Jack Tar Research Articles

Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail (review)

Young Men and Sea: Yankee Seafarers in Age of Sail. By Daniel Vickers with Vince Walsh. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. Pp. xiii, 336. Cloth, $35.00.)Daniel Vickers, with collaboration of Vince Walsh, has produced a provocative version of new maritime history without a radical emphasis. Exploitation, class formation, and resistance remain largely absent in this book, while compromise, communal ties, routine work, and social mobility take center stage. The author further rejects any sort of economic determinism in his thinking about why and how Yankee sailors in Age of Sail behaved as they did. No interested in social history of seafaring and early America should ignore this book.The first two chapters lay out ways in which early Puritan Commonwealth remained tied to sea. The first chapter deals mostly with initial settlements at Plymouth and Boston. Vickers demonstrates that water travel and maritime trade represented a basic part of life even in areas populated primarily by pious yeoman. The second chapter opens with Salem's initial settlement and expansion. Here, coasting trade in fish and lumber is explored in detail. These small-scale, short-haul voyages gradually involved people from all walks of life in maritime activities, providing a training ground of sorts for landsmen to acquaint themselves with sea work and regional coastlines. By end of seventeenth century, entire colony of Massachusetts maintained a high proportion of professional mariners to total population, one in twenty five, representing one of thoroughly maritime societies to be found during seventeenth century anywhere around North Atlantic rim (60).The third chapter treats eighteenth-century ship life. Vickers uses mariner's memoirs in combination with ship journals to demonstrate that work at sea was shared collectively between shipmaster and crew. Wage differentials were not great, captains tended not to abuse common sailors, and camaraderie between forecastle and quarterdeck was not rare. As a result most voyages out of this port [Salem] unfolded at a more subdued tempo in an environment where for greatest part of time a customary understanding of work routine prevailed on board (94).Chapter 4 discusses mid-eighteenth-century sailing career of Ashley Bowen, a mariner from Marblehead, Massachusetts, before moving back to Salem seafarers. After providing evidence of social mobility in Salem's labor market and arguing that tropical disease posed a graver danger (110) to maritime laborers than rigors associated with work at sea, Vickers argues that we have to shift our focus away from shipboard experience to entire course of sailors' lives in order to truly understand these men. Those familiar with his earlier article, Beyond Jack Tar, which called on maritime scholars to integrate land and sea history, will not be shocked by this attempt to relocate center of maritime scholarship away from ship life. According to Vickers, when we alter our focus in this manner, incorporating seafarers' lives on land, any class divisions that exist dim and antagonisms become significantly mitigated. The fact that Salem merchants were by and large not genteel capitalists alleviated antagonisms. Ubiquitous kinship ties and local, neighborly relations among seafarers and merchants further mitigated class conflict. Age, not class, Vickers concludes, was the principal defining feature of Salem's maritime labor market in eighteenth century. Yankee seafarers were twenty-year-olds who had gone to sea because in this waterfront society that is what young men did (129). …

