New World Seafaring
Anthropology 628
Spring 2004
Wednesdays, 1:50 to 4:50; Room ANTH130;
Dr. Filipe Castro
Office 105 Anthropology Building, Tel. 845-6220, E-Mail: fvcastro@tamu.edu
Office hours: 2-5 Monday or by appointment
In this course we will examine seafaring, maritime commerce, naval affairs, and shipbuilding in the New World, from the late 15th century until the beginning of the 20th century. Each three-hour meeting will encompass one oral report on the day's theme (30 to 45 minutes), followed by three or four oral presentations of case-studies related to the day's theme (20 minutes), and based on relevant primary material (shipwrecks or historical documents). In addition, there will be general readings assigned to the whole class. In order for this to work, everyone must keep up with the readings, and everyone must participate in the discussion. The final grade is based 50% on oral reports and class participation, and 50% on a term paper.
General Readings
Text: George F. Bass, ed. Ships and Shipwrecks of the Americas. London: Thames and Hudson,
1988. Copies of this book are on reserve in the Nautical Library. Other short readings are listed on the syllabus,
and copies of those books or off-prints will be placed on NAP Library reserve.
Schedule
Week 1: Introduction.
Distribution of the syllabus. Course requirements. Suggestions for seminar presentations. You and your term paper: Dr. C's helpful hints.
Distribution of seminar topics.
Week 2: European Exploration and Colonization of the Western Hemisphere.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapters 1-4.
Lecture: "The Enterprise of the
Indies": Europe, Columbus and the New World.
Case Studies:
1. Anonymous Explorers: The Molasses Reef and
Highborn Cay Wrecks.
2. The Emanuel Point Wreck, or, Tristan de
Luna's Florida Failure.
3. Texas Death Trip, Part I: The 1554 Padre
Island Wrecks.
4. Basque Whalers in the New World: The San
Juan and Red Bay, Labrador.
Week 3. The Spanish Seaborne Empire in the Seventeenth Century.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 5.
Phillips, Carla Rahn. Los Tres Reyes:
The Short Life of an Unlucky Spanish Galleon, 1628-1634. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
On reserve in the Nautical Library.
Lecture: The Administration and Defense
of Spain's New World Empire.
Case Studies:
1. Atocha and Margarita (1622).
2. The Manilla Galleons: San Diego (1600) and Concepción (1638).
3. It's the Hurricane Season? Let's Go
to the Gulf of Mexico! Nuestra
Señora del Rosario (1705) and
El Nuevo
Constante (1766).
4. Mercury: The Quicksilver Galleons
Guadalupe
and Tolosa
(1724).
Week 4. Northern European Colonization and Trade.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 6
Lecture: The English, French, and Dutch
in the New World.
Case Studies:
1. Shakespeare's Tempest Wreck: The Galleon
Sea Venture
(1609).
2. Pipes A-plenty: The Monte Cristi Wreck.
3. Texas Death Trip, Part II: La Salle's Belle (1686).
4. Characteristics of the 18th-Century Merchant Sailer: Ronson Ship, New York City; Deadman's
Island, Fla.; St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica; The Phipps Wreck, St. Lawrence River, Quebec.
Week 5. Anglo-French Conflicts in the Americas.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 7.
Lecture: War in the Wilderness: The
Struggle for the North American Continent.
Case Studies:
1. Too Little, Too Late: The Frigate Machault (1760).
2. The Eighteenth Century's All-purpose
Boat: Bateaux Finds at Quebec City and Lake George.
3. The Radeau Land Tortoise (1758).
4. Jeffery Amherst's Lake Sloop Boscawen (1759)
[Crisman].
Week 6. Naval Aspects of the Revolutionary War.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 8.
Lecture: A Synopsis of American and
British Naval Activity, 1775-1783.
Case Studies:
1. Benedict Arnold's Gondola Philadelphia (1776).
2. Penobscot Debacle: The Privateer Brig Defence (1779).
3. Conflagration on the York River: The Frigate
H.M.S. Charon
(1781).
4. Yorktown Cofferdam Wreck - the Brig Betsy? (1781).
Week 7. Freshwater Fleets: The Naval War of 1812.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 9.
Lecture: A Synopsis of the War of 1812
on the Oceans and Lakes.
Case Studies:
1. Row Galleys on Lakes, Rivers, and
Bays: The Gunboat Allen and the Mallorytown and Patuxent Wrecks.
2. The Armed Merchant Schooners Hamilton and Scourge (1813).
3. The U.S. Navy's 20-gun Lake Brigs Niagara,
Eagle, and Jefferson.
Week 8. Afloat and Ashore: The Life of the Sailor.
Reading: Creighton, Margaret S., Dogwatch & Liberty Days.
Salem: Peabody Museum of
Salem, 1982. Copy on reserve in the Nautical
Library.
