Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Singapore, Chinese migration and the making of the British Empire, 1819-67 / Stan Neal. "The transformation of Singapore, founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819, from a trading post to a major centre for international trade was a huge commercial and colonial success for Britain. One key factor in all of this was the recruitment of Chinese migrant labour, which by the 1850s made up over half of the population. The transformation, however, was not limited to Singapore. As this book demonstrates, colonial administrators saw that the "model" of what had been done in Singapore, especially the use of Chinese migrant labour, could be replicated elsewhere. This book examines the establishment of the "Singapore model" and its transference - to Assam in India, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Mauritius, Australia and the West Indies. It examines the role of the key people who developed the model, including the Hong Kong merchant houses and their financial expertise, discusses central ideas which lay behind the model, notably free trade and the use of "industrious" Chinese rather than "lazy" natives, and assesses the varying outcomes of the different colonial experiments. The themes discussed - economic opportunities and globalisation; the need to find labour without recourse to slavery, indentured labour or convict labour; migration, ethnicity and racism - all continue to have great significance at present, as does the idea that Singapore, still, is a model to be replicated more widely."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941-44(592.3)

We are one : the War of 1812: The Battles for St. Michaels, Maryland August 10 & 26, 1813 "Welcome to August 10, 1813, in the little town of St. Michaels, Maryland. On this hot, dark morning the feared British Navy attacked the town of three hundred, defended by local militia. This book tells the story of that attack and a subsequent attempt on August 26. We also look at the life of our citizens at that time and the lasting impact of this war in the Chesapeake Bay."--The preface. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.48"1812/1815"(42:73)

Steam Power and Sea Power : Coal, the Royal Navy, and the British Empire, c. 1870-1914 /Steven Gray. "This book examines how the expansion of a steam-powered Royal Navy from the second half of the nineteenth century had wider ramifications across the British Empire. In particular, it considers how steam propulsion made vessels utterly dependent on a particular resource - coal - and its distribution around the world. In doing so, it shows that the 'coal question' was central to imperial defence and the protection of trade, requiring the creation of infrastructures that spanned the globe. This infrastructure required careful management, and the processes involved show the development of bureaucracy and the reliance on the 'contractor state' to ensure this was both robust and able to allow swift mobilisation in war. The requirement to stop regularly at foreign stations also brought men of the Royal navy into contact with local coal heavers, as well as indigenous populations and landscapes. These encounters and their dissemination are crucial to our understanding of imperial relationships and imaginations at the height of the imperial age."--Provided by the publisher. 2018 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.45(42):662.66

Ship of Death : the tragedy of the 'Emigrant' /Jane Margaret Smith ; [with a foreword by Kerry O'Brien]. When 276 poor British emigrants sail away from Plymouth on the ship 'Emigrant' in April 1850, seeking a better life in Australia, they know nothing of the ordeal that lies ahead. For four terrible months at sea they endure cramped and squalid conditions, insufferable heat, bitter cold ... and a mounting death toll from the dreaded disease that rages through the ship: typhus. When the 'Emigrant' arrives in Moreton Bay, the nightmare continues. For three long months in quarantine at Stradbroke Island, the immigrants' hopes are raised and dashed, and raised and dashed again. Impeccably researched and poignantly told, 'Ship of Death' unfurls the true saga of the ill-fated voyage, quarantine and aftermath. For the first time, this stunning book reveals the human stories of some key players in the drama - their backgrounds, their suffering, and their fates - and in doing so, brings to life a remarkable journey common to many of Australia's early settlers. Their stories are tales of hardship, resilience, courage and despair. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.2(94)EMIGRANT

The globetrotter : Victorian excursions in India, China and Japan /Amy Miller. The fascinating story of the first generation of 'Globetrotters' - leisure tourists with a keen interest in experiencing authentic culture, brought to life with first hand accounts and beautiful illustrations of the views and artefacts of their travels. In the mid-nineteenth century, as new routes opened up, a new generation of travellers embarked on excursions to India, China and Japan. Globetrotters - leisure tourists with a keen interest in experiencing authentic culture - flocked to the East, casting aside preconceptions and gravitating towards what they hoped to be the unchanged landscapes and traditions of Eastern cultures. The relics of their travels - the food they consumed and the souvenirs they brought back - allowed globetrotters to distinguish themselves from common tourists. They proudly returned with accounts that presented a global East, challenging public assumptions about the cultures they had visited and charting a journey of self-transformation through travel. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.4819094109034

