Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "maritime"

Evening Gray Morning Red by Rick Spilman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Being the only man aboard who knows how to navigate, Thomas Larkin is voted by the crew to take them to Massachusetts after the captain dies at sea. It is a lonesome and frightening experience, but also a challenging one for a sixteen year old who began the journey as an able seaman. With the help of John Stevens, the bosun and a former privateer nearly twice his age, Thom gets them safely home. They are greeted by an undercurrent of dissatisfaction mixed with anger, for the Crown expects the colonies to pay for debts England accrued during the war. The presence of the British warship anchored in the harbor merely aggravates the tense situation in 1768.

While Thom and Johnny celebrate their homecoming, as well as new jobs on a forthcoming cruise, a press gang invades the tavern. Johnny escapes, but Thom is swept up and taken aboard HMS Romney. Feeling honor bound to save his young friend and knowing he can’t do so ashore, Johnny volunteers to join the Royal Navy. After taking the king’s shilling, he realizes escaping the ship is nigh impossible. To complicate the situation, Thom seethes with anger at being denied his freedom and Lieutenant William Dudingston is an arrogant man who hates colonials.

Patience and observation provide an opportunity to escape, but the arrival of a fleet of British warships intervenes and instead of getting away, the Romney weighs anchor and heads south for the Caribbean. Five arduous months fraught with challenges and dangers, both on deck and at sea, finally present a new chance to desert during a brewing tempest. Yet freedom fails to lift the haunting weight Thom has carried with him during the voyage. Sooner or later he will once again encounter his nemesis, Dudingston, of this he has no doubt.

Gripping nautical and historical fiction at its best, Evening Gray Morning Red is really two different books that span four years. The first half focuses on the pressing and escape, while the second presents a tantalizing depiction of the historical confrontation between the packet boat Hannah and the Royal Navy Schooner Gaspee off Namquid Point, Rhode Island – an event that united the colonies and was a precursor to the American Revolution. Spilman deftly brings the period, people, and situation to life in a way that a history can never achieve. While there are occasional misspellings, missing words, or too many words, none of these diminish the excitement, anger, or fomenting rebellion that marked the actual event. From first page to last, he whisks readers back in time to stand beside Thom and Johnny and experience all the emotions and intrigue they do. When the back cover closes, it’s like leaving good friends. You miss being with them, but the voyage was more exciting and fulfilling than you ever imagined. Highly recommended.




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The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch by Gill Hoffs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Water and fire. Two elements – one of which will extinguish the other – except when the fire is aboard a wooden ship and the water is all around her. Then you are faced with little hope for escape and must decide whether to drown or burn to death.

This was the tragedy nearly 400 men, women, and children – seventy of whom were under the age of 14 – faced the day they set sail from Liverpool, England that fateful day in August 1848. Within a few hours, their ship sank off the coast of Llandudno, Wales.

The Ocean Monarch was bound for Boston and built by Donald McKay just the year before. She had three decks and was considered far safer than the coffin ships that carried many immigrants. Life boats weren’t required, although a couple were carried. What firefighting equipment she had consisted of a dozen buckets and a water pump that wasn’t up to snuff. By the time the fire was discovered, there was little anyone could do and nowhere for most people to go until other ships arrived to help.

Those who boarded the Ocean Monarch came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were Irish emigrants seeking a new homeland. Others were tourists returning from their travels. A handful possessed money and stature. The majority worked for a living or were penniless. Nearly half of them would not survive. A number of the passengers are introduced by name and followed as events unfold, such as the Dows, who were newly married; Nathaniel Southworth, a well-known miniaturist; James Fellows, a watchmaker and jeweler; and Thomas Henry, who expressly waited to sail on this ship because he knew her captain. There was also a man who abandoned his wife to run off with another man’s wife. Others are mentioned for something they did, such as a stewardess, whose name is unknown, who sacrificed her life to prevent gunpowder from exploding which would have made the tragedy even worse.

But this is more than just the story of those aboard the burning ship. It is also about her rescuers, including members of the Brazilian navy, exiled French royalty, and a man who had rescued people from another shipwreck. One of the captains had even served under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. Then there are the pilots and a rumor of a possible murder.