Lecture: Primary Accounts of Seafaring
Voyages and Nautical Archaeology.
Case Studies:
1. Iberian Seafaring Life in the 16th and 17th
Centuries.
2. The 17th-Century English Sailor: Barlow's Journal.
3. Quarter Deck and Forecastle: The Narratives
of the Early Nineteenth-century American Sailors Charles Tyng and Ned Myers.
4. Shipboard Sanitation and Medicine.
Week 9. Canal Mania.
Reading: Shaw, Ronald, Canals for a Nation.
Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1990.
Copy on reserve in the Nautical Library.
Brown, Augusta W. ("Dauber").
"Notes of a Canal Boat Trip Taken Summer of 1895." Typescript Travelogue from the New York State Archives.
Copy on reserve in the Nautical Library.
Lecture: Brief Remarks on the Impact
of Canals on American Society.
Case Studies:
1. River and Canal Craft in the Early National
Period.
2. Clinton's Big Ditch: The History and Operations
of the Erie Canal.
3. The Design, Construction, and Daily
Operations of Canal Boats.
4. The Sailing Canal Boats of Lake Champlain.
Week 10. Steam and Horsepower on Inland Waters.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 10.
Marestier, J.B., Memoir on Steamboats of the United States of America. Mystic,
Conn.: The Marine Historical Association, Inc., 1957. On Reserve Naut. Library.
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi.
New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Chapters I-XX photocopied and on reserve in the Nautical Library.
Crisman, Kevin J. and Arthur B. Cohn.
When Horses Walked on Water: Horse-powered
Ferries in 19th-Century America.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
Lecture: Brief Remarks on the Impact
of Steam Propulsion on American Society.
Case Studies:
1. Early Steamers: Phoenix and Lady Sherbrooke.
2. Heyday of the Western River Steamboat: Bertrand and Arabia.
3. Great Lakes Steamers and the Propeller Indiana.
4. Horse-powered Ferries.
Week 11. The Golden Age of Sail in the United States, 1815-1860.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 12.
Reality Check: Accounts of trans-Atlantic
voyages by Charles Dickens, Thomas Cather, and others.
(photocopied file on reserve in the Nautical Archaeology Library).
Lecture: Brief Remarks on America's
Era of Maritime Enterprise.
Case Studies:
1. Quest for Speed, Part I: Baltimore Clippers
and Sailing Packets.
2. North Atlantic Steamships, 1819-1860
3. Quest for Speed, Part II: Clipper Ships.
4. The Charles W. Morgan and American Whaling.
Week 12. The Civil War.
Reading: Bass, ed., Chapter 11.
Lecture: The Bitter Fruits of the Revolution
in Seafaring Technology.
Case Studies:
1. Mr. Ericsson's Monitor.
2. The Western River Ironclad Cairo.
3. Despoiler of the Union Merchant Fleet: The
Confederate Raider Alabama.
4. Iron Coffins: The Submersible Hunley and the Confederate
Submarine Program.
Week 13. Out with the Old, In with the New: Wood to Iron, Canvas to Steam.
Reading: Skip it this week; work on
your term paper instead.
Lecture: Brief Remarks on the End of
the Age of Sail.
Case Studies:
1. Fast and Economical: The Down Easters.
2. The Lake Champlain Sidewheel Steamer Ticonderoga.
3. The Last Days of Commercial Sail: 19th-Century Merchant Schooners.
4. Marine Painting, an Untapped Resource for
Nautical Archaeologists.
Week 14. Final Session. Presentation of Term Paper Research.
Oral
Reports
Oral reports must fit
exactly within the time frame established.
Images, such as slides or computer graphics' presentations are
welcome. I
expect students to present a short summary in the beginning, followed by a clear and structured report, a critic analysis of the sources in which the report was based, and a conclusion.
Every oral report must be accompanied by a short
handout. Handouts
must be useful to your colleagues for current and future reference.
Typically these should contain an abstract of your presentation,
critical comments (when found pertinent), and a complete list of the bibliography consulted.
Timelines are welcome.
Although I consider the graphic aspect very important, I will
grade especially the contents. I don't care too much for handouts with lots of color pictures and no relevant
information.
Term
Paper
Term papers must follow the style and format of
the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater
Exploration, the American
Neptune, the Society
for Historical Archaeology Publications Style Guide, or the
Mariner's Mirror.
I strongly advise all my students to read Dr. Kevin
Crisman's Guidelines for Writing Your Term Paper.
A brief (100 word) abstract of your proposed research and a preliminary bibliography
are due during the semester. Each student will present the results of his or her research during a final class
session (to be arranged).
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination
statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things,
this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides
for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring accommodation,
please contact the Office of Support Services for Students with Disabilities in Room 126 of the Student Services
Building. The telephone number is 845-1637.