Privateering : patriots and profits in the War of 1812 /Faye M. Kert. "During the War of 1812, most clashes on the high seas involved privately owned merchant ships, not official naval vessels. Licensed by their home governments and considered key weapons of maritime warfare, these ships were authorized to attack and seize enemy traders. Once the prizes were legally condemned by a prize court, the privateers could sell off ships and cargo and pocket the proceeds. Because only a handful of ship-to-ship engagements occurred between the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, it was really the privateers who fought-and won-the war at sea. In Privateering, Faye M. Kert introduces readers to U.S. and Atlantic Canadian privateers who sailed those skirmishing ships, describing both the rare captains who made money and the more common ones who lost it. Some privateers survived numerous engagements and returned to their pre-war lives; others perished under violent circumstances. Kert demonstrates how the romantic image of pirates and privateers came to obscure the dangerous and bloody reality of private armed warfare. Building on two decades of research, Privateering places the story of private armed warfare within the overall context of the War of 1812. Kert highlights the economic, strategic, social, and political impact of privateering on both sides and explains why its toll on normal shipping helped convince the British that the war had grown too costly. Fascinating, unfamiliar, and full of surprises, this book will appeal to historians and general readers alike."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 341.362.1(73)"18"

Letters of seamen in the wars with France, 1793-1815 edited by Helen Watt and Anne Hawkins. "Letters of seamen below the rank of commissioned officer are rare, both in original form and in print. This edited collection of 255 letters, written by seamen in the British Navy and their correspondents between 1793 and 1815, gives voice to a group of men whose lives and thoughts are otherwise mostly unknown. The letters are extremely valuable for the insights which they give into aspects of life below decks and the subjects close to the writers' hearts: money matters, ties with home and homesickness. They also provide eye-witness accounts of events during a tumultuous and important period of British and European history. One group of letters, included as a separate section, comprises the letters of seamen and their family and friends which were intercepted by the authorities during the mutinies of 1797. These letters shed a great deal of light on the extraordinary events of that year and of seamen's attitudes to the mutinies. The editors' introductory material, besides highlighting what the letters tell us about seamen's lives and attitudes, also discusses the extent of literacy amongst seamen, setting this into its wider contemporary popular context. The letters are supported by a substantial editorial apparatus and two detailed appendices containing biographies of seamen and information on select ships which took part in the mutinies of 1797."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 940.2

An account of experiments to determine the specific gravities of fluids : thereby to obtain the strength of spirituous liquors : together with some remarks on a paper entitled, the best method of proportioning the excise upon spirituous liquors, lately printed in the Philosophical Transactions /by J. Ramsden. Ramsden, J.-(Jesse), 1792. • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 528.56:094

Address of the right honourable the Earl of Rosse, &c. &c. &c., the president : read at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society on Friday, November 30, 1849 Rosse, William Parsons,-Earl of, 1850 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 5:094

An essay on cycloidal curves, with introductory observations Davison, T Apr 1800 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:514.144.14

Scientific correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1765-1820 / edited by Neil Chambers. Banks, Joseph, 2007. • BOOK • 6 copies available. 92:5

Squadron : ending the African slave trade /John Broich. "The true account of the British Royal Navy's campaign to put an end to the African slave trade once and for all Despite the British being early abolitionists, a significant slave trade remained down the east coast of Africa through the mid-1800s. What further undermined the British Empire was that many of the vessels involved in the trade were themselves British ships. The Royal Navy's response was to dispatch a squadron to patrol Africa's coast. Following what began as a simple policing action, this is the story of the four Royal Naval officers who witnessed how rampant the slave trade remained and made it their personal mission to end it. When the disruption of the trade ships started to step on the toes of the wealthy merchant class, the campaign was cancelled. However, in the end a coalition of naval officers and abolitionists forced the British government's hand into eradicating the slave trade entirely. Squadron grew from historian John Broich's passion to hunt down first-hand accounts of this untold story. Through research from archives throughout the UK, Broich tells a tale of defiance in the face of political corruption, while delivering thrills in the tradition of high-seas heroism. If it weren't a true story, Squadron would be right at home alongside Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.8

