About us
Robert Prescott, MA, PhD, FSA Scot
(Chair, Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships)
School of History, University of St Andrews
Robert Prescott held appointments at the Universities of Cambridge and Yale before joining the staff at the University of St Andrews, where for 20 years he was Director of the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies. From 1995-2000 he was the Project Director for the National Historic Ships Project, during which time the UK National Register of Historic Vessels was established.
He is a maritime archaeologist, ethnologist and historian with research interests in wooden ship-building, harbours and dockyards, the material culture of fishing communities and the problems of managing the maritime cultural heritage.
He has served as a trustee on a number of museums and historic ship projects and is currently Honorary Vice-President of the Scottish Fisheries Museum. When time permits he enjoys maintaining and sailing traditional working boats.