Age of Sail

(Forthcoming) This paper analyses the importance of Pirate English in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through lenses of contemporary linguistic theories and retrospective research provided by studies in Creole cultures of Caribbean. Since, history and historiography of the Golden of the Piracy are predominantly focused on maritime, radical, military or colonial context; this works to enhance and enrich corpus of larger pirate studies with a linguistic theory analysis of a crucial element holding pirate crewmen together - Pirate English. The general expectation of this research is related to the idea that historically marginalised importance of Pirate English does not automatically discourage us from the exploration of this phenomenon from the linguistics point of views. Furthermore, Pirate English should not be overlooked by contemporary studies dealing with semiotic landscape, symbolism and communication, since it can provide us with much needed historical evidence about diverse maritime speech community and how their use of the language reflected the diversity of its members. Glossary of 17th/18th nautical terms will be provided. Pirate English and its analysis is based on contemporary sources dealing with "mediation of language" (Michael Stubbs), "semiotic landscape" (Kress & Leuwen), "communication and cognition" (Sperber & Wilson). Relevant scholars and publications related to the problematics of the Creole culture and linguistics such as John Holm or Peter Bekker will be discussed as well. Hence, the paper should produce a synthesis of contemporary linguistic concepts applied judiciously to historical records and explored through relevant socio-historical or cultural studies.

The 1930s were the last years of the Age of Sail. The tall ships that had carried the cargoes of the world were slowly being scrapped. Their beauty, and the adventures they promised beckoned young men—and a few women—to go to sea. Women faced unique obstacles in entering this essentially male world. I have assembled six case histories of women who managed to make a voyage using memoirs and newspaper articles, and have illustrated them with period photographs.
Rose

Prize money from the capture of enemy vessels was a crucial component of compensation in the British Navy in the age of sail. Using a large random sample of prizes taken during the Great Wars of 1793-1815, I provide estimates of prize earnings across rates of ships and ranks of men in the Navy. The two types of ships on which most men served were also the most lucrative postings. The importance of prize money diminished sharply down the ranks, but was substantial for almost all crew members. Prize earnings remained important until near the end of the war.

The British Navy in the age of sail was the most successful bureaucracy of its time. Its organization and incentive structures differed importantly from contemporaneous private sailing ventures, but closely resembled those of today’s large corporations. To induce efficient effort, the navy used a hierarchical tournament, in which sailors competed for higher pay that came with promotions based on relative performance.
Promotion probabilities, the option value of future promotions, and the higher effort required of men in higher ranks and on larger vessels, combined to yield a highly skewed pay structure.

The book describes the armed forces of Peter the Great in its entirety, and covers in depth old Russian troops and irregulars, as well as Peter’s new standing army (guards, infantry, dragoons, elite units and artillery) and his brand-new force(the navy, with sailing ships and galleys, and marines). Besides the staffing, organization and development of troops, the book gives detailed account of uniforms, weapons and other materiel (both conventional and unusual). Training is described using drill manuals and tactical instructions of the period, and fighting methods actually performed on the battlefield are described - based on first-hand accounts and period observations from Russian, Swedish and impartial sources. Pitched battles that often predominate in descriptions of early-18th century warfare are given their due in the book; however, linear tactics on the field were not the only - nor even the main - type of actions during the Great Northern War, so the author goes into details of the sieges, small war actions and riverine, lake and naval combats.

The author brings up materials that were unavailable to English-speaking readers and scholars so far, and the book not only contains the author’s own research, but is also based on the most recent works of other Russian scholars who specialize in various aspects of the Petrine military history; this makes the book a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Peter the Great’s military force during the Great Northern War (1700-1721). The book is supplemented with numerous contemporary prints and paintings, photos of artefacts and recreated uniform kits, as well as specially-commissioned artwork that has been created by an artist who is knowledgeable in details from that period.

