Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

Mewn cyfnod a welodd y diddordeb yn y Cenhedloedd Unedig yn lleihau y tu fewn a thu allan i'r ystafell ddosbarth, mae llyfr fel hwn yn gaffaeliad i'r athro sydd am godi brwdfrydedd o'r newydd dros y gyfundrefn a ddisgrifiwyd fel 'ein gobaith pennaf am fyd gwell'. PERIS JONES EVANS Bala [Peris Jones Evans regards as a milestone in Welsh-language publishing the new series of books for schools published for the Welsh Office by the University of Wales Press: that by John W. Roberts on the Norman conquest of Wales, the same author's work on Owain Glyndwr, and yet again by the same author, a study of the United Nations Organisation; and Eiriona Bebb's two works on Russia during and after the October Revolution, and the most substantial work of the series, Robert M. Morris's study of the Rebecca Riots.] CYMRU A'R MOR/MARITIME WALES, No. 10 (1986). Edited by Aled Eames, Lewis Lloyd, Bryn Parry. Gwynedd Archives Services, 1986. Pp. 192. £ 4.50. Ten years ago the editors of Maritime Wales could only hope their journal would make a serious contribution to Welsh maritime history, then virgin territory. This tenth number sees that hope more than fulfilled. The journal has a reputation which goes beyond Wales and maintains the same high standards of production and scholarship which were evident from the first. It has always made a feature of recording the reminiscences of those who went to sea in sail and this issue has two splendid contributions. One from Mrs. Netta Day, now in her nineties, recalls her childhood in Porthmadog where her mother managed a sailor's rest. The other records an interview with Captain W. H. Hughes, D.Sc., who was then, astonishingly, approaching his hundredth birthday. Truly, they were giants in those days. Captain Hughes's modest manner conceals a career of courage and expert seamanship from the 1890s to the 1950s. There are three articles on the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. One, a translation from German, describes life aboard a Royal Navy frigate during a crossing from Ireland to Milford Haven in 1784. One, in Welsh, based on the letters of a Cricieth sailor, illustrates the family nature of much early-nineteenth- century coastal shipping. A detailed account of smuggling in eighteenth-century Wales draws on French archive material and shows the well developed illicit trade existing between Wales, Ireland and France. The perils of the sea are also revealed. Two articles, in Welsh, describe events in the 1920s: the loss of the Rhoscolyn lifeboat, and a ballad and commentary on the storm which threatened the steamer Pickavance. A third article surveys the severe effects of the great gale of 1908 on Bristol Channel shipping, with good illustrations of the more dramatic wrecks. The last is the account, told by extracts from the diary of Gwilym Jones, then a sailor on board, of the loss of the Inverness in 1918 en route to Chile from Durban. Her cargo