In her book Cornish Wrecking, Cathryn Pearce relates an incident from 1755 in which Customs Officers opened fire on a pilchard sloop caught in the act of fishing two casks of brandy out of the water. The sloop fled, but was intercepted at the quay, where combat continued and blood was spilled. It emerged, however, […]
Tag Archives | coastal history
The Coastal History Blog 17: “Iain McCalman’s Great Barrier Reef”
In 1925, J. Stanley Gardiner, a Cambridge don and fisheries expert, made a public statement of regret that the Great Barrier Reef existed. “It is the greatest pity in the world,” he told the Royal Geographical Society, “… a tragedy so far as the people of Queensland are concerned.” Gardiner explained that the reef was […]
The Coastal History Blog 16: “The Pious Coast”
When my father was seventeen years old, he lied about his age and joined the U.S. Merchant Marine. He got a lowly job in the engine room (his official job title was “wiper”) and spent several years as the misfit sailor who haunted used book shops in every port. He was one of those working-class […]
British Pathé Archive: An invaluable resource for historical port town research
Earlier this month British Pathé created an invaluable resource for historians and the digital humanities when they released their entire archive of 85,000 historical films and newsreels on to their new YouTube channel. In a press release Alastair White, General Manager of British Pathé, said “Our hope is that everyone, everywhere who has a computer will […]
The Coastal History Blog 15: Imperial Russia Salutes Its Navy
Today, I’m happy to introduce The Coastal History blog’s first guest post. Julia Leikin is a Ph.D. candidate at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Recent events involving Russia and Ukraine have prompted many op-ed pieces and impromptu reflections on lessons from the past. Some commentators have drawn attention to Russia’s religious […]
The Coastal History Blog 14: On Serendipity in Research
I’m writing today in response to Glen O’Hara’s recent blog post, “What about the Silence in the Archive?” Glen visited the National Archives of the United States in search of American commentary on British water policy. The short version is that he discovered U.S. bureaucrats had a lot to say on everyone’s water policy (the […]
