I am a historian of Britain and its maritime world, focusing on the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My research and teaching look beyond the traditional remit of maritime history to analyse the political, social and cultural forces which created the Navy, and which were in turn shaped by its activities. My most recent book Tempest: The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolutions was published by Yale University Press and argues that this tumultuous period saw sailors become ideaologically engaged and politically active. I have co-edited two books - A New Naval History and The Maritime World of Early-Modern Britain that explore the ways in which maritime and naval history can engage with wider historical scholarship. In 2020-21 I was the Kemble Fellow in Maritime History at the Huntington Library in California, US. More recently, I co-organised a conference at the Huntington Library entitled 'Maritime Histories From Below'.

I am a member of the University of Exeter’s Centre for Maritime Historical Studies. I am also the Director of Postgraduate Research for the Archeaology and History Department. Prior to working at Exeter I was a curator at the National Maritime Museum.