Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xvii
Note on Transliteration and Dating xxxi
PART ONE
The Oldest Ocean: The Pacific, 176,000 bc-ad 1350
1. The Oldest Ocean 3
2.
Songs of the Navigators 20PART TWO
The Middle Ocean: The Indian Ocean and Its Neighbours, 4500 bc-ad 1500
3. The Waters of Paradise 43
4. The Journey to the Land of the God 70
5. Cautious Pioneers 85
6. Mastering the Monsoon 99
7. Brahmins, Buddhists and Businessmen 124
8. A Maritime Empire? 148
9. ‘I am about to cross the Great Ocean’ 166
10. The Rising and the Setting Sun 189
11. ‘Now the world is the world’s world’ 212
12. The Dragon Goes to Sea 236
13. Light over the Western Ocean 251
14. Lions, Deer and Hunting Dogs 272
PART THREE
The Young Ocean: The Atlantic, 22,000 bc-ad 1500
15. Living on the Edge 299
16. Swords and Ploughshares 314
17. Tin Traders 326
18. North Sea Raiders 339
19. ‘This iron-studded dragon’ 357
20. New Island Worlds 372
21. White Bears, Whales and Walruses 393
22. From Russia with Profit 415
23. Stockfish and Spices 432
24. The English Challenge 447
25. Portugal Rising 465
26. Virgin Islands 481
27. Guinea Gold and Guinea Slaves 497
PART FOUR
Oceans in Conversation, ad 1492-1900
28. The Great Acceleration 517
29. Other Routes to the Indies 536
30. To the Antipodes 550
31. The Binding of the Oceans 565
32. A New Atlantic 582
33. The Struggle for the Indian Ocean 594
34. The Great Galleons of Manila 611
35. The Black Ships of Macau 634
36. The Fourth Ocean 655
37. The Rise of the Dutch 668
38. Whose Seas? 679
39. Nations Afloat 696
40. The Nordic Indies 709
41. Austrialia or Australia? 727
42. Knots in the Network 745
43. The Wickedest Place on Earth 763
44. A Long Way to China 780
45. Fur and Fire 797
46.
From the Lion’s Gate to the Fragrant Harbour 81847. Muscateers and Mogadorians 829
PART FIVE
The Oceans Contained, ad 1850-2000
48. Continents Divided, Oceans Conjoined 845
49. Steaming to Asia, Paddling to America 860
50. War and Peace, and More War 877
51. The Oceans in a Box 892
Conclusion 907
Museums with Maritime Collections 909
Further Reading 913
References 919
Index 985
List of Illustrations
Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to amend in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.
1. Tepuke, a modern canoe based on ancient Polynesian design, built by the Vaka Taumako Project. (Photo: Wade Fairley, 2008)
2. Rock carving of a boat with a claw sail, possibly dating back to the early settlements, Olowalu, Maui. (Photo: Bill Brooks/Alamy)
3. Relief carving of the Egyptian fleet during the expedition to the Land of Punt, 18th Dynasty. Funerary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir El-Bahri, Egypt. (Photo: Prisma Archivo/Alamy)
4. Drawing of relief carving of the Egyptian fleet in the expedition to the Land of Punt. (Photo: Interfoto/Alamy)
5. Seal depicting four gazelles, Dilmun (Bahrain), late third millennium bc. National Museum, Bahrain. (Photo: by kind courtesy Harriet E. W. Crawford, author of Early Dilmun Seals from Saar: Art and Commerce in Bronze Age Bahrain)
6. Seal showing a sewn-plank ship, India (probably Bengal or Andhra Pradesh), 4th-5th century ad, found in Thailand. National Museum, Bangkok. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)
7. Coin of the Emperor Victorinus, minted in Cologne, c.ad 270, found in Thailand. National Museum, U Thong, Suphanburi, Thailand, bequeathed by Air Vice Marshal Montri Haanawichai. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)
8. Terracotta head of a Persian or Arab merchant, Western Thailand, 7th or 8th century ad. National Museum, Bangkok. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)