Presentation made during the Third International Congress of Eurasian Maritime History - Istanbul, 10/05/2018

The last quarter of the 17th century witnessed the transformation of the Ottoman navy from an oared into a sailing battlefleet. That mutation had happened under visionary and able seamen, first and foremost Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha and his immediate successors. By that time, sailing warships, which were products of the West European maritime powers, were already standardized into well regulated classes. However, the Ottoman navy was an institution which served in very different strategic conditions. As a result, despite the inevitable technology transfer from Western Europe to initiate the building of sailing warships, Ottoman warship design rapidly differentiated from their Western counterparts in many crucial respects. This differentiation also found its way in terminology as well; and the Ottoman navy developed its idiosyncratic classification system. Unfortunately, even the current level of completed research from the available Ottoman archival material is not satisfactory to present a clear cut definition of that terminology. Another important problem encountered in the study of Ottoman naval technology is, the question of standardized designs and building practices in the age of sail. Ottoman archives do not yield any clear orders, regulations or set of plans for the standardization of shipbuilding before the reforms of Selim III. Fortunately, archives of foreign countries which had intense contact with the Ottomans at sea -chiefly Venice, Russia, Malta and France- yield a significant amount of both written and visual material which help us to fill the gaps in our knowledge. This presentation aims to offer a new and clear cut classification of Ottoman navy warships before Selim III and argues that well before the Nizam-ı Cedid era; more or less standardization was achieved in the Ottoman naval shipbuilding.

The Royal Navy was the most successful naval force in the world from the end of the 17th to the early 20th century, success that cannot be explained by technology, resource endowments, or even luck.1 Instead, it appears that a crucial factor in this
success was the simple fact that the officers and men of the Royal Navy exerted more effort than their foes: they fought harder and they fought smarter. But this does not answer the fundamental question: why? The answer lies in that most basic of economic propositions: Incentives matter. The great genius of the British Navy lay in a financial incentive system that supplied its officers and men with the extraordinary
motivation needed to outperform their foes. Financial incentives were the Royal Navy's solution, not its problem, and it was incentive-driven superior performance that produced the consistent success of the Royal Navy.

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

This dissertation examines the relationship between the expansion of the English colony of Jamaica and the rapid growth of maritime piracy in the second half of the seventeenth century. The work re-examines the way in which the growing political, economic and strategic importance of Jamaica as the Crown Colony had corresponded with pirate raids. It extends the area of this subject by the implementation of the complex framework of relations between influential members involved in Jamaican colonial administration and prominent individuals of pirate crews. Hence, one of the central claims of this research is that pirates in seventeenth century functioned as the integral element of British imperial endeavours. Moreover, this study argues that seventeenth-century pirates played a significant role in connecting Britain's empires in the Americas and India by forcing London authorities to impose its central policy on colonies and abandon the concept of decentralised imperial state.
While there is wide agreement that “the pirate economy” of Jamaica was replaced by the business of plantation, there is less consensus over whether or not the dominance of plantocracy was achieved through legal and ethical means. Extensive research of primary sources has shown that the hegemony of planter's class was rather the outcome of a cunning strategy of land acquisitions accomplished by privileged Assembly representatives such as Thomas Lynch, Peter Beckford or William Beeston. This research drawing on deep analysis of archival sources argues that generations of buccaneers were intentionally driven out of Jamaica by the clique of local representatives of planter’s class led by Thomas Lynch. Thus, this work seeks to clarify the nature of the transformation of Jamaican society by the end of seventeenth century, which should not be perceived as smooth and natural development.
Rather, it should be understood in terms of organised and forced replacement of one class of people with a different class of people, which was more fitting for the whole colonial project. Nevertheless, this research based on archival sources, published manuscripts and judicious use of contemporary sources claims that the abandonment of piratical activities was ill-timed and exposed The British West Indies to significant defensive risks.
The dissertation is comprised of five chapters covering five decades of Jamaica's colonial development with an emphasis on three distinct generations yet equally successful piratical societies enjoying endorsement, support, sponsorship or protection by Jamaican colonists. Chapter one looks at the aftermath of the failed Western Design in the Caribbean, expeditions led by Christopher Myngs and the first wave of buccaneers settling down in Port Royal. The second chapter is dedicated to the era of Henry Morgan and his infamous attacks on Spanish colonies. Further, the chapter investigates the establishment of the semi-legal web of interconnected communities of pirates, smugglers, wreckers and “baymen”. Chapter three considers the nature of the second wave of buccaneering framed by voyages of William Dampier, Bartholomew Sharp and John Coxon. Also, this part comments on the status of indentured servants and the turbulent changes in the composition of Jamaican society. The period of two competing Jamaican political factions of planters and merchants is discussed in the chapter four. Additionally, this section deals with the consequences of the Glorious Revolution (1688) for Jamaica, and it clarifies the link between Tories, Whigs and pirates. The key factors of Jamaica's influence behind the rise of the Red Round piracy are outlined in chapter five It also details the clash of different colonial interests epitomised by numerous conflicts between colonial authorities and the Royal Navy and discusses the impacts of the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The last section takes the reader to the brink of the War of the Spanish Succession and re-examines the importance of legal changes emphasised by The
Piracy Act passed by the Parliament of England in 1698. Each chapter provides the reader important contextual information about relevant political, cultural, social, and military events like for instance the Anglo-Dutch Wars or the Nine Years' War.