In twelve chapters, Hoffs explores events and people before, during, and after the fire. She includes some black-and-white photographs, an epilogue, and personal note, as well as appendices that provide a chronology of the corpses and details about them, locations of grave sites and inquests, and a list of medals. In addition, there is a list of names of passengers, stewards, stewardesses, the captain and crew, and some who were aboard other vessels and came to the doomed ship’s aid. A select bibliography and index complete the text. Interspersed throughout the narrative are firsthand accounts and newspaper reports of what happened that day and in the days that followed.

What becomes clear in reading this story is that this travesty need not have been as horrific as it ended up being and that despite the passing of more than a century and a half, there still is no concrete proof as to how the fire started. In explaining how she came to write this story, Hoffs also demonstrates the role social behavior played in the events. She deftly shows the chaos and confusion that resulted from the fire, and her words paint a gruesome image of what the victims endured. (She does include a warning note of what pages to skip for readers who might be squeamish.) Rather than focus on just the microcosm of the ship, she elaborates on what was happening in the world at the time. Yet she also leaves readers with many questions that were never clearly answered by the inquests or investigators. By the end of the book, she does share that her research enabled her to identify six nameless victims and what happened to known survivors.

Perhaps not as gripping a tale as Hoffs’ earlier book, The Lost Story of the William & Mary, nor as clear-cut as to why the Ocean Monarch is a “lost” tale, The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch is still an important contribution to collections focusing on shipwrecks and emigrant stories.




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Tudor and Stuart Seafarers: The Emergence of a Maritime Nation, 1485-1707 by James Davey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In conjunction with the opening of a new gallery at the National Maritime Museum, this book highlights some of the many artifacts found in the Tudor and Stuart Seafarers Gallery and explores key aspects of seafaring during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to Dr. Kevin Fewster, the Director of the Royal Museums Greenwich, “By looking anew at events like the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the English settlement of North America, some familiar misconceptions might be overturned and difficult moments in the nation’s past be brought into sharper focus.” (7) Until the late 1500s, England’s primary focus was on itself. Only after this point in time did the English expand outward in search of opportunities and adventure.

The exhibit encompasses the years 1485 through 1707, and shows the changes to and effects on ships and seafarers. At the same it demonstrates how sea exploration and colonial expansion impacted trade, warfare, policy, art, music, and popular culture to forge a national identity. Initial territorial and economic expansion, which became exceedingly important after 1550, was principally wrought by individuals rather than backed by the government.

Twelve chapters examine England’s evolution into a maritime nation during this period of 222 years.

• ‘New Worlds’: 1485-1505 by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
• Adventurers: England Turns to the Sea, 1550-80 by James Davey
• The Spanish Armada and England’s Conflict with Spain, 1585-1604 by David Scott
• Building a Navy by J. D. Davies
• Using the Seas and Skies: Navigation in Early-Modern England by Megan Barford and Louise Devoy
• Encounter and Exploitation: The English Colonization of North America, 1585-1615 by Laura Humphreys
• Of Profit and Loss: The Trading World of Seventeenth-Century England by Robert J. Blyth
• The British Civil Wars, 1638-53 by Elaine Murphy
• Life at Sea by Richard J. Blakemore
• The Seventeenth-Century Anglo-Dutch Wars by Rebecca Rideal
• A Sea of Scoundrels: Pirates of the Stuart Era by Aaron Jaffer
• Art and the Maritime World, 1550-1714 by Christine Riding

Complimenting each chapter are objects from the museum’s collection – charts, paintings, artifacts, ship models, and publications – that provide insightful glimpses into the topic being discussed. Some illustrations merit double-page spreads; all pictures are in full color. Captions identify these objects, but these aren’t always enlightening. For example, a teapot is labeled as being late 17th century, but readers are left to wonder why this particular teapot was selected and what its provenance is.

The contributors are identified as “twelve leading scholars” in the introduction and are quite knowledgeable about their subjects, but no biographical credentials are included for readers seeking to know more about the writers. (12)

The gallery’s patron and the museum’s director provide forewords to the book and the editor pens both the introduction and one of the essays. Notes, a bibliography, and an index conclude the book. In between and woven throughout the chapters are boxed highlights of people whose impact on English maritime history should be known, but may not be. Some names are well known, such as Tisquantum (Squanto), William Shakespeare, John Cabot, Samuel Pepys, Pocahontas, and Gráinnie O’Malley. Readers may not be familiar with others – Diego, Lord Effingham, Jahangir, or Richard Deane – while a few aren’t usually associated with British seafaring, such as Amerigo Vespucci, Vasco da Gama, and Michiel de Ruyter.

