Unit information: Shipping in the Early Modern World in 2012/13

Unit name	Shipping in the Early Modern World
Unit code	ARCHM0061
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Emeritus Professor. Mark Horton
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The unit will discuss ships and boats from the Age of Discovery to the beginning of the 20th century. Content will include the construction and design of ships and their propulsion, navigation; charting and map-making; the trade wind system; naval operations; cannon; trading companies and their ships; the Industrial Revolution and the sea; steamships; trade and artefacts; the development of steamships; ports and docks; marine commerce and organisations.

Aims:

The students will have sound knowledge of the development of maritime technology and navigational skills from c. 1600 to 1900, and the liked roles that ships played in the early modern world and the industrial revolution, both as merchantmen, as in naval operations. The unit will use both archival sources, museum collections, surviving ships and archaeological evidence.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to use primary archival and printed sources as well as archaeological evidence and museums collections (including pictorial images, models and artefacts) to understand the development of maritime technologies.

• They will be able to link historical narratives with physical evidence including ships and boats, dockyards, material culture.

Teaching Information

10, 4 hour sessions: lectures, seminars, reading groups, practical sessions and field trips to archives and sites and ships.

Assessment Information

Essay of 3,500 (60%); presentation of 15 mins (40%).

Reading and References

Rodger, N.A.M. 2006. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. London : Penguin.