American Sailors, American Freedom: Jack Tar and the Meaning of Liberty

Paul A. Gilje. Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. xiv + 344 pp. Illustrations, glossary, notes, bibliography, and index. $29.95. What could better embody the paradox of liberty and slavery than ships at sail? In Maryland, young Frederick Douglass called them "Freedom's swift-winged angels that fly around the world," but across the ocean a young African trapped inside an American-bound ship saw "a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow." Suddenly, "overpowered with horror and anguish, [he] fell motionless on the deck and fainted."1 White America, too, experienced a similarly paradoxical reaction to these great vessels. Patriots burned the Gaspé and stripped the Dartmouth of its cargo to protest tyranny, but in 1788 they marched with the Hamilton and other "ships of state" specially crafted to symbolize the blessings of liberty afforded by the new Constitution. As Liberty on the Waterfront demonstrates, this American paradox extended into the lives of the common sailors, or "Jack Tars," who manned these vessels. Paul Gilje uses this insight, often brilliantly, to construct the hull of this fine book. In doing so he sails with giants who have previously framed Jack Tar as romantic, revolutionary, proletarian, and multiculturalist.2 Although Gilje offers some criticism of these earlier interpretations, what he does best is to add detail—finely researched, nicely nuanced, and often wonderfully narrated detail. Consequently, while it will not necessarily supersede its predecessors' interpretive vision, this well-written, well-illustrated volume should become the standard, most accessible single source on seamen in antebellum America for many years to come. The book is organized chronologically and thematically into three sections. The first provides three chapters detailing the general contours of Jack Tar's world, a maritime culture that Gilje contends "remained largely the same from 1750 to 1850" (p. xii). He begins by chronicling Jack's experience on land, where a sailor's liberty might have been described by contemporaries as pure [End Page 341] licentiousness. Gilje vividly recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of dockside taverns and houses of ill repute where tars "flouted mainstream values and asserted their liberty by spending their money . . . as quickly as they could" (p. 11). Ironically, such profligacy led to economic bondage as sailors fell under the control of boardinghouse keepers and even less scrupulous masters more than willing to cheat Jack out of most of his earnings and then to scoop in and take what little was left after he had finished his spree. No wonder Jack was in such a hurry to spend his money! Despite Jack's anti-bourgeois behavior, Gilje insists that sailors "were not a proletariat in the making," an assertion that puts him at odds, most notably, with the work of Marcus Rediker (p. 6). Gilje's assertion is based partly on the mentality of the sailors and, presumably, partly on their social position. While Rediker asserted that by 1750 "seafaring had become a lifelong occupation for increasing numbers of waged workers," Gilje tends to emphasize economic mobility. Sailors were usually young men, he points out, citing evidence from crew lists and prisoner of war records. As they aged, seamen increasingly found their way to shore, becoming common laborers, master craftsmen, shopkeepers, and even boarding house owners. In the end, "The men who populated the waterfront and labored before the mast defy any grand characterization," according to Gilje (p. 32). In so arguing, he stakes out a position somewhere between Samuel Eliot Morison's romantic Jack—a farmer temporarily turned seaman—and Rediker's proletarian Jack. This is an issue that one would hope might prompt some further empirical research, despite the currently unfashionable status of cliometrics. The disagreement no doubt also partly stems from Gilje's narrower focus on the United States. As Rediker noted in...

Jack Tar vs. John Bull: The Role of New York's Seamen in Precipitating the Revolution

Jack Tar vs. John Bull: The Role of New York's Seamen in Precipitating the Revolution

Jesse Lemisch — Jack Tar vs. John Bull: The Role of New York's Seamen in Precipitating the Revolution

Jesse Lemisch — Jack Tar vs. John Bull: The Role of New York's Seamen in Precipitating the Revolution

Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour.

Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour.

The Image of the Sea Officer in English Literature, 1660–1710

They that go down to the sea in ships hold an ambiguous position in society. Though drawn from society, and molded by its beliefs and values, seamen spend much of their lives isolated from it. The sea is the sailor's home and workplace, the ship itself a society in miniature with its own customs, rules, and language. People ashore know little of the seaman's life and work, and what they do know is usually drawn from observing the seaman on land, where, out of his element, he often appears as a foreigner in his own country.For this reason, the image of the seaman that appears in literature is frequently an inaccurate reflection of reality. Yet, it is the literary image of the seaman of the late seventeenth century that has held the imaginations of historians until quite recently. The traditional view of the sea officers of the age has been of two antagonistic groups based on social class, with little or no common ground in terms of education, tradition, values, or experience of the sea. One of these groups, the tarpaulins—the source of the popular nickname for the sailor, Jack Tar—consisted of those who had risen to command from the lower deck; bluff and coarse in manner, lacking in education, tact, and good breeding, but excellent seamen, who were brave, sober, and diligent. The other group, the gentleman captains—ignorant of seamanship and navigation, frivolous, drunken, and corrupt—are said to have pushed most of the tarpaulins out of their commands after the Restoration. This displacement of tarpaulins by gentleman captains is usually viewed as a disaster for the navy, leading to incompetence, undiscipline, and sloth, and an adequate explanation in itself for every naval embarrassment of the late seventeenth century. This view has come under increasing criticism as overly simplistic, if not wholly inaccurate, and one may hope that the recent work of J. D. Davies has exploded it forever.