The book tackles a number of sensitive subjects – such as the slave trade and the spread of disease among indigenous peoples – in part because violence and exploitation went hand in hand with the events. Rather than omit them from the historical narrative, the contributors choose to incorporate them to help readers understand why people of the past acted as they did. What the book does not do is judge; instead, readers are provided with a well-rounded explanation from which they can decide for themselves who and what were good or bad, right or wrong.

Chapter 11 will be of particular interest to readers of Pirates & Privateers. During the Tudor and Stuart periods many people were called “pirates” and pillaging ships was even encouraged at times by people in authority. Piracy played a key role in early English history and didn’t cease to be a problem until the third decade of the seventeenth century. Among the topics explored here are women’s roles in domestic piracy, merchant reprisals, privateering, the Barbary corsairs (both attacks on places like Baltimore, Ireland and Englishmen who became renegadoes, such as John Ward), and the buccaneers (Henry Morgan, William Dampier, and Henry Avery). To my surprise, one man not mentioned in connection with the renegadoes is Sir Henry Mainwaring.

Tudor & Stuart Seafarers is a highly readable and entertaining book, and it’s impossible to come away from it without learning something new.




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Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship by Steven Ujifusa

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


These were our Gothic cathedrals, our Parthenon; but monuments carved from snow. For a few brief years, they flashed their splendor around the world, then disappeared with the finality of the wild pigeon.

This quote from Samuel Eliot Morison opens the final chapter in this account of merchants, ships, and shipwrights of the nineteenth century in their quest for speed and profits. (339) Their designs were based on the “Baltimore clipper,” like Isaac McKim’s Ann McKim (1833), but with less drag, less rake, more speed, and more elegance and grace. They initially sailed to China to trade for tea, porcelain, silks, and spices. Later they ventured around the tip of South America to deliver goods to California after gold was discovered in 1848. Making money and delivering cargo faster than anyone else were these men’s primary objectives. In the process, they revolutionized global trade, transformed a remote outpost into a burgeoning region, and aided in the spread of opium.

First and foremost, this is a story about merchants like Warren Delano II, John Murray and Robert Bennet Forbes, and Abiel Abbot Low. They acquired assets that allowed them to deal in exports and imports. They owned the ships and oftentimes the cargoes they carried. They hired shipwrights like Donald McKay and John Willis Griffiths to build their ships, as well as those vessels’ captains: Charles Porter Low, Nathaniel Palmer, and Joshua Creesy to name a few.

It is also a story about the places and cultures to which their ships sailed. Initially, China was an insular country, the government unwilling to trade with Westerners until Jorge Alvares visited Canton in 1513. By the mid 1800s, merchants from many European countries and the United States were purchasing Chinese goods. Warren Delano II belonged to a good, established family, but he lacked money. When he ventured to China in 1833 as a young bachelor, he had two goals he wished to achieve. He wanted to acquire enough funds to make him independently wealthy – $100,000 that would require living in China for at least five years – and to become a member of the prestigious firm of Russell & Company. What he soon realized was that living in China was very different from living in America and it could quite dangerous for foreigners. He wasn’t permitted to learn Chinese. He had to operate according to many strict dictates. He had to live in a section of Canton in a compound allotted to those who brokered goods for export. Wives of these men, if they came, had to live in Macao, as they were never permitted on the mainland. One Chinese merchant headed the Cohong (a guild of traders) and was personally responsible for the foreign merchants. Wu Ping-Chien (whom Westerners called Houqua), mentored some of these foreigners, including Delano. While the Chinese had much to offer in the way of exports, Westerners had little to offer in return, except money and opium. The illegal importation of this addictive drug led to a shortfall of silver in China and many became addicts unwilling to work. Eventually the government intervened and Houqua was arrested. While the Americans tacitly acquiesced to China’s demands, the British did not and the First Opium War soon erupted.

Aside from the cultural and personal aspects of this account of the “barons of the sea,” this book is also a tale of the ships. The sooner merchant ships returned home to New York or Boston, the sooner the tea could be auctioned. This not only led to greater profits, but also increased a firm’s reputation. This is why men like Delano and Low sought ships with greater speed and cargo capacity. For example, when Oriental arrived in London in 1850 – the first Yankee clipper to do so – she did so in 97 days, a vast improvement from the usual six months which British ships normally took to go from China to London. Her cargo sold for $48,000, a vast sum when compared to the $10-$12 an average working man earned in one month.

