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Atlantic Voyages: The East India Company and the British Route to the East in the Age of Sail

Online ISBN:
9780191915628
Print ISBN:
9780192894748
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Atlantic Voyages: The East India Company and the British Route to the East in the Age of Sail

John McAleer
John McAleer
Associate Professor of History, University of Southampton
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Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
1 June 2023
Online ISBN:
9780191915628
Print ISBN:
9780192894748
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book explores the experiences of travellers as they navigated the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on board ships of the London-based East India Company. These passengers reflected on who and what they had left behind in Europe, looked forward to new challenges in Asia, and evaluated the sights and smells, sounds and tastes, hopes and expectations, and fears and regrets that regaled their senses and played on their minds as they sailed along the way. The lives of the people carried by East Indiamen were deeply affected by their Atlantic experiences. They confronted the reality of shipboard life: its seasickness and boredom, its cramped living conditions, its questionable dining fare, and its severely restricted privacy. They acclimatized to the rhythms of the ocean and the vicissitudes of the weather. They encountered rites of passage and ceremonies of initiation on the high seas. They prepared themselves for cultural disorientation and a host of unusual sights and sensations. And they wondered at the extraordinary beauty of the elements around them—the sea, the sky, the islands—and the strangeness of their inhabitants, human and animal alike. The ship’s passage played a crucial role in shaping the responses and experiences of those individuals surrounded by its wooden walls. Their words bring to life this maritime journey, illuminate the experiences of the people who undertook it, and contribute to our understanding of the place of the Atlantic Ocean in wider histories of the East India Company and the British Empire in this period.

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