Sailors in the Age of Steam

Sailors in the Age of Steam PDF Author: Ivan T. Luke (Jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 630

Get Book Here

Book Description
Technology is continually advancing. With each major step forward, users must decide whether to adopt the new technology or to continue using the old. A number of things can influence this choice, but for commercial technologies, economic self-interest is presumed to be the dominant factor. Commercially superior technologies are expected to replace their less-profitable predecessors quickly. Curiously, this did not happen when ocean-going steamships evolved to be more profitable than sailing ships in the 1870s. Some mariners persisted with commercial sail well into the twentieth century. Many explanations have been offered, but none fully account for the phenomenon. Philosopher Albert Borgmann provides a possible alternative interpretation. Borgmann suggests that at some deep, intuitive level, we humans sense that there are benefits in doing some things the hard way; that our lives are meaningfully enriched when we engage with technologies that demand significant time, skill, and commitment. He calls these focal things and practices. This study explores the possibility that the subtle allure of Borgmann's focal things and practices contributed to the persistence of commercial sail. The historical record of a select group of schoonermen is examined, mariners who chose to work under sail into the mid-twentieth century. Qualitative analysis reveals a positive correlation between their lived experiences and key indicia of Borgmann's focal things and practices. Other, more conventional explanations for their choices are examined and dismissed. A conclusion is reached that the attractive forces Borgmann ascribes to focal things and practices did play a role in these mariners' apparently counterintuitive choices. This finding adds weight to Borgmann's larger body of work and has implications for how humanity might deal with advancing technology in the future.

Sailors in the Age of Steam

Sailors in the Age of Steam PDF Author: Ivan T. Luke (Jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 630

Get Book Here

Book Description
Technology is continually advancing. With each major step forward, users must decide whether to adopt the new technology or to continue using the old. A number of things can influence this choice, but for commercial technologies, economic self-interest is presumed to be the dominant factor. Commercially superior technologies are expected to replace their less-profitable predecessors quickly. Curiously, this did not happen when ocean-going steamships evolved to be more profitable than sailing ships in the 1870s. Some mariners persisted with commercial sail well into the twentieth century. Many explanations have been offered, but none fully account for the phenomenon. Philosopher Albert Borgmann provides a possible alternative interpretation. Borgmann suggests that at some deep, intuitive level, we humans sense that there are benefits in doing some things the hard way; that our lives are meaningfully enriched when we engage with technologies that demand significant time, skill, and commitment. He calls these focal things and practices. This study explores the possibility that the subtle allure of Borgmann's focal things and practices contributed to the persistence of commercial sail. The historical record of a select group of schoonermen is examined, mariners who chose to work under sail into the mid-twentieth century. Qualitative analysis reveals a positive correlation between their lived experiences and key indicia of Borgmann's focal things and practices. Other, more conventional explanations for their choices are examined and dismissed. A conclusion is reached that the attractive forces Borgmann ascribes to focal things and practices did play a role in these mariners' apparently counterintuitive choices. This finding adds weight to Borgmann's larger body of work and has implications for how humanity might deal with advancing technology in the future.

Sailing Ships

Sailing Ships PDF Author: Carroll B. Colby
Publisher: Book Sales
ISBN: 9780698303010
Category : Sailing ships
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Get Book Here

Book Description
Describes the different types of sailing ships, their masts, sails, and riggings.

Warships from the Golden Age of Steam

Warships from the Golden Age of Steam PDF Author: David Ross
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782741534
Category : Naval history, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The great era of the steam warship was from the mid-1860s to the mid-1940s--an 80-year period in which a huge variety of large ships was built, ever-greater in size, fire-power, and technical sophistication. Capital ships were the most expensive and destructive weaponry prior to the atomic bomb, and their development can be traced decade by decade. Arranged in chronological order, Warships from the Golden Age of Steam provides concise coverage of the most famous warships of the period, including HMS Devastation, the first seagoing turreted ship; the Chinese Ting Yuen, sunk at the Battle of Wei-Hai-Wei in 1894; Mikasa and Retvizan, which fought each other at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1904; HMS Indomitable, Nassau, and HMS Lion, which all fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916; HMS Prince of Wales, which took part in the hunt for the Bismarck, and was eventually sunk by Japanese air attack off the coast of Malaya in December 1941; and the Tirpitz, which remained a constant threat to Allied shipping in the North Atlantic until it was sunk by aerial bombers in a Norwegian fjord in late 1944. Filled with colorful artworks, expertly-written background text, and useful specifications of 100 warships, Warships from the Golden Age of Steam is a visually lavish guide to major fighting ships from 1860 to 1945.

The Persistence of Sail in the Age of Steam

The Persistence of Sail in the Age of Steam PDF Author: Donna J. Souza
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489901396
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Archaeology Under Water (1966: 19), pioneer nautical archaeologist George Bass pointed out how much easier it is to train someone who is already an archaeologist to become a diver than to take trained divers and teach them to do archaeology. While this is 'generally true, there have also been occasions when well-trained and enthusiastic sport-divers have been willing to accept the train ing and discipline necessary to conduct good archaeological science, becoming first-rate scholars in the process. Dr. Donna Souza's book is the product of just such a transition. It shows how a sport-diver and volunteer fieldworker can proceed through a rigorous graduate program to achieve research results that are convincing in their own right and point toward new directions in the discipline as a whole. What is new in this book for maritime archaeology? Perhaps the most obvious and important feature of Dr. Souza's archaeological and historical analysis of the wreck at Pulaski Reef and its contemporaries in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, is the way it serves as a means to a larger end---namely an understanding of the social history of the transition from sail to steam in late nineteenth century maritime commerce in America. The relationship between changes in technology and culture is a classic theme in anthropology, and this study extends ~t theme into the domain of underwater archaeology.

