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This book explores the tenuous existence of seafarers, divided between their time on the ocean and their residence in sailortown economies geared to exploit them. Particular attention is given both to the contribution of seafarers as a global workforce into the nineteenth century, and to their help in creating vibrant multicultural enclaves in port cities worldwide. In addition, research explores the scandalized opinions of outside observers, challenging ideas about public behavior and relationships. Sailortown myths persisted far into the twentieth century, to the detriment of older waterfront districts and their residents, and readers will find this book is invaluable in casting new light on forgotten communities, whose lives bridged urban, maritime and global histories.
List of contents
1. Introduction. - i. Literatures, entanglements and spaces. - ii. Voices. - iii. Sailortowns in time and space: A brief tour. - 2. The seafarer in the age of sail. - i. Representing the seafarer. - ii. Mobility, identity and markets. - iii. Working in a peculiar industry. - iv. Choices. - 3. The maritime-urban frontier. - i. Sailortown and the Victorian urban crisis. - ii. Sailortown and the cosmopolitan port city. - iii. Sailortown's streets. - iv. Spaces of enticement. - v. Threats and dangers. - vi. Imagined places. - 4. Crimps and crimping. - i. The mythic crimp. - iii. Controlling spaces. - iv. Depredations. - v. Crimps and market power. - 5. Visions of home. - i. Family lives. - ii. The seamen's boarding-house. - iii. Sailors' Homes. - iv. Missions to seamen. - v. Institutional landscapes. - 6. The state in sailortown. - i. The war on desertion. - ii. Regulating the spaces of crimping. - iii. 'Government crimping'. - iv. Documents, identities and the global subaltern. - v.Public health and sailortown's sexual entanglements. - 7. Legacies: Sailortown in the twentieth century. - i. Race and place on the waterfront. - ii. War, Depression, and the welfare of seafarers. - Conclusion. - Sources and Bibliography
About the author
Graeme J. Milne is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Liverpool, UK. He works on urban, maritime and economic history, and is the author of
North East England, 1850-1914 (2006) and
Trade and Traders in mid-Victorian Liverpool(2000).
Summary
This book explores the tenuous existence of seafarers, divided between their time on the ocean and their residence in sailortown economies geared to exploit them. Particular attention is given both to the contribution of seafarers as a global workforce into the nineteenth century, and to their help in creating vibrant multicultural enclaves in port cities worldwide. In addition, research explores the scandalized opinions of outside observers, challenging ideas about public behavior and relationships. Sailortown myths persisted far into the twentieth century, to the detriment of older waterfront districts and their residents, and readers will find this book is invaluable in casting new light on forgotten communities, whose lives bridged urban, maritime and global histories.
Additional text
“This book provides the reader with a thorough, detailed and nuanced understanding of sailortown during the nineteenth century. … Milne’s book shines a light on a much under-researched area that has fallen between the historical sub-themes of maritime and urban history. … Milne has produced a book which will undoubtedly become an important contribution to both urban and maritime history.” (Brad Beaven, The International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 29 (3), August, 2017)
Report
"This book provides the reader with a thorough, detailed and nuanced understanding of sailortown during the nineteenth century. ... Milne's book shines a light on a much under-researched area that has fallen between the historical sub-themes of maritime and urban history. ... Milne has produced a book which will undoubtedly become an important contribution to both urban and maritime history." (Brad Beaven, The International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 29 (3), August, 2017)
