Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750

by Marcus Rediker

• ISBN13: 9780521457200
• ISBN10: 0521457203
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-06-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Seamen, captains and pirates occupy a special place in our popular culture, yet until now the historical record of their lives has been remarkably neglected. This brilliant account of the maritime world of the eighteenth-century reconstructs in detail the social and cultural milieu of Anglo-American seafaring and piracy. Rediker follows sailors and their ships along the pulsing trade routes, into ports with their crowded waterfront society of brothels, alehouses, brawls and jails, and paints a compelling picture of their world at sea with its brutal labour, harsh discipline, hangings and floggings. The book's focus on maritime experience illuminates the broader historical sweep of the rise of capitalism and the growth of an international working class - epic themes which were intimately bound up with everyday lives of seafaring men.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. The seaman as man of the world: a tour of the North Atlantic, c. 1740

2. The seaman as collective worker: the labour process at sea

3. The seaman as wage labourer: the search for ready money

4. The seaman as plain dealer: language and culture at sea

5. The seaman as the 'Spirit of Rebellion': authority, violence and labour discipline

6. The Seaman as pirate: plunder and social banditry at sea: Conclusion: the seaman as worker of the world

Appendix A: Age distribution among deep-sea sailors, 1700-1750

Appendix B: English trade, 1650-1750

Appendix C: Wages in the merchant shipping industry, 1700-1750

Appendix D: Literacy in the merchant shipping industry, 1700-1750

Appendix E: Mutiny at sea, 1700-1750

Appendix F: The courts of admiralty and their records

Index.