| Overview | Seminars | Working Papers | Workshops || Newsletter | Site Map | Photo Album | Other Resources
Maritime History & Practical Seamanship - History 250
Timothy Walker
Boston University - Summer, 1999
Class Time: Fourteen Days Aboord Ship; Twelve at Sea
Location: Tall Ship Bounty, sailing from Boston Harbor
This intensive course will broadly survey the place and historical development
of sea power in the Atlantic World and beyond, focusing primarily on the role
of wooden ships during the early modem period in Europe and the Americas.
We will consider the various historical catalysts for European exploration
and colonization, which led to global trading networks, empires and an unprecedented
diffusion of cultures and technology. The class will explore maritime history
not only through the traditional means of specialized readings and lectures,
but also through hands-on training aboard a full-rigged wooden ship. Students
will learn by direct experience the arts of a tall-ship sailor and the interrelationship
between humans and the sea.
Number of participants: Up to thirty-six students, divided into into course
sections (18 each) and three ship's "watches" (12 each), and two
academic professors, each teaching his/her own course or section; as well
as the ship's usual complement of officers and crew.
Note: One professor could teach both sections of the history course but, because
of the three-\\'atch system and a 24- hour schedule, two different courses
could be taught simultaneously (although each student could only take one
intensive course at a time). This history course, for example, could be paired
with a maritime literature course.
Daily Routine: In a 24-hour period, students will have two hours of
academic instruction and stand two four-hour-long watches. Watches are divided
so that the students will have four hours on duty and eight hours off. During
their daily daylight watch period, the students will receive two hours of
structured lessons from members of the professional Bounty crew in
the blue water sailor's art: knots, line handling. working aloft, and the
like. The rest of watch time will be spent in performing the practical duties
required in running the ship. This leaves eight hours to eat and sleep, with
six hours' personal time daily for study and relaxing on the ship.
Morning Watch: 8:00-Noon; 20:00-Midnight
Noon Watch: Noon-16:00; Midnight-04:00
Mid Watch: 16:00-20:00; 04:00-08:00
Breakfast 07:30-08:30
Lunch: 11:30-12:30
Dinner: 17:30-18:30
Class times run from 10:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 16:00 daily (each student
will attend one class period).
Required texts, to be read BEFORE embarkation, are as follows:
1. J. H. Parry. The Establishment of The European Hegemony. 1415-1715.
2. Richard Henry Dana. A Seaman's Friend
3. Dava Sobel, Longitude.
4. John Keegan. The Price of Admirality: (Introduction and chapter
on the Battle of Trafalgar).
5. Sam McKinney. Bligh: A True Account of Mutiny Aboard His Majesty's Ship
Bounty.
In addition, students will receive photocopied selections from these texts
while on boord:
1. Samuel Elliot Morison, Sailor Historian. (Selected writings)
2. Herman Melville, Moby Dick and White Jacket or Richard Henry
Dana, Two Years Before the Mast.
3, Jeffrey Bolster, Blackjacks. Harvard University Press, 1997.
4. David Hancock. Citizens of the World. Harvard University) Press.
1996.
5. Hugh Thomas. The Slave Trade, Simon and Schuster. 1997.
Additional recommended readings:
1. A. J. R. Russell-Wood. A World on the Move.
2. C. R. Boxer. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire and The Dutch Seaborne
Empire.
3. J. H. Parry. The Spanish Seaborne Empire and The Age or Reconnaissance.
4. Greg Dening. Mister Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theatre
on the Bounty. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Course requirements. Your final grade will be based on six marks,
weighted as follows:
Two practical seamanship tests: 20%
Two academic short essay exams: 30%
Course Paper (Due three weeks after leaving the ship): 30%
Crew participation and performance: 20%
Term papers should be between ten and twelve pages. typed double-spaced. A
one-paragraph description of your topic and proposed sources, to be approved
by the instructor, will be due in class before the final exam. Term papers
will be due at the professor's office three weeks after the practical phase
of the course ends. In addition, your instructor considers personal participation
in and attendance to each lecture as essential to the education process. These
will be taken into consideration when calculating final grades.
Lecture Schedule and Reading Assignments
Day 1 Lecture: A Wooden World -- Introduction to the Age of Sail.
Watch Session: Ship Orientation; Communication and Orders; Safety Drills;
Basic Knots and Line Handling.
Day 2. Lecture: Maritime Technology: Development of Ship Design and the Navigational
Arts, 1400-1800.
Watch Session: Learning the Ropes: Memorizing the Rig; Working and Belaying
Lines; Terminology.
Day 3 Lecture: Age of Discoveries: Religious, Political and Economic Motivation;
Early Ports and Trade Routes. Watch Session: Working Aloft: Climbing. Reefing,
Furling and Gaskets. Learning Knots and Lines II.
Day 4 Lecture: The Voyages of Columbus, Da Gama and Magellan: Impact and Cultural
Exchange.
Watch Session: Compass and Chart: Introduction to the Arts of Navigation.
Day 5 Lecture: From the Armada to Trafalgar: War at Sea during the Age of
Sail.
Watch Session: Helmsman's Duties: Compass and Course; Steering; Calculating
Speed (Log & Line).
Day 6 Lecture: Wooden Walls: Mercantilist Theory; Colonies and Empires; National
Defense by Sea. (Exam I) Watch Session: Dead Reckoning: The Arts of Navigation
II.
Day 7 Lecture: The Atlantic World: Impact of Triangular Trade between Europe,
Africa and the Americas. Watch Session: Sail Theory and Sail Plan Combinations.
(Port Stop)
Day 8 Lecture: Seaborne Empires I: Spain and Portugal; Opening the Far East.
Watch Session: Evolutions: Tacking, Wearing and Boxhauling.
Day 9 Lecture: Seaborne Empires II: Britain, France and The Netherlands.
Watch Session: Rigging Work: Splicings, Whippings and Seizings.
Day 10 Lecture: Black Jacks and Slavers: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Watch
Session: Practical Seamanship Test I.
Day 11 Lecture: Life at Sea: The Popular Culture of Mariners; Piracy in the
Atlantic World.
Watch Session: Brightwork and Holystone: Keeping the Topsides Tidy!
Day 12 Lecture: The Mutiny on the Bounty; Fletcher Christian and Captain
Bligh. .
Watch Session: Basic Daily Engine Room Maintenance.
Dav 13 Lecture: Salem Merchantmen: Early American Trade Voyages; The Columbia.
(Exam II) .
Watch Session: Rigging Tune-up and Overhaul.
Day 14 Lecture: Clipper Ships, Ironclads and Steam: The End of the Age of
Sail.
Watch Session: Practical Seamanship Test II.
© 2002 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Created November 2002.