Sailors and Traders: A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples

Alastair Couper

Open Access Published by University of Hawaii Press 2008

Sailors and Traders

A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples

Alastair Couper

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824864231

Overview
Contents

About this book

Written by a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Like all others who live and work at sea, Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death.

The period of prehistoric seafaring is discussed using archaeological data, interpretations from interisland exchanges, experimental voyaging, and recent DNA analysis. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded interisland shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages.

The book’s final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer. Most Pacific sailors in the global maritime labor market return home after many months at sea, bringing money, goods, a wider perspective of the world, and sometimes new diseases. Each of these impacts is analyzed, particularly in the case of Kiribati, a major supplier of labor to foreign ships.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Nautical Glossary and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: A Seafaring Perspective Open Access Download PDF	1
Chapter one. Sailors, Myths, and Traditions Open Access Download PDF	6
Chapter two. The First Pacific Seafarers Open Access Download PDF	22
Chapter three. Settlements, Territories, and Trade Open Access Download PDF	43
Chapter four. The Arrival of Foreign Ships Open Access Download PDF	60
Chapter five. Pacific Commercial Shipowners Open Access Download PDF	75
Chapter six. Under Foreign Sail Open Access Download PDF	100
Chapter seven. Dangers, Mutinies, and the Law Open Access Download PDF	118
Chapter eight. Companies, Colonies, and Crewing Open Access Download PDF	136
Chapter nine. Island Protests and Enterprises Open Access Download PDF	150
Chapter ten. Contemporary Local and Regional Shipping Open Access Download PDF	165
Chapter eleven. The Global Pacific Seafarer Open Access Download PDF	186
Epilogue: Some Contemporary Resonances Open Access Download PDF	207
Notes Open Access Download PDF	209
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	237
Index Open Access Download PDF	253

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Illustrations
- Other: 9 illus., 2 maps

eBook

Published: December 9, 2008
ISBN: 9780824864231