Our Vice Presidents

Rear Admiral Joe Callo USN Rtd

Joe retired as a rear admiral from a distinguished career in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1989. Since then he has established himself as a prominent naval historian, writing about Nelson and ‘America’s first sea warrior’ John Paul Jones, for which he won the Samuel Eliot Morison Award.

His career has taken him into TV scriptwriting and producing and he has won numerous awards, including the Peamariner-body Broadcasting Award and a 1998 Telly Award. He divides his time between Kansas City, Missouri, and New York City, where every November he arranges The Pickle Night Dinner at the prestigious New York City Yacht Club. Joe is well-placed to help The 1805 Club commemorate the naval operations during the bicentenaries of the War of 1812 and to extend its influence in the United States.

Dr Agustín Guimerá Ravina

Agustín, has become one of Spain’s leading naval historian’s and has supported The 1805 Club since 1997 when he organised the brilliant bicentenary commemorations of the Nelson attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1797. He is based at the Instituto de Historia, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CSIC) in Madrid.

A popular speaker at naval historical conferences, Agustín has himself organised two significant academic conferences in Spain, notably on the Battle of Trafalgar in Cadiz in 2003 and in Madrid in 2010, The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture. He is a key player in the current series of international conferences on Naval Leadership in the Age of Sail (1750–1840). Agustín is keen to foster closer links between The 1805 Club and Spain, a country which played such a significant part in Nelson’s career and the final demise of Napoleon.

Randy B Mafit

Randy Mafit served as the Club’s North American Secretary since its earliest days and was also the Editor-Chief of the Kedge Anchor, which he organised from his home in Oregon. His role and personal enthusiasm have been vital to the running of the Club for its North American membership.

He first visited Portsmouth and HMS Victory while studying in London in 1969. Service in the U.S. Navy after college rekindled his interest in Nelson and English naval history of the Georgian era. He began to collect Nelson memorabilia when he and his wife Dana discovered a nice miniature of Nelson on ivory at a local antique market many years ago. Randy was captivated by the Hornblower books as a boy and he continues to read nautical fiction for recreation. He and Dana make frequent visits to the United Kingdom and attend Club events whenever they can and enjoy meeting others with an interest in Nelson.