9. Porcelain ewer, China (possibly Guangdong), c.ad 1000.
British Museum, London. (Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum)10. Three Intaglios, Oc-eo site, My Lam Village, An Giang Provence, Fu Nan Period 6th century. Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Min City. (Photo: © Kaz Tsuruta)
11. 19th-century copy of an original copper plate from Kollam, south India, ad 849. Cambridge University Library, MS Oo.1.14. (Photo: By kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library)
12. Modern reconstruction of The Jewel of Muscat, a 9th-century Arab ship wrecked off the coast of Belitung, Indonesia. (Photo: Alessandro Ghidoni, 2010)
13. Changsha Bowl, Tang dynasty, Hunan province, 9th century, from the Belitung shipwreck. (Photo: © Tilman Walterfang, 2004 / Seabed Explorations New Zealand Ltd)
14. 14th-century wooden cargo tags from a Chinese junk wrecked off the coast of Sinan, Korea, 1323. (Photo: National Museum of Korea)
15. Celadon vase with dragon handles, China, Yuan Dynasty, 14th century, from the Sinan shipwreck. (Photo: National Museum of Korea)
16. Medieval Chinese currency, Northern Song Dynasty. (Photo: Scott Semens)
17. Mongol ship attacked by Japanese warriors in 1281, detail from the Moko Shürai Ekotoba scroll, facsimile of the late 13th-century original in the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images)
18. Sailing chart showing India, Ceylon and Africa, based on the voyages of Zheng He, woodblock illustration from Mao Yuanyi, Wubei Zhi, 1621. (Photo: Universal History Archive/Bridgeman Images)
19. Miniature from Maqamat Al-Hariri, 1237. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. (Photo: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy)
20. Miniature of St Brendan and monks, c.1460, English school. University Library, Augsburg, Germany. (Photo: Picture Art Collection/ Alamy)
21. Golden boat, first century bc or ad, found Broighter, Northern Ireland. (Photo: Werner Forman/Getty Images)
22.
Iron Age settlement, Santa Luzia, Viana do Castelo, Portugal. (Photo: Joao Grisantes)23. ‘Carp’s Tongue’ swords, 800-850 bc, from a hoard found in the Bay of Huelva, south-western Spain. (Photo: Miguel Angel Otero)
24. Viking ship, c.820, found at Oseberg. Kulturhistorisk Museum, Oslo, Norway. (Photo: © 2019 Kulturhistorisk museum, UiO / CC BYSA 4.0)
25. Detail of a sail from a Viking memorial stone from Gotland, Sweden, 8th-9th century. Gotland Museum, Visby, Sweden. (Photo: W. Carter/ Wikimedia Commons)
26. Coin from Haithabu in southern Denmark found in Birka in central Sweden. (Photo: Heritage Image Partnership/Alamy)
27. Inuit carvings from Greenland. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)
28. Crozier of Bishop Olafur of Gardar, 13th century. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)
29. 15th-century clothing from Greenland, reflecting current European fashions. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)
30. The Kingigtorssuaq Runestone, inscribed by two Norse Greenlanders, 13th century or later. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)
31. Merchants’ houses, Lübeck, Germany. (Photo: Thomas Radbruch)
32. Miniature of Jonah and the Whale from Spiegel van der Menschen Behoudenisse, Dutch school, early 15th century. British Library, London, Add. 11575, f.65v. (Photo: © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images)
33. Jaume Ferrer, detail from the Catalan atlas of the world, attributed to Abraham Cresques, 1375. (Photo: Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris)
34. Native inhabitant of La Gomera, illustration from Leonardo Torriani, Description e historia del reino de las Islas Canarias, 1592. (Photo: Universidade de Coimbra. Biblioteca Geral)
35. Bowl showing a Portuguese caravel, from Malaga, Spain, 15th century. (Photo: © Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
36. Madeira archipelago, detail from the Corbitis Atlas, Venetian school, c.1400. (Photo: Bibloteca Nazionale Marciana Ms.