Slave trade profiteers in the Western Indian Ocean : suppression and resistance in the nineteenth century /Hideaki Suzuki. "This book examines how slave traders interacted with and resisted the British suppression campaign in the nineteenth-century western Indian Ocean. By focusing on the transporters, buyers, sellers, and users of slaves in the region, the book traces the many links between slave trafficking and other types of trade. Drawing upon first-person slave accounts, travelogues, and archival sources, it documents the impact of abolition on Zanzibar politics, Indian merchants, East African coastal urban societies, and the entirety of maritime trade in the region. Ultimately, this ground-breaking work uncovers how western Indian Ocean societies experienced the slave trade suppression campaign as a political intervention, with important implications for Indian Ocean history and the history of the slave trade."--Provided by the publisher. 2017 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1(267)

China bound : John Swire & Sons and its world, 1816-1980 /Robert Bickers. "From its origins in Liverpool in 1816, one unusual British firm has threaded a way through two centuries that have seen tumultuous events and epochal transformations in technologies and societies. John Swire & Sons, a small trading company that began by importing dyes, cotton and apples from the Americas, now directs a highly diversified group of interests operating across the globe but with a core focus on Asia. From 1866 its fate was intertwined with developments in China, with the story of steam, and later of flight, and with the movements of people and of goods that made the modern world. China Bound charts the story of the firm, its family owners and staff, its operations, its successes and its disasters, as it endured wars, uprisings and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires - China's, Britain's, Japan's and the twists and turns of the global economy. This is the story of a business that reshaped Hong Kong, developed Cathay Pacific Airways, dominated China's pre-Second World War shipping industry, and helped pioneer containerization. Robert Bickers remarkable new book is the history of a business, and of its worlds, of modern China, Britain, and of the globalization that entangled them, of compradors, ship-owners, and seamen, sugar travellers, tea-tasters, and stuff merchants, revolutionaries, pirates and Taipans. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in global commerce, China Bound provides an intimate history that helps explain the shape of Asia today."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.0922

HMS Terror / Matthew Betts. "In the summer of 1845, Sir John Franklin and a crew of 128 men entered Lancaster Sound on board HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of a Northwest Passage. The sturdy former bomb ships were substantially strengthened and fitted with the latest technologies for polar service and, at the time, were the most advanced sailing vessels developed for Polar exploration. Both ships, but especially HMS Terror, had already proven their capabilities in the Arctic and Antarctic. With such sophisticated, rugged, and successful vessels, victory over the Northwest Passage seemed inevitable, yet the entire crew vanished, and the ships were never seen again by Europeans. Finally, in 2014, the wreck of HMS Erebus was discovered by Parks Canada. Two years later, the wreck of HMS Terror was found, sitting upright, in near pristine condition. The extraordinarily well-preserved state and location of the ships, so far south of their last reported position, raises questions about the role they played in the tragedy. Did the extraordinary capabilities of the ships in fact contribute to the disaster? Never before has the Franklin Mystery been comprehensively examined through the lens of its sailing technology. This book documents the history, design, modification, and fitting of HMS Terror, one of the world?s most successful polar exploration vessels. Part historical narrative and part technical design manual, this book provides, for the first time, a complete account of Terror's unique career, as well as an assessment of her sailing abilities in polar conditions, a record of her design specifications, and a full set of accurate plans of her final 1845 configuration. Based on meticulous historical research, the book details the ship's every bolt and belaying pin, and ends with the discovery and identification of the wreck in 2016, explaining how the successes and ice-worthiness of Terror may have contributed to the Franklin disaster itself. It is an ideal reference for those interested in the Franklin Mystery, in polar exploration, the Royal Navy, and in ship design and modelling." -- Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82TERROR

Captured at sea : merchant ships captured in the south west seas of Britain in the time of Napoleon 1803-1815 /Colin R. Rees & Professor Peter Clark. "During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815 many British merchant ships were captured and their crews were imprisoned in France. The book gives a brief background of Napoleon and his war with Britain, and also the activity of the other ocuntries which upset much of British shipping at that time. The book has concentrated on the ships sailing in and out of ports in the South West seas of Britain, carrying essential cargo to British ports. Naturally, the French wanted to capture these British merchant ships. The authors who greatly assisted in finding the name of many captured ships and their captains through The Cambrian. This newspaper, which started in 1803 in Swansea and had a shipping column each Friday received knowledge of captured ships and some of those which managed to escape. There are first-hand records, written by some of these sailors, which have graphic descriptions of their hazardous voyage at sea, and their capture and imprisonment. Intensive research has revealed many details of the French prisons and their location where the men were marched to in remote parts of France, and how the men survived there. As a result of many ships being captured by the French, with extravagant loss of men's lives and vessels, the British Government made it law for ships to sail in convoys. At the same time French prisoners and later the American prisoners of war (after the War of Independence) were being sent to the Dartmoor Priston in Britain. Thers is a detailed account of that prison in this book."--Provided by the publisher. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