My article (in Polish language) about the Ottoman sailing navy and naval technology during the Russo-Turkish wars of Catherine II "The Great". The final synthesis of my two previous articles in English and French languages, it is my attempt to make a case about the real state of Ottoman naval architecture in 18th century against the traditional narratives of indifference and inferiority. I tried to demonstrate, backed with visual documentation from various archives, that the Ottoman Navy closely followed developments in the warship building all through the 18th century and its defeats at the hands of Russians were rather due to shortcomings in the administration, personnel and doctrine.

بیش از پنج دهه پیش در سال ۱۹۶۸ میلادی مرحله‎ای مهم و  جدید در بررسی‎های باستان شناختی دریایی در حوزه‎ی دریای کاسپی آغاز شد و  موزه تاریخ آذربایجان ـ معاصر با اتحاد جماهیر شوروی سوسیالیستی ـ نخستین تیم برای پژوهش‎های تاریخی و باستان شناختی در زیر آب‎های دریای کاسپی را تشکیل داد. عمده‎ی فعالیت‎های این گروه بر روی بقایای برجای مانده از بناهای یادبود در ساحل و دریا، پیرامون کشور آذربایجان معطوف بود. در سال ۱۹۶۹ میلادی در جریان عملیات باستان زیرآب در پیرامون دهانه‎ی رودخانه کورا بقایایی از زیستگاه های متعلق به قرون میانی، قرون۹ تا ۱۲، کشف شد که به عنوان یکی از بزرگترین محوطه‎های باستان‎شناختی در زیرآب‎های دریای کاسپی شناخته می‎شود؛  هزاران ماده‎ی فرهنگی مانند: متعلقات شخصی، جواهرات، وسایل دکوری، سکه و ظروف سفالی  از بستر دریا بازیابی شد؛ لازم به ذکر است ظروف سفالی لعاب دار منحصربفرد مزین به نقوش جانوری از جمله: ماهی، پرندگان و کتیبه دار به همراه بقایایی از ابزار سفالگری و کوره‎های سفال‎پزی نیز از محوطه‎های مذکور  به‎دست آمد.

New England seafarers from small merchant ships visited the natural saltpans of the Venezuelan island of La Tortuga from the late seventeenth century up until 1781. The liminal space of the island set the stage for the creation of an improvised “tavern” where the communalism of shipboard life was suddenly changed to more markedly vertical relations. Drawing from archaeological excavations and original documentary sources it is argued that, while on land, captains no longer worked alongside their crews who now labored extracting salt. With leisure time available to them, punch drinking offered captains a means of discursive practice through the manipulation of fashionable material culture and an opportunity to negotiate their social position among peers. When given to the crew, punch served as a labor incentive and a way of obfuscating the sudden change in customary captain-crew relations while on the island.

