Alastair Couper
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832391
- eISBN:
- 9780824869946
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832391.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific Islands. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their ...
More
This is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific Islands. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seafaring against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded interisland shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages. The book's final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer.Less
This is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific Islands. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seafaring against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded interisland shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages. The book's final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer.
Alastair Couper
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832391
- eISBN:
- 9780824869946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832391.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter examines the complexity of the modern international employment of Pacific seafarers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by focusing on foreign ships on which they served. It first ...
More
This chapter examines the complexity of the modern international employment of Pacific seafarers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by focusing on foreign ships on which they served. It first considers the various reasons for shortages of European sailors and goes on to discuss the process of recruitment of seafarers from the Pacific Islands as well as the motives of Pacific seafarers for joining foreign ships. It then explains the reasons why foreign shipowners employed Pacific seafarers and describes the social environment on foreign ships, including the hierarchical structure of the ship personnel, along with the working environment of sailors.Less
This chapter examines the complexity of the modern international employment of Pacific seafarers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by focusing on foreign ships on which they served. It first considers the various reasons for shortages of European sailors and goes on to discuss the process of recruitment of seafarers from the Pacific Islands as well as the motives of Pacific seafarers for joining foreign ships. It then explains the reasons why foreign shipowners employed Pacific seafarers and describes the social environment on foreign ships, including the hierarchical structure of the ship personnel, along with the working environment of sailors.
Alastair Couper
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832391
- eISBN:
- 9780824869946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832391.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter examines the arrival of foreign ships in the Pacific Islands, with particular emphasis on the relationships between foreign sailors and the local maritime communities. It first considers ...
More
This chapter examines the arrival of foreign ships in the Pacific Islands, with particular emphasis on the relationships between foreign sailors and the local maritime communities. It first considers the perceptions and behavior of seafaring Pacific islanders and European mariners during their first contacts, as well as the role of European naval officers in the maintenance of law and order in the sea. It then discusses the arrival of Captain Samuel Wallis in the islands, followed by Captain James Cook and his sailors, along with scientists and artists who were part of the first exploration ships. It also assesses the social and economic effects of the first foreign arrivals on the Pacific and its people.Less
This chapter examines the arrival of foreign ships in the Pacific Islands, with particular emphasis on the relationships between foreign sailors and the local maritime communities. It first considers the perceptions and behavior of seafaring Pacific islanders and European mariners during their first contacts, as well as the role of European naval officers in the maintenance of law and order in the sea. It then discusses the arrival of Captain Samuel Wallis in the islands, followed by Captain James Cook and his sailors, along with scientists and artists who were part of the first exploration ships. It also assesses the social and economic effects of the first foreign arrivals on the Pacific and its people.
Alastair Couper
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832391
- eISBN:
- 9780824869946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832391.003.0013
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This epilogue discusses several aspects of Pacific maritime history and heritage that are manifested in the islands' contemporary cultural milieu. First are regional festivals, as well as revivals of ...
More
This epilogue discusses several aspects of Pacific maritime history and heritage that are manifested in the islands' contemporary cultural milieu. First are regional festivals, as well as revivals of oceanic canoe building and long-distance sailing, as a way to remember the great voyages of the ancestors. Second is the employment of island seafarers on foreign ships, reminiscent of trends in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sailors from the Pacific Islands are now, as then, recruited to overcome the reluctance of people in the traditional ship-owning countries to follow careers at sea. Finally, there is the transmission of sexual infections to island communities, although now in a more virulent form and being dealt with to a greater extent by women.Less
This epilogue discusses several aspects of Pacific maritime history and heritage that are manifested in the islands' contemporary cultural milieu. First are regional festivals, as well as revivals of oceanic canoe building and long-distance sailing, as a way to remember the great voyages of the ancestors. Second is the employment of island seafarers on foreign ships, reminiscent of trends in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sailors from the Pacific Islands are now, as then, recruited to overcome the reluctance of people in the traditional ship-owning countries to follow careers at sea. Finally, there is the transmission of sexual infections to island communities, although now in a more virulent form and being dealt with to a greater extent by women.
