Archive Results For: Indian Ocean
Note: In Opposition to the Lawful King’: Pirates and land-based authority in Sri Lanka, 1000–1500
Existing literature on piracy in the pre-colonial and colonial Indian Ocean deals with certain regions more than others, and the existence of pirates in pre-colonial Sri Lanka has not received much academic attention in English. This article is a review of evidence of piratical activity in historical sources concerning Sri Lanka for the period 1000 […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
Book Review-‘The Company Fortress: Military engineering and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia, 1638–1795, by E. Odegard
Dutch rule in Asia in the era of the Dutch East India Company (VoC) was sustained by fortified ports and strategic locations, supported with small armies moved by sea to enhance the defences. The failure of any one element in this strategy would bring down the rest. The VoC was a major economic and political […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Early Modern) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Administration | Harbours & Dockyards | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review-‘Pearls, People, and Power: Pearling and Indian Ocean worlds’ by P. Machado, S. Mullins, and J. Christensen (eds)
Although the history of pearling goes back at least 7,000 years, it was not until the late eighteenth century that the fishery began to exert a stronger formative role through the interplay of local and regional political conditions and increasing engagement with the world’s markets and rising pearl prices. The transformative period of the global […] Read More
Filed under: Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
Book Review-‘The Royal Navy in Eastern Waters: Linchpin of victory 1935–1942’ byA. Boyd
This is a very important book for our understanding of the Second World War and of the Royal Navy’s part in it. It is revisionist history in the best sense: a thorough look back at archival material and a careful rethink which turns accepted historical wisdom on its head. Even better, it makes much better […] Read More
Filed under: Interwar | WW2 | Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Naval Aviation | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review-‘Naval Resistance to Britain’s Growing Power in India 1660–1800: The saffron banner and the Tiger of Mysore’ by P. MacDougal
This book outlines the naval activities of some of the Indian states, specially those under the saffron banner of the Marathas and the leadership of Tipu Sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore’. Deviating from the common belief that the Indian states lacked naval awareness, the author shows the rise of Indian indigenous navies and tries to […] Read More
Filed under: Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Dutch Sources on South Asia c. 1660–1825, vol. 4, Mission to Madurai: Dutch embassies to the Nayaka court of Madurai in the seventeenth century’ by Markus Vink
The volume reviewed is part of a series on Dutch sources on South Asia which originally began in 2001 as a bibliography and guide to all Dutchlanguage materials on the subject that are available in the National Archives at The Hague. The series editors and contributors hold the noble aim of making it possible for […] Read More
Filed under: Early Modern | Eighteenth Century | Nineteenth Century | Indian Ocean | Pacific | East India Company
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Strategy & Diplomacy
A One-way Street? Admiral James Somerville and Anglo-American Naval Relations, 1942
Admiral Sir James Somerville’s command of the Eastern Fleet in 1942 caused serious tensions in Anglo-American naval relations despite the admiral’s personal efforts to cultivate closer ties with the US Navy. Specifically, US Navy admirals such as Ernest King felt that while the US Navy had helped the Royal Navy in its hour of need, […] Read More
Filed under: WW2 | Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
Note: Echoes of a Distant War
An exploration of the naval history of Sydney and New South Wales during the Napoleonic Wars from 1797 to 1814, touching on proposed conscription of convicts to fight in South American possessions, Matthew Flinders’ meeting with Nicolas Baudin, shipbuilding and traffic through Sydney Naval Yard, the operation of press gangs, privateering and whaling. Read More
Filed under: Napoleonic War | Indian Ocean | Pacific | Press Gangs
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Navies | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers | Science & Exploration | Whaling & Fishing
‘We Almost Gave Ourselves Up for Lost That Night’: Alfred Costello’s account of the shipwreck of the Elizabeth, 1852
The merchant mariner Alfred Costello recorded an account of the shipwreck of the barque Elizabeth on the Andaman Islands in 1852. His account provides an insight into the challenges faced by the crew culminating in a 300-mile journey from the Andaman Islands to Burma (Myanmar). Only Costello and the ship’s captain survived to return to England. Costello’s […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Ship Handling & Seamanship
‘& thus ended the buisinisse’: A buggery trial on the East India Company ship Mary in 1636
Not much archival information survives about buggery trials at sea in the seventeenth century. A trial aboard the East India Company’s ship, the Mary, at Surat in 1636 is an exception and is well documented. This article provides a detailed account of the trial, placing it within the broader contexts of naval discipline, the judicial […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Early Modern) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea