What motivates a society or community to promote the rescue of individuals in hazardous waters? This article expands upon comprehensive research regarding charitable history and volunteerism in late Qing China to fill a void in the literature pertaining to the Zhengnitang, a local organisation committed to rescuing individuals from drowning. Although lifesaving has been examined within the framework of a global trend in organised humanitarian efforts, the particular practices, measures, and principles of Chinese lifesaving societies during the late imperial era in a transnational context require more scrutiny. This study contextualises the Chinese model of lifesaving within both national and international frameworks, emphasising its nuanced impact on the formation of European lifesaving societies during the long nineteenth century and conversely, how global humanitarian advancements may have influenced Chinese lifesaving efforts. We will also look at the deeply ingrained idea of lifesaving in imperial China, which is different from saving lives in other unfortunate situations, and how it has changed over time. This will allow us to explore how different Chinese humanitarian practices have affected the region and the world as a whole, as well as how they relate to the cultural history of water-related accidents and injuries.

This note presents preliminary results from ongoing research on the relationship between privateering and maritime neutrality, c. 1750–1815. Drawing on two sources – the records of the High Court of Admiralty and the Danish and Swedish Algerian Sea Pass Protocols – it argues that maritime neutrality channelled and constrained the impact of privateering as inter-European conflicts expanded in scope and destruction. Focusing on the activities of Britain, as a major belligerent, and Sweden and Denmark as small neutral states, the note uses two quantitative methods. Shipping output is estimated as the number of days vessels operated at sea during wartime, compared with days ‘lost’ through capture by privateers. Combining these sources and methods provides a new perspective on how rulers and economic actors transformed law and diplomacy into instruments of profit: through neutrality, privateering pressures were redirected into legally sanctioned forms of exchange that turned war into opportunity.

It was Alexander von Humboldt who formally articulated that the compass, invented by the Chinese, had been introduced to Europe via the Arab world. Humboldt argued that the compass was introduced to Europe from the East after its use had become general throughout the Indian Seas and the coasts of Persia and Arabia in Book II of Cosmos in 1847. Before Humboldt’s time in Europe, there were various claims regarding the origin of the compass — some asserting that it came from China, others from Germany, and still others that the European mariner’s compass had been transmitted to China. However, owing to Humboldt's reputation and academic influence, the claim that the Chinese compass had been transmitted to Europe via the Arabs became widespread. Considering the fact that the floating needle, a kind of compass, was used for sailing around 1100 in China, 1187 in Europe and 1242 in the Arab world, respectively, and many mistakes were implied in Humboldt's claim, the view that the Chinese-invented compass was introduced to Europe through Arabic people is not supported by historical facts. By critically reviewing the validity of Humboldt's opinion, this article proposes an alternative synthesis: the development of direction-finding devices appears not to follow a unilinear chain of diffusion but to reflect cross-civilizational references and partial independence.

In World War One, naval hospital ships played an essential role, which has been generally underappreciated, in the medical care of seamen. The Admiralty had made plans to convert merchant vessels into hospital ships and carriers to provide immediate support to the Grand Fleet, especially at its Scottish bases: Scapa Flow, Cromarty Firth and Rosyth. The prolongation of the war required continuity of medical care to be developed, crucially so given the aftermath of the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Naval hospital ships were vital to the repatriation of sick and wounded seamen from the Mediterranean. Moreover, in late 1914 and at Gallipoli in 1915, naval hospital ships contributed significantly to the military medical effort. This article describes the principal naval hospital ships and the specific, unique and varied activities they undertook throughout the war, as well as the medical, naval, military and mercantile factors that influenced their organisation and deployment.

Vessels of every kind, from ocean-going liners and steamers to sailing ships and local craft, plied the waters of the Philippine archipelago in the late nineteenth century, providing the only means of timely and cost-effective travel to destinations within, between and beyond the islands. Yet the vulnerability of this maritime world to typhoons remains little studied, even though ships at anchor were often as exposed to cyclonic winds as those at sea. Drawing on contemporary newspapers, published letters and official reports, this article examines the typhoon season of 1881 as a case study through which to explore the wider history of storm-related losses in Philippine shipping and the damages inflicted on vessels and crews. More than a human tragedy, these disasters also carried far-reaching economic and environmental consequences, underscoring the centrality of maritime risk in the everyday life of the archipelago.