Prior to this time period, ship design had remained fairly stable for 200 years. Ships that sailed to China and India were called “Indiamen” and a typical one averaged 175 feet in length, 30 feet in width, and possessed a deep draft and rounded topsides. Beginning in the 1830s, the shipwrights and merchants began to revolutionize the design to create Yankee clippers. But the men who built these vessels didn’t agree on what designs were best. Captain Nathaniel Palmer favored ships with sharp bows and flat bottoms that he believed would average 12-13 knots when laden with tea. John Willis Griffiths, who never went to sea, designed vessels with V-shaped bottoms because his draftsman’s mind believed this would make them faster. One of his ships, Sea Witch, traveled 264 miles each day for ten days during a monsoon. Her best single day’s distance was 302 miles.

These Yankee clippers underwent even more radical changes once the merchants turned their attention to the California trade. Donald McKay’s designs and skill turned the building of such ships into an art. Stag Hound, built in 1850 for the California runs, could carry 1,500 tons of cargo and her sails consisted of 9,500 square yards of canvas. She was the first of the extreme clippers. But McKay went on to design even bigger ones. Sovereign of the Seas’ tonnage exceeded 2,400 and she measured 252 feet in length, while the Great Republic as designed would carry 4,555 tons and be longer than today’s football field.

Memnon, one of Delano’s ships, traveled 15,000 miles from New York to San Francisco Bay in 123 days. Until then the journey around Cape Horn often took over 200; covered wagons leaving Independence, Missouri to go overland averaged six months. It didn’t take long before the various merchants began competing with one another. Their ships were “majestic clippers, flying before the wind like great birds of prey, their vast spreads of canvas stretchws taut, their deep sharp bows piercing wave after wave.” (6) In 1851 three clippers left New York bound for San Francisco. Captain Charles Low commanded N. B. Palmer, owned by the Lows and named for Captain Nathaniel Palmer, on her maiden voyage. Moses Grinnell’s Flying Cloud was captained by Josiah Creesy, whose wife served as his navigator. The third ship, Challenge, was owned by N. & G. Griswold and cost over $150,000 to build. She had three decks instead of the normal two and her masts rose more than 200 feet above the weather deck. Her captain was Robert Waterman. There could be only one winner, and the race became one that involved rough weather, major repairs at sea, sabotage, mutiny, and ended with the arrest of one of the captains and his first mate.

As with all things, though, the time for Yankee clippers ebbed. Fewer men wanted to earn their livings at sea. As California grew and developed, her citizens became more self-sufficient and no longer had need for ships to bring them necessaries. They could make or grow these items themselves and purchase them for far lower prices than the East Coast merchants charged. Confederate raiders took their toll on Northern shipping during the Civil War. Steam ships were becoming more and more plentiful. Finally, the sinking of SS Central America in 1857 proved fatal not only to the 420 male passengers and crew aboard, but also to the American economy. Lost during the hurricane was the nine tons of California gold and specie that she carried. The loss, valued at around $2,000,000, resulted in more than just a run on banks. Fewer and fewer ship owners could afford the beautiful, graceful vessels that had brought great wealth to men who became pillars of nineteenth-century American society and whose influence on our culture and politics lasted far into the next hundred years.

These are the stories that Steven Ujifusa weaves together in his book. He includes an inset of photographs, an appendix with ship and sail diagrams, a section of notes that double as a bibliography, and an index. He also defines unfamiliar terms at the bottom of the pages where the words occur. Barons of the Sea is informative, entertaining, and enthralling. It’s a voyage not to be missed, whether you’re fascinated with sailing ships, the tea trade or the gold rush, or just history in general.




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Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery by Andrés Reséndez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One great desire of the sixteenth century was to find a faster passage to Asia in hopes of dominating the European trade of exotic spices and goods. Ferdinand Magellan and his men made significant inroads in accomplishing this when they circumnavigated the world for Spain, but this accomplishment created a dilemma. That journey took about two years to accomplish and only eighteen of the original 270 voyagers make it home. Surely, with all her American colonies, there had to be a way to greatly shorten this timeframe and the Spanish king was determined to find the elusive pieces to the puzzle that would allow his galleons to travel from the East Indies to Mexico, where the cargoes could be offloaded, shipped across to the east coast, and embarked on galleons bound for Spain.

