Naval History of the American Revolution

October 4, 2020

Kicking off our Independence Week Celebration!

Peter and Tyler kick of ASPN's Independence Day Weeklong Celebration with a history lesson provided by Revolutionary Naval Historian Dr. Bill Fowler. For the upstart colonists, the Atlantic Ocean was the primary theater of war, and the American Shoreline as the front line for the fight for independence against the most powerful global power of the time, the Royal Navy. Professor Fowler has taught courses dealing with the history of Boston, maritime history, and the history of New England. He is the former Gay Hart Gaines Distinguished Fellow in American History at Mount Vernon. He has taught at Mystic Seaport Museum and has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Naval War College, and the Sea Education Association. He is a trustee of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Association, The Paul Revere Memorial Association, The Rhode Island Historical Society, Leventhal Map Center at The Boston Public Library, and the Old North Church Foundation. He is a member of the City of Boston Archives Advisory Commission and an honorary member of the Boston Marine Society, as well as an editor of The New England Quarterly.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.