By exploring forms of maritime resistance spanning the age of sail and steam, this article interrogates certain preponderant assumptions within the historiography of subaltern agency. Within this historiography, “modernity” has generally come to be signalled by trade union organisation and a concomitant regard for legality, while violent resistance is implicitly or explicitly taken to signify the Other of modernity: traditional, primitive, incomplete. Arguing that this tradition/modernity divide has mapped onto the sail/steam divide in the historiography of maritime resistance, this article complicates the association of violent mutiny with the age of sail and litigiousness with the age of steam. It does this by bringing both epochs into single focus, thereby finding important continuities in forms of everyday resistance on
board ship across the sail–steam divide. Using existing scholarship to look at resistance in the age of sail and archival material like ships’ logbooks, newspapers and “Lascari”–English dictionaries for the age of the steam, it argues that rather than trade unions fundamentally reshaping the forms of everyday resistance into legal channels, it was in fact these longer traditions of quotidian contestation that fed into the formation of unions at the end of World War I, and continued through
the 1920s and 1930s.

"The paper examines shipping finance in the Republic of Ragusa during the French Wars, a period of high risks and equally high profits for seafarers in the Mediterranean, focusing on maritime loans, a diachronic credit and insurance instrument which dominated daily practices of the maritime business in Ragusa and other ports. The material, which derives from maritime loan contracts dating between 1783 and 1805, preserved in the State Archives of Dubrovnik, is examined on the basis (a) of the basic parameters, terms and conditions in the market of Ragusa, and (b) of the protagonists themselves, looking at their social, cultural and economic background and the relationships, co-operation and disputes that aroused between them, through their contractual agreements.
Although there is abundance of primary sources of this type, mainly notarial documents, historical studies on the use and importance of maritime loan as credit and finance device in the Modern Period remain rather limited. The present study of the case of Ragusa, one of the last Mediterranean Maritime Republics, is a contribution in this direction, demonstrating that maritime loan was fully integrated in the shipping business mechanism and a very profitable investment for the individuals involved."

Monografia dedicata alle vele al terzo dipinte della flotta peschereccia di Cattolica, 1920-1950, primo numero della rivista Litus - I Quaderni del Museo della Regina, Cattolica, disponibili in open source all'indirizzo http://www.cattolica.net/retecivica-citta-di-cattolica/sites/default/files/statici/museo/veledifamiglia.pdf

Monograph on the painted "al terzo" sails of the fishing fleet of Cattolica (northern coast of Adriatic Sea, Italy), 1920-1950, first issue of the journal Litus - I Quaderni del Museo della Regina, Cattolica, available in open source at the web address

During the revolutionary 1790s, an unprecedented number of mutinies tore through the British, French, and Dutch navies. This simultaneous upsurge of lower-deck militancy in both allied and belligerent fleets was not coincidental, nor was it simply a violent expression of similar pressures making themselves felt on ships under different flags but all engaged in the same conflict. Instead, through manifold personal connections, men who circulated back and forth across the frontline, and through the gradual emergence of a common political ideology, mutinies across navies constituted a single radical movement, a genuine Atlantic revolution in this so-called age of Atlantic revolutions. late 1790s up to 100,000 experienced mutineers were spread across the lower decks of the French, British, and Dutch fleets, all of them men who had risked their lives to contest for power with one of the world's most entrenched autocracies, the European naval officer corps.

This is a one page notification on the recently released book covering in detail a narrative of the whaling in the South Seas - that is the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is an excellent reference work for the ships, masters and owners of the period. Thoroughly recommended.