The dilemma sounds easy to solve, but at the time, no European knows where to find the winds and currents that will allow ships to sail from west to east. The Pacific Ocean complicates this because it is so vast that it can accommodate every continent and island the world has if gathered together in one spot. Or, if one is foolhardy enough to swim across this blue expanse from one continent to another, it will take fantastical luck and a swimmer willing to go twenty-hours a day, every day for six months to accomplish the feat.

Conquering the Pacific is the story of finding this west-east route, how it was accomplished, who was involved, and what the aftermath of opening this passage meant for the men involved and for future generations. In 1557, a cluster of ramshackle abodes dotted the landscape near a lagoon and bay on the west coast of Mexico. Secluded Navidad is a good place to build in secret, yet its remoteness makes it a logistical nightmare for getting necessary supplies and people there and the location isn’t the healthiest. Don Luis de Velasco, the viceroy of Mexico, is tasked with carrying out King Felipe II’s plan. It’s a monumental undertaking for someone with no nautical expertise; nor is he without faults. Two men, both of whom have crossed the Pacific Ocean prior to this endeavor, serve as advisors: Juan Pablo de Carrión, a resourceful and legendary adventurer, and Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, once an explorer with firsthand navigational experience and now a priest. They don’t see eye-to-eye on many points, especially when it comes to the route that will be followed. Carrión suggests the Philippines, which lies on the same latitude as Mexico, but Urdaneta favors a more southern course to land at New Guinea. And who will command this expedition? The viceroy favors neither of these men, choosing instead Miguel López de Legazpi, a scribe in charge of accountants at the Minting House in Mexico City. He’s not an explorer and has no navigational knowledge. To further complicate matters, a royal emissary investigating the viceroy’s excesses and the members of the ruling Audiencia get involved.

Finally, in the fall of 1564, the two galleons built at Navidad – 500-ton San Pedro and 400-ton San Pablo – are ready to set sail. Two other vessels complete the fleet, the San Juan, which carries forty people, and the San Lucas, a tender capable of carrying half that number. The expedition consists of 380 handpicked men of different class, nationality, and race with a variety of occupational skills. Among them is an Afro-Portuguese man named Lope Martín, an extraordinary man, skilled in mathematics, astronomy, and cartography, who is a licensed pilot. His job is to guide the San Lucas from Navidad to the East Indies and back again. All goes according to plan until the Audiencia’s secret orders are revealed and Legazpi orders the San Lucas to scout ahead of the fleet.

Reséndez weaves a fascinating account of who became the first to find the west-east transpacific route. It devolves into a race marked by human and natural hazards, exotic locales, unfamiliar customs, tenuous relations between islanders and crews, short supplies, mutinies, maroonings, and accusations of embezzlement, treason, and murder. Scientific theory and concepts are explained in easily understood language with modern-day examples readers will comprehend. He also discusses how Spain and Portugal come to “own” the lands outside of Europe, as well as how this causes a dilemma regarding ownership of the Philippines, the history of navigation, and what knowledge pilots need to go from point A to B. Twenty-five maps are strategically placed throughout the book. Also included are twenty-two illustrations, a note about dates and measurements, end notes, and an analytical index. (The last was not available for viewing in the galley I previewed.) Highly recommended for any maritime history collection that deals with the ages of exploration and sail.




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Spanish Galleon vs English Galleon: 1550–1605 by Mark Lardas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Galleon. The word conjures a specific image in our minds, even though it represents the epitome of a fighting ship from a bygone era. This beautifully illustrated book explores the design and development of the galleons, their technical specifications, and the differences between their armament and the men who manned them. Lardas also examines and analyzes three specific engagements – Golden Hind’s encounter with Nuestro Señora de la Concepción, San Mateo during the Battle of Gravelines, and Revenge against five of Spain’s Twelve Apostles – to show how these warships were used and their effectiveness as fighting machines. However, to fully grasp their significance in world affairs, it is first essential to understand the relationship between Spain and England in the sixteenth century.

Spain stands at the zenith of her power. England, on the other hand, is just beginning her long trek to dominate the maritime world and become a superpower. Spain’s reach extends far beyond its European borders and the riches of its colonial empire entice other countries to seek their own wealth and property in distant lands. The need to protect and the yearning for great treasure requires shipwrights to devise vessels that can travel far distances, carry large cargoes, and defend themselves against raiders.