It. VI 213, page 4)37. Elmina, Ghana, miniature from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1572. (Photo: Chronicle/Alamy)
38. Portuguese padräo from Cape Cross, western Namibia, 1486. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany. (Photo: © DHM/T. Bruns/Bridgeman Images)
39. Detail of the African coast from Martin Waldseemüller’s world map, 1507. (Photo: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
40. Detail showing America from Martin Waldseemüller’s world map, 1507. (Photo: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
41. 1960s copy of the Jagiellonian Globe, c.1510. Jagiellonian University Museum, Krakow. (Photo: Janusz Kozina and Grzegorz Zygier)
42. Section of Martin Behaim’s globe, 1492. (Photo: © Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany)
43. Vasco da Gama’s armada, illustration from Livro das Armadas, Portuguese school, c.1568. Academia das Ciencias, Lisbon. (Photo: Patrick Landmann / Science Photo Library)
44. Early s ixteenth-century colonial architecture in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Photo: Image Broker/Alamy)
45. View of the city of Seville, painting attributed to Alonso Sanchez- Coello, c.1600. Museum of the Americas, Madrid. (Photo: © Photo Josse / Bridgeman Images)
46. Portrait of the Portuguese Admiral Albuquerque, c.1615. San Diego Museum of Art, USA. (Photo: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection / Alamy)
47. Portuguese watchtower, 0.15th century, overlooking the Al Bidya Mosque, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. (Photo: Genefa Paes / Dreamstime.com)
48. Map of the Atlantic by Hagii Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, also known as Piri Reis, 1513. Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo: Turgut Tarhan)
49. A view of the Murderers’ Bay, as you are at anchor here in 15 fathom, illustration by Isaac Gilsemans, 1642. (Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand)
50. View of Judea (Ayutthaya), Siam, attributed to Johannes Vinckboons, c.1662-63. (Photo: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
5 1.
View of Macau, Chinese school, late 18 th century. (Photo: Hong Kong Maritime Museum)52. Korean turtle ship from the time of Yi Sun-sin, illustration from The War Diary Of Yi Sun-sin, 1795. (Photo: Fine Art Images / Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy)
53. Portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese school, 16th century. (Photo: Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy)
54. Map of the Arctic from Gerhard Mercator, Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio, 1595. (Photo: Princeton University Library, Historic Maps Collection)
55. European products carried through the Arctic Ocean by Barentsz’s expedition as far as Novaya Zemlya, 1596-7. (Photo: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
56. Bowl depicting Dutch ships and merchants, Japanese, c.1800. (Photo: the author)
57. Imagined bird’s-eye view of Deshima (copied from a woodblock print by Toshimaya Bunjiemon of 1780 and published in Isaac Titsingh’s Bijzonderheden over Japan, 1824-25). (Photo: Koninklijke Biblio- theek, The Hague)
58. Earthquake in Port Royal, Jamaica, Jan Luyken and Pieter van der Aa, 1692. (Photo: Artokoloro Quint Lox/Alamy)
59. Part of the Coromandel Coast showing Fort Dansborg and Tranque- bar by O. G. von Sponeck, 1730. (Photo: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen)
60. Tupaia’s chart of the islands surrounding Tahiti, c.1769. (Photo: The Picture Art Collection/Alamy)
61. Kamehameha at the Battle of the Red Mouthed Gun, painting by Herbert Kawainui Kane, late 20th century. (Photo: National Geo- graphic/Getty Images)
62. View of St Helena, c.1750. (Photo: Chronicle/Alamy)
63. Company painting of the Factories at Guangzhou, Chinese school, c.1820. (Photo: The Picture Art Collection/Alamy)
64. A samurai rides to a meeting with Commodore Matthew C. Perry, painting by Kinuko Y. Craft, late 20th century. (Photo: National Geographic /Alamy)
65. Singapore, c.1900. (Photo: Historic Images/Alamy)
66. The port of Essouaira, Mogador, Morocco. (Photo: the author)
67. The Pier Head, with the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building, Liverpool, 2008. (Photo: Chowells/Wiki- media Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
68. The Bund, Shanghai, 2017. (Photo: Luriya Chinwan/Shutterstock)
69. The Black Ball Line clipper ship Ocean Chief reducing sail on her Australian run, painting by Samuel Walters, c.i850s. (Photo: Chris- tie’s/Bridgeman Images)
70. Arrival of the RMS Queen Mary, New York, 1938. (Photo: Imagno/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
71. MS Allure of the Seas, sailing towards the Storebaelt Bridge, Denmark, 2010. (Photo: Simon Brooke-Webb/Alamy)
72. The container ship MV CSCL Globe arriving at Felixstowe, 2015. (Photo: Keith Skipper/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0)