" In nineteenth century, despite the increasing competition of the steam, the wooden sailing ship was the dominant vessel in sea transports in Mediterranean. Therefore wooden shipbuilding was an industry of primary importance for Mediterranean economies and in many cases the spearhead of the secondary sector. Aim of this paper is to compare the shipbuilding industry of three Mediterranean areas in the middle of the nineteenth century: the port of Syros in the Aegean Sea and two adjacent areas, Provence and Liguria. The comparison between those areas offers useful information about similarities and differences in the performance and the traditions developed in the eastern and the western side of the Mediterranean basin. Such a comparative view can reveal the main trends of the shipbuilding industry in the context of the evolution of shipping, in an era of rapid economic and technological changes as it was the nineteenth century.
The data presented are based on research made on primary sources. The data regarding the port of Syros are from my completed PhD thesis (in forthcoming publication in Greece). Those for Liguria were processed from the Appendixes published in Luciana Gatti’s book “Un raggio di convenienza”.Navi mercantili, costruttori e proprietary in Liguria nella prima metà dell’ Ottocento, Società Ligure di Storia Patria, Genova, 2008. Finally those for Provence were also processed from a sample conceded from Laurent Pavlidis, from his ongoing PhD thesis on shipbuilding industry in Southern France (University of Aix en Provence-Marseille).
The approach to the subject is structured in two levels: first in the performance of the compared industries, that is in terms of production and productivity (number of vessels, total tonnage, average tonnage and delivery times). Second in the examination of ship types built. The study of ship types reflects economic aspects, as each type covers an approximate range of carrying capacity, technological, as it requires a given level of know-how and cultural, as each type (even the same in different areas) shows also the particular traditions of each area.
The comparison reveals common trends, like the dominance of ship types of northern European origin (ship, brig, barque or schooner) in big and medium size vessels, a result of the gradual imposing of the northern maritime technology in global scale. But it shows also differences, like the different markets these shipbuilding areas they operated, as well as the different geographical and natural resource base factors, influenced in the organization of production. 
"

This course will use archaeological and historical sources to examine the outfitting and sailing of wooden ships between 1400 and 1900, a period popularly known as "The Age of Sail."  Emphasis will be placed upon two areas of particular interest to the nautical archaeologist: 1) the use, chronological development and nomenclature of seafaring technology; 2) the operational aspects of seafaring (the tools, techniques, and daily routines of seafarers during the Age of Sail).

1624年起荷蘭東印度公司於大員（今台南安平）設立商館後，於1636年初步完成在臺灣海峽兩岸局部水文調查。1637年後，因應新航路開闢，針對新竹沿岸、小琉球海域從事細部調查。1642年公司擊敗佔領雞籠之西班牙人，開始掃蕩臺灣中北部新竹、苗栗沿海。同時，公司恢復由臺灣派遣船隻封鎖馬尼拉之行動，數度經由小琉球航向呂宋島。在1664-1668年間佔領雞籠時，由雞籠直航閩北、浙江海域，亦由東部南下航行至巴士海峽。公司人員在此段時間內對於臺灣島周邊的水域調查，確定了船隻由臺灣開航前往他處的端點，直到清代仍有多處持續運行。
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a commercial post in Tayouan (An-ping in Taian city, Taiwan) and thereafter launched a series of nautical investigations This investigation is accomplished in 1636. After 1637, a new set of investigations on the coast of Xinzhu and Xiao Liuqiu water were initiated for settling a new course cross Taiwan strait. The Spaniards were defeated in Jilong in 1642, it led to an examining on the coast of Xinzhu and Miaoli. When the VOC resumed its blockade on Manila, vessels were assigned to Luzon passing by Xiao Liuqiu. During reoccupation of Jilong 1664-1668, the VOC vessels sailed around Northern Fujian and Zhejian province and sailed south on the east coast of Taiwan. The VOC mariners had surveyed all waters around Taiwan and pinned the terminal points when sailing from Taiwan to other shores. Most of those points were still functioning under the later Qing court.