These must-haves lead to the galleon, a new class of warship that can cross oceans and deliver broadsides to any who dare attack them. What distinguishes a galleon from her predecessors is that she has multiple decks, including a lower gun deck, and three or four masts capable of carrying square and lateen sails. She has high fore- and sterncastles, but she is not always a large ship. Each is financed by a syndicate, rather than a navy, and she is built to carry cargo even though she is well-armed and has the power to seriously damage an opponent’s hull. Spain’s galleon and England’s race-built galleon are sturdy vessels that can survive tumultuous seas and weather, but hazards and shipboard life remain dangerous to a man’s health. Magellan leaves Spain in 1519 with 270 men; when his ship returns home, only eighteen remain alive, but Magellan is not one of them. Drake’s 1577 expedition consists of 150 men, of which only about one third survive.

This comparison between Spanish and English galleons concludes with a brief summary of why they faded from use and how we pay homage to them today with replicas. In addition, Lardas provides a bibliography, index, and chronology of historical events from Christopher Columbus’s landfall in the Bahamas in 1492 until Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa’s death in 1608. Contemporary artwork, color photographs, paintings, maps, and diagrams are found on nearly every page, while special highlights are scattered throughout to provide further investigation into specific subjects, such as cannon, how a galleon maneuvered, navigation, and two ships – the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Golden Hind – and two captains – Sir Francis Drake and Sarmiento de Gamboa.

Most books about galleons focus on Spanish vessels, but Lardas provides a clear, concise, and well-encapsulated overview of the differences and similarities between both nations’ ships. The narrative is enlightening, easy to read, and engaging. The highlighted engagements between the ships are an added bonus that provide readers with a good understanding of the differences in fighting techniques and the dynamics of their evolution. This is an excellent introduction to galleons, as well as a first-class addition to any maritime collection.




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Across the Sea: Fujian and Southeast Asia by Yuan Zhang

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Silk Road was a land route that established trade between China and Europe. Imperial China also traded with eleven countries in Southeast Asia via the sea, with Fujian being the principal Chinese point of contact with foreigners. These routes were part of the Maritime Silk Road, and this volume of the Illustrated Fujian and the Maritime Silk Road series examines trade within this network of countries.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), Governor Wang Shenzhi lays the groundwork for Fujian to play a central role in overseas trade, but the earliest trading ventures between China and Southeast Asia date back to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). The port of Fuzhou will play such a key role that it becomes one of three where trade with foreigners is permitted by imperial decree. Admiral Zheng He will begin his seven treasure expeditions from Fujian beginning in the 15th century.

Trade is not one-sided; instead, Chinese go to other countries and mariners of those regions come to China. Copper, iron, and ceramics are traded for currency, jewelry, and spices. Zhao Rushi writes about these cultural exchanges in A Description of Barbarian Nations, Records of Foreign People, just as medieval travelers Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta write of the port of Quanzhou. Gunarata, a monk from Funan (Cambodia), becomes the first to visit Fujian to translate Buddhist scriptures and preach. Over time, emigrants leave China to establish communities in Southeast Asian countries, bringing with them their artisanship, their literature, and their art, as well as techniques for planting sugarcane and building with brick.

There are times when the emperor decrees sea bans against maritime trade with foreigners, which give rise to pirate merchants who engage in smuggling and plundering. One of the most powerful is Zheng Zhilong and later, his son Zheng Chenggong.

There are a few drawbacks to this book. One is the price, but the information provided is unique and rarely found in other English volumes. Consistency in measurements (kilometers versus miles) and the inclusion of dynastic dates would help to better orient readers unfamiliar with Chinese history.

Even so, this series is an engaging combination of narrative and illustration that depicts the history of the Maritime Silk Road and Fujian’s participation. Each volume can be purchased separately, and Across the Sea includes portraits, sample pages of historical documents, architecture, boats and ships, archaeological artifacts, agricultural products, temples, and statues. I am particularly intrigued by artwork showing native costumes, such as those of Bantam and Chinese merchants. Equally fascinating is the information about tea and the history of its exportation, as well as religious beliefs of Chinese who venture overseas. Anyone seeking an introduction to the Maritime Silk Road, and Fujian’s roles in Imperial Chinese maritime history, is richly rewarded in this book.

(Review originally posted at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/adult-expl...)



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