Archive Results For: Indian Ocean
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
Note: The Use of Chronometers to Determine Longitude on East India Company Voyages
Evidence that a chronometer was used on early commercial voyages to determine longitude. Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Science & Exploration
Managing a Global Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century: Anthony Calvert of The Crescent, London, 1777–1808
Camden, Calvert & King, a major London shipping firm of the late eighteenth century, was one of the first medium-sized enterprises in Britain to operate on a global scale. They are well known to historians of the African slave trade and Australian convict transportation, but they also sent vessels to the Continent and the Americas, […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Eighteenth Century | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company | Other (location)
Subjects include: Administration | Biography | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines
‘A Practical Skill that was Without Equal’: Carsten Niebuhr and the Navigational Astronomy of the Arabian Journey, 1761–7
Carsten Niebuhr was the astronomer/cartographer for the Danish expedition to Arabia in 1761–7. He established the practicality of Tobias Mayer’s lunar distance method for determining longitude, which became the predominant basis for the determination of longitude in the last decades of the eighteenth century. Niebuhr was also a pioneer in the application of astronomy to […] Read More
Filed under: Mediterranean | Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Biography | Science & Exploration
Preservation by Shipwreck: the Memory of William Mackay
In 1795 an English East India Company country ship, the Juno, was wrecked in the Bay of Bengal. The buoyancy of her teak cargo arrested her sinking, and her 72 crew and passengers sought refuge in the rigging that protruded above the waves. Three years later her second mate, William Mackay, published his Narrative of […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Depiction of Indo-Arabic Ships on an Eighteenth-century Sea Chart
A sea chart of the Red Sea, which was probably drawn up around the early to mid- eighteenth century in India and given to the Royal Geographical Society in 1835 by Burnes, shows 25 depictions of ships. The age of the sea chart was determined in different ways. These depictions of ships were examined for […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Art & Music | Science & Exploration | Shipbuilding & Design
The Jade Dragon Wreck: Sabah, East Malaysia
A shipwreck was recently discovered by fishermen divers just off the northernmost tip of Borneo. While it was heavily looted in the space of a couple of months, an official excavation has resulted in some important discoveries. The ship, dated to about 1300 AD, was of the South East Asian lashed-lug tradition and the ceramics […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Merchant Marines
The Society Annual Lecture 2011 HMS Trincomalee (1817): a Frigate spanning three centuries, also known as TS Foudroyant from 1902 to 1989
The lecture covers the complex history of the 38-gun Fifth Rate frigate Trincomalee over nearly 200 years in which her varied career and service to the nation, whether in naval or civilian use, has been brought into focus. Those who wish to read her full story and access technical details and references will find them […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | North Sea | Other (Twentieth C) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines | Ship Handling & Seamanship | Shipbuilding & Design