A Path in the Mighty Waters : Shipboard Life and Atlantic Crossings to the New World / Stephen R. Berry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berry, Stephen R., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seafaring life--Atlantic Ocean--History--18th century.

Seafaring life.

Merchant ships--Passenger accommodation--Social aspects.

Merchant ships.

Transatlantic voyages--Social aspects.

Transatlantic voyages.

Ocean travel--Social aspects.

Ocean travel.

Atlantic Ocean Region--Emigration and immigration--History--18th century.

Atlantic Ocean Region.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A vivid and revealing portrait of shipboard life as experienced by eighteenth-century migrants from Europe to the New World In October 1735, James Oglethorpe's Georgia Expedition set sail from London, bound for Georgia. Two hundred and twenty-seven passengers boarded two merchant ships accompanied by a British naval vessel and began a transformative voyage across the Atlantic that would last nearly five months. Chronicling their passage in journals, letters, and other accounts, the migrants described the challenges of physical confinement, the experiences of living closely with people from different regions, religions, and classes, and the multi-faceted character of the ocean itself. Using their specific journey as his narrative arc, Stephen Berry's A Path in the Mighty Waters tells the broader and heretofore underexplored story of how people experienced their crossings to the New World in the eighteenth century. During this time, hundreds of thousands of Europeans-mainly Irish and German-crossed the Atlantic as part of their martial, mercantile, political, or religious calling. Histories of these migrations, however, have often erased the ocean itself, giving priority to activities performed on solid ground. Reframing these histories, Berry shows how the ocean was more than a backdrop for human events; it actively shaped historical experiences by furnishing a dissociative break from normal patterns of life and a formative stage in travelers' processes of collective identification. Shipboard life, serving as a profound conversion experience for travelers both spiritually and culturally, resembled the conditions of a frontier or border zone where the chaos of pure possibility encountered an inner need for stability and continuity, producing permutations on existing beliefs. Drawing on an impressive array of archival collections, Berry's vivid and rich account reveals the crucial role the Atlantic played in history and how it has lingered in American memory as a defining experience.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Charting Courses

Chapter One. Embarkation

Chapter Two. Sea Legs

Chapter Three. Shipmates

Chapter Four. Unbroken Horizons

Chapter Five. Crossing Lines

Chapter Six. Tedium

Chapter Seven. Tempests

Chapter Eight. Land Ho!

Conclusion. The Journey On

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

0-300-21025-6

OCLC:

898893163