The Evolution of the Wooden Ship
The Evolution of the Wooden Ship

Author: Basil Greenhill

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781932846195

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This work touches on the specialized world of wooden-ship building, looking at the endless variations of techniques from country to country, region to region, and over the course of history.

Boundaries and Beyond
Boundaries and Beyond

Author: Ng Chin-keong

Publisher: NUS Press

Published: 2016-09-16

Total Pages: 22

ISBN-13: 9814722014

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Using the concept of boundaries, physical and cultural, to understand the development of China’s maritime southeast in late Imperial times, and its interactions across maritime East Asia and the broader Asian Seas, these linked essays by a senior scholar in the field challenge the usual readings of Chinese history from the centre. After an opening essay which positions China’s southeastern coast within a broader view of maritime Asia, the first section of the book looks at boundaries, between “us” and “them”, Chinese and other, during this period. The second section looks at the challenges to such rigid demarcations posed by the state and existed in the status quo. The third section discusses movements of people, goods and ideas across national borders and cultural boundaries, seeing tradition and innovation as two contesting forces in a constant state of interaction, compromise and reconciliation. This approach underpins a fresh understanding of China’s boundaries and the distinctions that separate China from the rest of the world. In developing this theme, Ng Chin-keong draws on many years of writing and research in Chinese and European archives. Of interest to students of migration, of Chinese history, and of the long term perspective on relations between China and its region, Ng’s analysis provides a crucial background to the historical shared experience of the people in Asian maritime zones. The result is a novel way of approaching Chinese history, argued from the perspective of a fresh understanding of China’s relations with neighbouring territories and the populations residing there, and of the nature of tradition and its persistence in the face of changing circumstances.

A Dog Before a Soldier
A Dog Before a Soldier

Author: Chuck Veit

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0557374979

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A collection of "almost lost" episodes from the U.S. Navy in the Civil War--most of which have lain hidden for 150 years. Navy spies, cattle raids, deep inland recons and shore assaults as well as a daunting battle on the far side of the planet--Civil War history you've never read before. Included in this new research is the story of Monitor's Unknown Mission; the first all-black Navy crew (months before the Emancipation Proclamation); and the solution to the riddle of the First Battle of Fort Butler. There are no "big name" battles here--just the story of the many critical roles played by the U.S. Navy, told through small-unit actions. After a century and a half, these stories are something new in Civil War history.

England's Islands in a Sea of Troubles
England's Islands in a Sea of Troubles

Author: David Cressy

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-10-30

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 019259852X

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England's Islands in a Sea of Troubles examines the jurisdictional disputes and cultural complexities in England's relationship with its island fringe from Tudor times to the eighteenth century, and traces island privileges and anomalies to the present. It tells a dramatic story of sieges and battles, pirates and shipwrecks, prisoners and prophets, as kings and commoners negotiated the political, military, religious, and administrative demands of the early modern state. The Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, Lundy, Holy Island and others emerge as important offshore outposts that long remained strange, separate, and perversely independent. England's islands were difficult to govern, and were prone to neglect, yet their strategic value far outweighed their size. Though vulnerable to foreign threats, their harbours and castles served as forward bases of English power. In civil war they were divided and contested, fought over and occupied. Jersey and the Isles of Scilly served as refuges for royalists on the run. Charles I was held on the Isle of Wight. External authority was sometimes light of touch, as English governments used the islands as fortresses, commercial assets, and political prisons. London was often puzzled by the linguistic differences, tangled histories, and special claims of island communities. Though increasingly integrated within the realm, the islands maintained challenging peculiarities and distinctive characteristics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, and the insights of maritime, military, and legal scholarship, this is an original contribution to social, cultural, and constitutional history.

Tides of History
Tides of History

Author: Michael S. Reidy

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-10-15

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0226709337

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In the first half of the nineteenth century, the British sought to master the physical properties of the oceans; in the second half, they lorded over large portions of the oceans’ outer rim. The dominance of Her Majesty’s navy was due in no small part to collaboration between the British Admiralty, the maritime community, and the scientific elite. Together, they transformed the vast emptiness of the ocean into an ordered and bounded grid. In the process, the modern scientist emerged. Science itself expanded from a limited and local undertaking receiving parsimonious state support to worldwide and relatively well financed research involving a hierarchy of practitioners. Analyzing the economic, political, social, and scientific changes on which the British sailed to power, Tides of History shows how the British Admiralty collaborated closely not only with scholars, such as William Whewell, but also with the maritime community —sailors, local tide table makers, dockyard officials, and harbormasters—in order to systematize knowledge of the world’s oceans, coasts, ports, and estuaries. As Michael S. Reidy points out, Britain’s security and prosperity as a maritime nation depended on its ability to maneuver through the oceans and dominate coasts and channels. The practice of science and the rise of the scientist became inextricably linked to the process of European expansion.

Cinnamon & Elephants
Cinnamon & Elephants

Author: Lodewijk Wagenaar

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9789460042836

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For more than 150 years from the conquest of Galle in 1640 to the British takeover in 1796 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the colonial ruler of the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was then known. The VOC first came to the island at the invitation of the monarch of the kingdom of Kandy, who enlisted the Companys help in expelling the Portuguese occupiers. But after providing their assistance and at last accomplishing their goal in 1658, the Dutch had no intention of leaving. Quite the contrary, in fact, and in the years that followed the VOC completely isolated its former ally King Raja Sinha II and his successors from the outside world. They were forced to look on in impotent rage while the all-powerful Company exported the islands cinnamon and elephants, refusing to share with the inland kingdom any profits from the countrys resources. Cinnamon & Elephants uses objects from the Rijksmuseum collection and illustrations from other institutions to tell the story of Dutch colonial rule of Sri Lanka and the relationship between the VOC and Kandy. Cinnamon & Elephants is part of the Rijksmuseum Country Series published by the museums History Department. Each book in the series uses objects in the Rijksmuseum collection to explore the shared history of the Netherlands and one of the following countries: Indonesia, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ghana, Suriname and Brazil.