By exploring forms of maritime resistance spanning the age of sail and steam, this article interrogates certain preponderant assumptions within the historiography of subaltern agency. Within this historiography, “modernity” has generally come to be signalled by trade union organisation and a concomitant regard for legality, while violent resistance is implicitly or explicitly taken to signify the Other of modernity: traditional, primitive, incomplete. Arguing that this tradition/modernity divide has mapped onto the sail/steam divide in the historiography of maritime resistance, this article complicates the association of violent mutiny with the age of sail and litigiousness with the age of steam. It does this by bringing both epochs into single focus, thereby finding important continuities in forms of everyday resistance on board ship across the sail–steam divide. Using existing scholarship to look at resistance in the age of sail and archival material like ships’ logbooks, newspape...

Konuk #konuşmacı olarak gittiğim Alibeyköy #Lions Kulübü toplantısında seslendirdiğim "Yelkenli Başkan, Kulüpte Kaptan" başlıklı konuşmamı ilgiyle dinleyen ve Marmara #Yelken Dergisi'nde yayınlamayı uygun gören Marmara Yelken Kulübü Yönetim Kurulu üyelerine teşekkür ediyorum...

On 30 July 1796 the checchia ("ketch") Maria Favorita, loaded the previous week with salt from Cagliari and bound for Ragusa (Dubrovnik), was seized by a corsairing Tripolitan galliot fifteen miles off Malta. The Tripolitan rsis ("captain"), Muhamed Bumiszach, justified the capture of the ship as "buona presa" ("legitimate prey") by rejecting the ferman (a license signed by the Sultan) produced by Maria Favorita's captain, Vincenzo Pulitica, as invalid because it was issued twenty-two years ago. In theory Ragusans, who paid tribute to the Porte, and Tripolitans, who were under Ottoman sovereignty, were on friendly terms. Furthermore, Ragusans had commercial interests in North Africa and had carried much of the region's trade from the middle of the eighteenth century. I Yet this did not prevent the Muslim captain from challenging the ferman's validity and seizing the vessel. On 2 August, the corsairs and their prey reached Cape Misratah, approximately 200 kilometres (kms) east of Tripoli at the entrance to the Gulf of Sirte, from where Bumiszach sent an urgentmessage overland to the Pasha of Tripoli to inform him about the case and to ask for further instructions. They received the Pasha's orders on 10 August to sail directly to Tripoli; they cleared three days later after completing their pillage of the ship, a task they had begun upon their arrival at Cape Misratah. Two days later they arrived in Tripoli, where the captives were brought into the castle. As soon as they arrived, Gio Gilberto Kaupe, the vice-consul of Holland who was in charge of the affairs of the Republic of Ragusa, managed to liberate the vessel, Captain Pulitica and the crew. 2 Kaupe also tried to persuade the Pasha to refund the goods seized by the corsairs but was refused on the pretext that he had to wait for the return of his own corsair, which was still at sea. After waiting for twenty-six days, Pulitica and his crew set sail for Ragusa, leaving the affair in the hands of Kaupe. Before leaving, though, he en-

In the years before the Civil War, many Americans saw the sea as a world apart, an often violent and insular culture governed by its own definitions of honor and ruled by its own authorities. The truth, however, is that legal cases that originated at sea had a tendency to come ashore and force the national government to address questions about personal honor, dignity, the rights of laborers, and the meaning and privileges of citizenship, often for the first time. By examining how and why merchant seamen and their officers came into contact with the law, Matthew Taylor Raffety exposes the complex relationship between brutal crimes committed at sea and the development of a legal consciousness within the judiciary and among seafarers in this period. "The Republic Afloat" tracks how seamen conceived of themselves as individuals and how they defined their place within the United States. Of interest to historians of labor, law, maritime culture, and national identity in the earl...

This study refers to the interdisciplinary efforts to explore the globe with the great oceanic discoveries, an interesting open question, which had also contributed to the development of geography and exploration. In the fifteenth century the humanists translated the works of the ancient geographers, which influenced the ideological background of the great explorers. Geographical conceptions were gradually liberated from dogmatism, accepting the theory that the Earth is global and regenerating Ptolemy’s belief that the European west coasts are close to the eastern Asia.