French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914

French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914 PDF Author: Stephen S. Roberts
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1526745348
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1400

Get Book Here

Book Description
“This outstanding book will be essential for future studies of naval policy in the period between la Gloire and the Great War.” —The Naval Review This book is the first comprehensive listing in English of more than 1400 warships that were added to the official French navy fleet list between 1 January 1859 and World War I. It includes everything from the largest battleships to a small armoured gunboat that looked like a floating egg. Reflecting the main phases of naval policy, the ships are listed in three separate parts to keep contemporary designs together and then by ship type and class. For each class the book provides a design history explaining why the ships were built, substantial technical characteristics for the ships as completed and after major reconstructions, and selected career milestones including the ultimate fate of each ship. Following the earlier volumes written jointly with Rif Winfield, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786 and French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861, this trilogy now provides a complete picture of the development of French warships over a period of almost three centuries. “As a technical reference on the French ships of 1859 to 1914, this book is a must for the serious naval architecture student, modeler, or enthusiast. So much solid information is packed in this book, arranged logically, clearly and with so many illustrations, I cannot see where another volume on this subject can compete. Highly recommended!” —Nautical Research Journal “Superlatives abound in describing this book, arguably the finest naval ‘shiplist’ ever created.” —Warship International

Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam, Including Sailing Ships and Ships of War Lost in Action 1824-1962

Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam, Including Sailing Ships and Ships of War Lost in Action 1824-1962 PDF Author: C. Hocking
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


Sailor Talk

Sailor Talk PDF Author: Mary K. Bercaw Edwards
Publisher: Studies in Port and Maritime H
ISBN: 1800859651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates the highly engaging topic of the literary and cultural significance of 'sailor talk.' The central argument is that sailor talk offers a way of rethinking the figure of the nineteenth-century sailor and sailor-writer, whose language articulated the rich, layered, and complex culture of sailors in port and at sea. From this argument many other compelling threads emerge, including questions relating to the seafarer's multifaceted identity, maritime labor, questions of performativity, the ship as 'theater, ' the varied and multiple registers of 'sailor talk, ' and the foundational role of maritime language in the lives and works of Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, and Jack London. The book also includes nods to James Fenimore Cooper, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Meticulous scholarly research underpins the close readings of literary texts and the scrupulously detailed biographical accounts of three major sailor-writers. The author's own lived experience as a seafarer adds a refreshingly materialist dimension to the subtle literary readings. The book represents a valuable addition to a growing scholarly and political interest in the sea and sea literature. By taking the sailor's viewpoint and listening to sailors' voices, the book also marks a clear intervention in this developing field.

The Sail & Steam Navy List

The Sail & Steam Navy List PDF Author: David Lyon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781861760326
Category : Warships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
David Lyon's highly regarded Sailing Navy List detailed every Royal Navy warship of the age of sail by era ship type and class. This book is the much-anticipated follow-up volume. It provides details of design and construction history, technical specifications, and fates for all warships of the important but poorly documented period between 1815 and 1889, which saw the introduction of steam power and the gradual replacement of sail. Extensively illustrated, the new work includes a representative collection of original plans from the little seen collection at the British National Maritime Museum In addition, appendixes cover captured, purchased and hired vessels, as well as Coast Guard and packet vessels for which the Royal Navy was responsible. Rif Winfield ably brought this volume to fruition after David Lyon's death in 2000 and their final collaboration is sure to be treasured by historians as well as modelers for its detailed data and diagrams.

Dictionary of disasters at sea during the age of steam

Dictionary of disasters at sea during the age of steam PDF Author: Charles Hocking
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914

French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914 PDF Author: Stephen S Roberts
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1526745364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1859 the French navy was at a high point, having fought alongside the British in the Crimean War and developed a formidable fleet of fast wooden-hulled steam ships of the line. But in that very year the world’s navies had to start over again when French naval architect Dupuy de Lôme introduced the ironclad battleship. The French navy then went through three tumultuous phases. In the 1860s and 1870s it focused on building a new traditionally-structured fleet in which wooden-hulled battleships gave way to iron and steel ships with massive guns and armour. In the 1880s and 1890s this effort was disrupted by a vigorous contest between battleship sailors and advocates of fast steel cruisers and small torpedo craft, leaving France by the end of the 1890s with few new battleships (none as large as the best foreign ships) but some two hundred torpedo boats. The Fashoda crisis in 1898 revealed the weakness of the French navy and between 1900 and 1914 the French focused on building a strong battle fleet. In 1914 this fleet remained well behind those of Britain and Germany in numbers, but taken individually French warships remained among the best in the world. This book is the first comprehensive listing in English of the over 1400 warships that were added to the official French navy fleet list between 1 January 1859 and World War I. It includes everything from the largest battleships to a small armoured gunboat that looked like a floating egg. The ships are listed in three separate parts to keep contemporary ships together and then by ship type and class. For each class the book provides a design history explaining why the ships were built, substantial technical characteristics for the ships as completed and after major reconstructions, and selected career milestones including the ultimate fate of each ship. Like its predecessors written jointly with Rif Winfield, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786 and French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861, with which it forms the third in a trilogy, it provides a complete picture of the overall development of French warships over a period of almost three centuries.