Acknowledgements
It will come as no surprise to the reader that a study whose scope is as broad as the title suggests was possible only with access to expertise and assistance from those both within and beyond its authorâs own areas of professional competence. I have thus incurred debts, and I am happy to acknowledge them. First, to my advisor and friend, Neil Kennedy, who has been supporting this for years now, and mentoring faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland whose consistent support and encouragement were, literally, remarkable. Next, to the late Lewis âSkipâ Fischer, doyen of maritime history. I wish he could have seen this book published, as that would have pleased him. Jerry Pocius, Scott Jamieson, Jeff Webb, Dan Walker, and Olaf Janzen were consistently accommodating and taught me much in my time with them. In addition to Olaf, I must thank Warren Riess and Barry Gaulton for their more abbreviated but important contribution to the project in their capacity as examiners of my doctoral thesis. Warren was also one of a trio of veteran ship archaeologists, along with Nick Burningham and Fred Hocker, who answered lots of e-mails, answered the phone or called me back, gave me reading assignments, and taught me much of what I can now contribute to the present volume, all purely out of generosity and devotion to the advancement of knowledge.
Also generous were the distinguished historians whose correspondence made a material contribution to furthering this effort: John McCusker, Christopher French, Thomas Truxes, Joseph Goldenberg, Ab Hoving, Adrian Leonard, and Larrie Ferreiro. Steve Klomps of the Peabody-Essex Museum shared his years of research on Merrimac River shipbuilding with me over a two-year period. Eleanor Breen, City Archaeologist of Alexandria, Virginia, shared all the information she had about the vessel they excavated in 2017, and invited me to give a talk there to help raise money for the conservation of the remains, which I am happy to say is underway.
Archivists and librarians did more than retrieve materials for me. They pointed me to collections I needed to examine. Deserving of special mention are Anna Shumilak of the Archives of Manitoba; Kathy Flynn, Catherine Robertson, Anne Deschaine, and Hannah Swan of the Peabody-Essex Museumâs Phillips Library; Malia Ebel of the New Hampshire Historical Society; Kim Nusco of the John Carter Brown Library; Nancy Egloff of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; and Marsha Hayes of the New Hanover County Public Library.
The masters, hands, and shipwrights who sat for interviews and exchanged correspondence with me so that I could incorporate their insights and experiences into the study were: Jim Graczyk, William T. âChipâ Reynolds, Sharon Dounce, Drew McMullen, Walter Rybka, Eric Speth, and Joakim Severinson. The information they can provide in a sentence or two can be had no other way, and is indispensable.
My friend Steve Kinsey, marine biologist at UNC-Wilmington, engaged with me repeatedly in discussions of evolutionary theory as I sorted out the intellectual methodology of the study that eventually gave rise to the present volume. The perspective and tutelage of an accomplished ânatural philosopher,â as someone from my period would have called him, were enriching.
I thank the North American Society for Oceanic History for allowing me to present papers related to this study at their annual conferences in 2015 and 2017, and for comments and encouragement. The Society for the History of Technology accepted a session on doing pre-industrial history of technology at their annual meeting in 2018, during which I presented a paper on this topic. I appreciate that and I appreciate the participation and contributions of Anne McCants, Adam Lucas, and Pam Long. Validation goes a long way toward sustaining the will to pursue lonely work with no certain outcome, and I am grateful to the prize committees at NASOH and T2M (the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic & Mobility) for awarding me their Clark G. Reynolds Student Paper Prize and John Scholes Transport History Research Essay Prize, respectively.
I must also thank the editors and anonymous reviewers at The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, the Journal of Transport History, the International Journal of Maritime History, and The Marinerâs Mirror for comments and suggestions and for publishing articles based on earlier work on key aspects of this study; Victoria Barnett-Woods for including my chapter on the British Atlantic merchant ship in the edited collection Cultural Economies of the Atlantic World; and Christian Rollinger of the University of Trier for including a chapter on risk and sailorsâ culture for an edited collection currently under review.
For permission to use images, I thank Chris Dostal at Texas A&M University, Pic Lee Song at the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation, the Sjöhiskoriska museet, Stockholm, for making the priceless Chapman collection of plans and drawings available online copyright-free; photographer Jon Caspar and Jan Ross of the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, Drew McMullen of the Sultana Education Foundation, and photographer Michael Wootton; Capt. Reynolds, formerly of the Half Moon, photographer John W. Mangrum, and Eduard Van Breen of the New Netherland Museum; and Scarlet Faro, Royal Museums Greenwich.
Finally, I thank Stefan Einarson at Brill for initially accepting this book for review, the anonymous reviewers who made helpful suggestions for revising it, Rosanna Woensdregt for seeing it through the publishing process, the Brill production team, and the series editors, Adam Lucas and Steven Walton, for their support and advice. I am delighted to see this book included in their Technology and Change in History series.
These contributions made the interpretations in this book possible, but I am solely responsible for those interpretations as well as any errors they may contain. For any aspiring scholars who may be reading this, I will point out that I have not mentioned grants and awards I did not get, nor those who questioned the merits of this project. The privilege of writing acknowledgements for a published work comes after persevering through challenges and obstacles as well as taking advantage of encouragement and open doors. The wise writer will turn constructive criticism into better work, and rejection and naysaying into redoubled determination.
Early research travel was funded by the Department of History and the School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland; and by a short-term fellowship from the Phillips Library of the Peabody-Essex Museum. More recently, a small grant from The Society for Nautical Research funded research assistance in the UK, for which I heartily thank both them and the capable and knowledgeable Joanna Thomas of the University of Exeter, as well as Professor Maria Fusaro, who connected us. I would have liked to examine more UK archival materials for this project, and in person, but funding for that was not forthcoming. I welcome any suggestions for specific UK collections holding promise for future research on questions raised by the study.
Food, clothing, and shelter were provided by my wife, Andie. That is important, as only live humans with free time can write history books. At my age, I am lucky to have healthy parents, and I thank them for a lifetime of support and genuine interest in what I do, this project certainly not excepted.
Finally, if the person to whom this book is dedicated finds it worthwhile, its author will be satisfied.
P.F.R.
Wilmington, North Carolina
December 2019