Bonded histories : genealogies of labor servitude in colonial India /Gyan Prakash. "To the modern world, the notions that freedom is an innate condition of human beings and that money possesses the power to bind people appear as natural facts. Bonded Histories traces the historical processes by which these notions became established as dominant discourses in India during colonial rule and continued into post-colonial India. Gyan Prakash locates the formulation of these discourses in the history of bonded labour in southern Bihar. He focuses on the emergence and subsequent transformation of the relationship of reciprocal power and dependence between landlords and labourers. The author explores the way in which these transformations were connected with broader shifts in the political economy of this part of the subcontinent; with the changing structures of agricultural production, land tenure and revenue demand; with local social hierarchies and the ideology of castes; and with Hindu cosmologies, spirit cults and their articulation in ritual practices."--Publisher description. 2002. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.363095412

Distant freedom : St Helena and the abolition of the slave trade, 1840-1872 /Andrew Pearson. "This book is an examination of the island of St Helena's involvement in slave trade abolition. After the establishment of a British Vice-Admiralty court there in 1840, this tiny and remote South Atlantic colony became the hub of naval activity in the region. It served as a base for the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, and as such became the principal receiving depot for intercepted slave ships and their human cargo. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century over 25,000 'recaptive' or 'liberated' Africans were landed at the island. Here, in embryonic refugee camps, these former slaves lived and died, genuine freedom still a distant prospect. This book provides an account and evaluation of this episode. It begins by charting the political contexts which drew St Helena into the fray of abolition, and considers how its involvement, at times, came to occupy those at the highest levels of British politics. In the main, however, it focuses on St Helena itself, and examines how matters played out on the ground. The study utilises documentary sources (many previously untouched) which tell the stories of those whose lives became bound up in the compass of anti-slavery, far from London and long after the Abolition Act of 1807. It puts the Black experience at the foreground, aiming to bring a voice to a forgotten people, many of whom died in limbo, in a place that was physically and conceptually between freedom and slavery."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/6209973

Observations on the zodiacal light : from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, made chiefly on board the United States steam-frigate Mississippi, during her late cruise in eastern seas, and her voyage homeward : with conclusions from the data thus obtained /by George Jones Jones, George, 1856. • RARE-FOLIO • 1 copy available. 910.4(520:73):094

The commencement of the nineteenth century, determined upon unerring principles Mackay, Andrew 1800 • RARE-PAMPH • 1 copy available. 529 MAC

The poetical works of Richard Glover Glover, Richard 1800? • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 820-1

The periplus of the Erythrean Sea Vincent, William 1800 • RARE-FOLIO • 1 copy available. 094:527.83(267)

The naval history of Great Britain / W. M. James ; new introductions by Andrew Lambert. James, William, 2001. • BOOK • 6 copies available. 355.49"1793/1827"(42)

Slavery, geography and empire in nineteenth-century marine landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica / Charmaine A. Nelson. "Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica is among the first Slavery Studies books - and the first in Art History - to juxtapose temperate and tropical slavery. Charmaine A. Nelson explores the central role of geography and its racialized representation as landscape art in imperial conquest. One could easily assume that nineteenth-century Montreal and Jamaica were worlds apart, but through her astute examination of marine landscape art, the author re-connects these two significant British island colonies, sites of colonial ports with profound economic and military value. Through an analysis of prints, illustrated travel books, and maps, the author exposes the fallacy of their disconnection, arguing instead that the separation of these colonies was a retroactive fabrication designed in part to rid Canada of its deeply colonial history as an integral part of Britain's global trading network which enriched the motherland through extensive trade in crops produced by enslaved workers on tropical plantations. The first study to explore James Hakewill's Jamaican landscapes and William Clark's Antiguan genre studies in depth, it also examines the Montreal landscapes of artists including Thomas Davies, Robert Sproule, George Heriot and James Duncan. Breaking new ground, Nelson reveals how gender and race mediated the aesthetic and scientific access of such - mainly white, male - artists. She analyzes this moment of deep political crisis for British slave owners (between the end of the slave trade in 1807 and complete abolition in 1833) who employed visual culture to imagine spaces free of conflict and to alleviate their pervasive anxiety about slave resistance. Nelson explores how vision and cartographic knowledge translated into authority, which allowed colonizers to 'civilize' the terrains of the so-called New World, while belying the oppression of slavery and indigenous displacement."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1

Explore our Collection