Age Of Sail Research Articles

Ligurian shipping, routes and trade in the Black Sea, 1815–1914

This article explores the resurgence of Ligurian maritime activity in the Black Sea during the early nineteenth century after a four-century absence, driven by the lucrative Black Sea grain trade and coinciding with Genoa’s transition from French to Sardinian rule. Following the Vienna Congress, Ligurian vessels, primarily from small coastal communities, began frequenting Black Sea ports to transport grain to Genoa, Livorno and Marseilles. These efforts were supported by Savoy’s trade policies and Sardinian consuls in the region, leading to a peak in Ligurian shipping activity in the 1860s, before it declined due to competition from foreign steamships. The article emphasizes the crucial role of institutional and state support in establishing this trade, and examines how interactions with national and foreign merchants shaped its development. It is structured around Savoy’s trade policies, the Ligurian presence during the Age of Sail, and the emergence of a niche Italian steam-shipping fleet.

Past Forward: The British Navy Resisted a Decent Lightning Rod for Decades: Inventors vs. Bureaucrats During the Age of Sail

Past Forward: The British Navy Resisted a Decent Lightning Rod for Decades: Inventors vs. Bureaucrats During the Age of Sail

Atlantic Voyages: The East India Company and the British Route to the East in the Age of Sail, by John McAleer

Atlantic Voyages: The East India Company and the British Route to the East in the Age of Sail, by John McAleer

Transoceanic pathogen transfer in the age of sail and steam

In the centuries following Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas, transoceanic travel opened unprecedented pathways in global pathogen circulation. Yet no biological transfer is a single, discrete event. We use mathematical modeling to quantify historical risk of shipborne pathogen introduction, exploring the respective contributions of journey time, ship size, population susceptibility, transmission intensity, density dependence, and pathogen biology. We contextualize our results using port arrivals data from San Francisco, 1850 to 1852, and from a selection of historically significant voyages, 1492 to 1918. We offer numerical estimates of introduction risk across historically realistic ranges of journey time and ship population size, and show that both steam travel and shipping regimes that involved frequent, large-scale movement of people substantially increased risk of transoceanic pathogen circulation.

Rif Winfield, John Tredrea, Enrique Garcia-Torralba Perez, and Manuel Blasco Felip, Spanish Warships in the Age of Sail, 1700-1860. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates by Jim Hughey

Rif Winfield, John Tredrea, Enrique Garcia-Torralba Perez, and Manuel Blasco Felip, Spanish Warships in the Age of Sail, 1700-1860. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates by Jim Hughey

A multi-criteria simulation of European coastal shipping routes in the ‘age of sail’

This article introduces a new method to model sailing routes before the age of steam based on real-world sailing conditions. Using a broad range of historical meteorological data, it offers monthly routing predictions for historical shipping corridors and tests them against historical evidence. In this article the model was applied to French and British ports. The output reveals the presence of historical shipping corridors and offer the first journey-time metrics to and from all European ports.

An evaluation of system modularity and interface standards as a means for continued platform level relevance

This paper will develop a descriptive working definition of modularity regarding ship systems. An effort will be made to expose the underlying motivation and attractiveness of modularity in naval vessels utilizing economic salvage value and continued operational relevancy. A survey of 50 years of modern system development in support of modularity will be supported by a historical case study. The historical analogy will focus on the concurrent development of platforms and weapon systems during the age of sail. Specific focus will be given to platform developments and the advent of marine artillery and their associated technological development. The insight developed will then be applied to two modern naval corollaries.

Overseas Trade and War. Reconstructing a Late Eighteenth-Century East India Company Voyage to Asia Between Routine and Unpredictability

AbstractThe role played by the East India Company in European expansion in early modern Asia is of such importance that it has generated a large body of scholarly literature. However, the logbooks of the East Indiamen, compiled by their captains, are largely overlooked as a primary source for the history of navigation, despite the wealth of information such firsthand, “from below” documents could provide about those voyages. As part of the Global Sea Routes (GSR) project, this essay analyses the voyage of theNassau(1781–85) along four main themes: the peculiarities of navigation during the Age of Sail, when the duration of a voyage was difficult to predict and subject to a range of possible accidents; the concrete reality of life on board, oscillating between the various activities of the crew and the episodes of desertion and insubordination that broke its daily routine; her military deployment, as theNassauwas directly involved in operations related to the Second Anglo-Mysore War; and, finally, her commercial activities, from the port cities of India to the seas of China.

Towards a political ecology of piracy in the Age of Sail

ABSTRACT Although historians and archaeologists have been quick to point out the political and economic conditions that tend to foment sea piracy, less attention has been given to the ecology of ‘blue crimes’. This article offers an empirical synthesis of recent archaeological work on piratical sites from the Age of Sail (ca. 1570–1860) while drawing parallels to both ancient Mediterranean and contemporary sea piracy in order to highlight some common patterns and explore the broader potential of a political ecology framing. I argue that sea piracy is in part an effect of ecological conditions and in turn produces its own political and ecological effects. I also consider Graeber and Wengrow’s transhistorical argument about the ‘ecology of freedom’ as it applies to sea piracy.

Forum Introduction: Sugar and navies in the age of sail

This essay introduces the forum by asking: what were the basic ‘ingredients’ of sugar in the eighteenth century? How did navies relate to each ingredient?

