Archive Results For: Indian Ocean
Book Review -‘Navigational Enterprises in Europe and its Empires, 1730–1850’ by M. K. Barritt
The chapters in this important addition to the Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series are derived from papers delivered at a sequence of conferences inspired by the Board of Longitude project of the University of Cambridge and the National Maritime Museum. The editors declare an aim of giving depth to the British story by describing […] Read More
Filed under: Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Miscellaneous | Science & Exploration | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World’ by Markus Vink
Preceded by an introduction from the editor, and historian of Indian Ocean studies, Michael Pearson, the majority of the eight inter-disciplinary essays in this volume are revised versions of contributions to the conference ‘Dimensions of the Indian World Past’ held in Fremantle, Western Australia, in November 2012. We are promised unity in diversity: though ‘ostensibly […] Read More
Filed under: Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Logistics | Miscellaneous | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Spain, China and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644: Local comparisons and global connections’ by Derek Massarella
This book, a PhD thesis revised for publication, champions the currently fashionable analytical framework of ‘connected histories’. The author analyses ‘the Manila System’, which she describes as ‘characterised by multi-layered connections based on negotiations, a complex market torn between protectionism and free trade, triangular circulations and bi- or multilateral communication involving different parties of the […] Read More
Filed under: Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Administration | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘Chokepoints: Movement, mobility, regulation and the Suez and Panama Canals in global history’ by Christoph Laucht
After their opening in 1869 and 1914 respectively, the Suez and Panama canals have functioned as ‘essential instruments of world unity’, as the French geographer André Siegfried argued in his comparative study of the two inter-oceanic waterways Suez and Panama (1940). For Siegfried, ‘[t]his unity was the magnificent achievement of the nineteenth century’. Following in particular the […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Mediterranean | Indian Ocean | Pacific
Subjects include: Logistics | Miscellaneous | 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
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