Book Review: Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

Book Review: Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

Colin Howell and Richard Twomey, eds. — Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

Colin Howell and Richard Twomey, eds. — Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

Jack Tar in History, Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

Jack Tar in History, Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour

‘JACK TAR IN HISTORY’: Halifax, Nova Scotia. October 15–18, 1990

‘JACK TAR IN HISTORY’: Halifax, Nova Scotia. October 15–18, 1990

Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815

Journal Article Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783–1815. By William M. Fowler, Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. xv + 318 pp. Maps, illustrations, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $17.95.) Get access John K. Mahon John K. Mahon University of Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 72, Issue 1, June 1985, Page 138, https://doi.org/10.2307/1903762 Published: 01 June 1985

Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815

Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815

AGU Fall Meeting&ASLO Winter Meeting

The 1982 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union and the Winter Meeting of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) will be held in San Francisco from December 7—15 at the Cathedral Hill Hotel (Formerly the Jack Tar Hotel) and Holiday Inn/Golden Gateway Hotel.

Meteorology section considers new name

The AGU Meteorology Section business meeting was held at the Jack Tar Hotel, December 9, during the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The principal item discussed at the half‐hour meeting was the proposal made by several members that consideration be given to renaming the section ‘Atmospheric Science.’ The members present felt the proposed name would better serve the strong physical, chemical, and electrical constituencies now in the Meteorology Section. There was also some indication that those now in the SPR: Aeronomy Section would be interested in joining a revamped Atmospheric Science Section.

1978 Fall Meeting Report

The 1978 Fall Meeting was held December 4–8 in San Francisco, California, at the Jack Tar and Holiday Inn‐Golden Gateway hotels. Approximately 1400 papers were presented. Total registration was 2225, of whom 1504 were members, 302 were students, and 419 were nonmembers.The meeting program and the abstracts of papers were published in the December 1978 issue of EOS, pages 1042–1234. This report includes program changes and postdeadline and revised abstracts.

1977 Fall Meeting Report

The 1977 Fall Meeting was held December 5–9 in San Francisco, California, at the Jack Tar and Holiday Inn‐Golden Gateway hotels. Approximately 1100 papers were presented, an increase of 150 over the 1976 Fall Meeting. Total registration was 1835, of whom 1268 were members, 249 were students, and 318 were nonmembers. The meeting program and the abstracts of papers to be presented were published in the December 1977 issue of Eos, pages 1110–1257. This report includes program changes and postdeadline and revised abstracts.

Report on the 1976 Fall Meeting

The 1976 Fall Meeting was held in San Francisco, California, December 6–10. Sessions were at the Jack Tar Hotel and the Holiday Inn‐Golden Gateway. During the 5‐day meeting, approximately 1190 papers were presented, an increase of nearly 150 over 1975.Total registration was 1707, of whom 1224 were members, 207 were students, and 276 were nonmembers. Total registration for 1975 was 1535. One hundred twenty‐eight new members joined AGU at this meeting, the largest number ever to join during an AGU meeting.

Fall Annual Meeting 1975

The 1975 Fall Annual Meeting was held at the Jack Tar Hotel, San Francisco, California, December 8–12, 1975. Some sessions were held at the Holiday Inn‐Golden Gateway. During the 5‐day meeting, approximately 1050 papers were presented, an increase of about 100 papers from the previous year.Total registration was 1635, of whom 1066 were members, 154 were students, and 315 were nonmembers. Included in these figures are approximately 100 complimentary registrants of spouses, press, and exhibitors. Registration for 1974 was more than 1800.

Fall Annual Meeting 1974

The 1974 Fall Annual Meeting of AGU was held at the Jack Tar Hotel, San Francisco, California, December 12 to 17, 1974. Some sessions were held at the Holiday Inn—Golden Gateway, San Francisco. More than 1800 members, guests, and media representatives were in attendance.Exhibitors included TRW, Inc.; Schonstedt Instrument Company; John Wiley and Sons; Spatial Data Systems; Computer Equipment Company; Hughes Aircraft; and Geothermal magazine.

Fall Annual Meeting 1973

The Fall Annual Meeting of AGU was held at the Jack Tar Hotel, San Francisco, California, December 10–13, 1973, with more than 1600 members and guests in attendance. Representatives of the national and local media were also present.Exhibitors included Geothermal Energy Magazine; Kinemetrics, Inc.; Schonstedt Instrument Company; Spectrex Corporation; TRW Systems, Inc.; Teledyne Geotech; and John Wiley and Sons, Inc.