Redding has been the senior researcher on the Gloucester Project (see www.gloucestershipwreck.co.uk). His current work for the project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2021-25) and working with Professor Claire Jowitt, they are writing the first cradle-to-grave history of the Gloucester. The Gloucester was launched as a Cromwellian warship in 1654 and it was lost at sea in 1682 with the future King James II on board. The discovery of the shipwreck off Norfolk was announced in June 2022 and UEA are the academic partners for the project. 

As part of the announcement of the finding of the Gloucester shipwreck, Dr Redding featured on global, national, and local news, including The New York Times, BBC World Service, and BBC Look East. Since then, he has co-curated the landmark exhibition ‘The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk’s Royal Shipwreck, 1682’ held at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery from February to September 2023 and continues to work with the wreck’s discoverers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell. He has also featured on many podcasts and regularly provides public and scholarly talks on the ship’s history. The success of the project has been widely acknowledged. In 2023, the Gloucester Project won the Vice Chancellor’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Impact and Innovation at UEA, and in 2024 the project was shortlisted for the prestigious award of 'Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences' at the Times Higher Education Awards.

He is also a Trustee of the British Commission for Maritime History and serves on the Council for the Navy Records Society.

Dr Redding's research is led by a passion for all things related to the sea and military enterprise during the early modern period. He is particularly interested in how the cultural, political, and military spheres overlap. His publications explore the rise and decline of navies, nation and state building, identity formation, international politics, and conflict and cooperation at sea.

Dr Redding's wider research and teaching interests include:
•    Early modern military history
•    The rise of state navies
•    Maritime exploration and empire
•    Politics and religion in Tudor and Stuart Britain
•    Valois and Bourbon France
•    Power and representation
•    Caribbean studies
•    Maritime culture and society

His recent publication 'The Western Design Revised: Death, Dissent, and Discontent on the Gloucester, 1654-1656' was published open access in The Historical Journal in December 2023. This innovative research article explores the Gloucester's early career in the Caribbean, when it was involved in a major expedition to Barbados, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Colombia.

His book, The English and French Navies, 1500-1650: Expansion, Organization and State-Building was published by Boydell & Brewer in 2022. It traces the advances and deterioration of the early modern English and French sea forces and relates these changes to concurrent developments within the respective states. Other publications include a chapter on warship decoration and design, published in The Routledge Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400-1800 (2020), edited by Jowitt, Lambert and Mentz; and an article published in The Mariner's Mirror that concerns the interconnected histories and competitive designs of the Caroline warship The Sovereign of the Seas and its French counterpart la Couronne.