Douglas Hamilton and John McAleer, eds. Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 240. $85.00 (cloth).

Douglas Hamilton and John McAleer, eds. Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 240. $85.00 (cloth).

The Genesis of Rebellion: Governance, Grievance, and Mutiny in the Age of Sail. By Steven Pfaff and Michael Hechter. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 352p. $39.99 cloth.

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Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery

Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery

A Matter of the King’s Service: Supplying Ship-Timbers for the French Navy in the Eighteenth Century

This article examines the policies and personnel that allowed France’s Old Regime monarchy to obtain huge supplies of naval timber from within the kingdom. In contrast to many other accounts, however, the main focus here is on the people who actually carried out this work (forestry officials, naval shipwrights, government contractors), specifically in south-western France. These agents were supposed to cooperate, but that did not always occur, and this article suggests some explanations. The demands of the central state provoked varied responses from woodland proprietors (the Church, rural communities, and private landholders). Their reactions are considered as well, since this “social history” approach allows us to appreciate that France’s success in building up its naval forces during the “age of sail” were not always welcomed by the king’s subjects.

Shipwrecks: Their impact on the behavioural patterns of sailors and on littoral societies during the age of sail in the western Indian Ocean, circa 800–1600

This article begins by investigating the construction techniques of medieval Indian ships to explore the extent to which the building methods were responsible for shipwrecks. Then, the article attends to the impacts of a shipwreck on the minds or behaviour of sailors. A link is drawn between various superstitious beliefs and certain irrational behaviour among sailors in the Indian Ocean and shipwrecks. The dreaded nature of a voyage would often create panic among sailors, which led them to various superstitious beliefs. However, a voyage would also attract many with the promise of adventure. The article also discusses how the atmosphere in the ship played the role of a catalyst in shaping the behaviour of the mariners. Finally, the article explores the ramifications of shipwrecks in littoral societies across the western Indian Ocean. During the medieval period, merchants from different regions and countries whose livelihood depended on the maritime trade settled in port towns. Moreover, littoral people relied on the supply of products from across the oceans for their livelihoods. Therefore, the smooth conduct of shipping was necessary for these coastal people. This article examines how a shipwreck would impact sectors of the littoral society in general and sailors in particular. Although the paucity of sources sets limits on the extent to which these aspects can be reconstructed, a number of contemporary traveller accounts shed light on the situation.

“Near the sea”: Maritime kinship and oceanic kinship in Stevenson’s Treasure Island

ABSTRACT This essay argues that depictions of small craft sailing in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) indicate an underlying crisis in the kinship structures of the age of sail as wrought by industrial capitalism’s rising reliance on steamships. Theorizing an older form of “maritime kinship” and its continuation in “oceanic kinship,” this essay re-evaluates the gap between late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century seafaring fiction and bridges the two through a continued connection to the sea and maintained sailing heritage. Countering a rhetoric of loss, it presents Treasure Island’s nearness to the sea as highlighting an environmental interconnection that might allow us to reimagine how we relate to oceans and provide key approaches to confronting the current climate crisis.

Disobedient Officers in the Royal Navy, about 1680–1720

Studies on indiscipline and unrest aboard ship during the Age of Sail so far have mostly focused on the norm-violating behaviours of common seamen. This article, by contrast, investigates acts of insubordination committed by warrant and commissioned officers in the Royal Navy, using courts martial records as sources. It traces the contours of that historical phenomenon, identifying common confrontations as well as less frequent ones that may prove to be particularly revealing about disobedience among naval officers and what this can tell us about governance afloat and its challenges.

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

AbstractThis article analyzes the changing age structure of Swedish and Finnish sailors for almost 200 years. We show that the proportion of the youngest men increased during the age of sail (i.e., the older technology). The average age increased significantly during the early twentieth century as steam (i.e., the newer technology) replaced sail in Nordic shipping. Thus, a technological revolution did not displace the older workers, but rather diminished the demand for the younger ones. This study shows, however, that technological changes were not the only drivers of changes in the age structure of Nordic sailors. Institutional and societal changes also played an important role, though they were at least partly coevolving with the technological changes. This study also shows that the maritime industry experienced professionalization especially during the latter part of the period.

Wrecked Emigrant Ships in The Bahamas: The Wreck of the Barque William and Mary

The Bahamian archipelago is strategically located between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea. However, the hidden reefs and shoals, the changing sandbanks, and the unpredictable winds and currents, especially in the hurricane months, all conspired to make Bahamian waters the terror of navigators and the delight of wreckers during the age of sail. This article explores the wrecks of four emigrant ships in The Bahamas in the early 1850s. The European passengers were leaving poverty-stricken Europe to pursue the ‘American Dream’ but did not reach their destination without enduring the combined perils of weather and the hazards of Bahamian waters. Fortunately, they were rescued by humane Bahamian wreckers and assisted by inhabitants of Nassau and Governor Gregory, who organized their onward journey. In particular, the wreck of the William and Mary exposes the greed and lack of care that ship owners and captains showed in attempting to carry hapless passengers from Europe to the United States of America.

The Genesis of Rebellion: Governance, Grievance, and Mutiny in the Age of Sail, by Steven Pfaff and Michael Hechter

The Genesis of Rebellion: Governance, Grievance, and Mutiny in the Age of Sail, by Steven Pfaff and Michael Hechter