Ralph Davis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780986497384
- eISBN:
- 9781786944467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780986497384.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter provides case studies of the working life of four merchant vessels from different points in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Diamond (1634-1640); Cadiz-Merchant (1675-1684); ...
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This chapter provides case studies of the working life of four merchant vessels from different points in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Diamond (1634-1640); Cadiz-Merchant (1675-1684); Diligence (1728-1742); and Caroline (1754-1766). They illustrate the long-standing difficulties faced by shipowners, charterers, and masters in earning a livelihood at sea, and provide a range of maritime and commercial experiences across the two centuries. These studies show that the first two ships engaged in a variety of trades, but the latter two quickly learnt to specialise in a single trade by a specific route, which proved the more profitable and secure option of the two.Less
This chapter provides case studies of the working life of four merchant vessels from different points in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Diamond (1634-1640); Cadiz-Merchant (1675-1684); Diligence (1728-1742); and Caroline (1754-1766). They illustrate the long-standing difficulties faced by shipowners, charterers, and masters in earning a livelihood at sea, and provide a range of maritime and commercial experiences across the two centuries. These studies show that the first two ships engaged in a variety of trades, but the latter two quickly learnt to specialise in a single trade by a specific route, which proved the more profitable and secure option of the two.