Abstract
In the first issue of the new year, we are looking forward to the 9th International Congress of Maritime History in Busan, South Korea, from 19 to 24 August. The main theme will be ‘Oceans: Local Mobility, Global Connectivity’, and the aim is to explore the many aspects of the relationship between humans and the oceans in the past. Preparations are now well underway. The call for papers has resulted in a very large number of submissions, and the selection committee is currently choosing papers and putting together sessions. By the time this issue reaches you, a preliminary programme will be available on the conference website (http://www.imha2024.com), including the announcements of keynote speakers. The International Maritime History Association is making 10 scholarships available for early career scholars, and several more are being provided by private partners. In addition, there will be prizes awarded for the best academic contributions to the field of maritime history. In Busan, we will also be looking ahead to the next International Congress of Maritime History, which is to take place in 2028. For all individuals and organizations interested in hosting the conference, the Association has now opened an official call for bids on its website (https://imha.info/2023/11/23/call-for-bids-to-host-the-2028-imha-congress). The selected bids will be voted on by members of the Association in the general assembly during the Busan conference.
Our first issue this year opens with a Forum on ‘The Royal Navy in the Caribbean in the Age of Sail’, put together by Evan Wilson. He has also written the introduction, which places the activities of the Royal Navy in the West Indies in the context of the trade in cash crops such as sugar. The Forum further includes contributions by Ryan Mewitt on early eighteenth-century contraband trade; Cori Convertito on the health of British sailors during the American War of Independence; Douglas Hamilton on the manner in which the Royal Navy assisted in preventing insurgencies of the enslaved in the early nineteenth century; and Samantha Cavell on issues of rivalry among officers in charge of the British campaigns to capture Martinique and Guadeloupe between 1808 and 1811.
Alongside the Forum, this issue includes two research articles, a research note and an ‘In Memoriam’. Minayo Nasiali examines the early twentieth-century practice of African seafarers adopting aliases, commodifying their names and identities as part of an extralegal economy that benefitted the broader ‘legitimate’ shipping industry. African sailors adopted new names also to circumvent the economic and political regimes that employed them, and were hence deeply distrusted by the French and British imperial forces. In the issue's second stand-alone article, Olivia Thomas investigates the practice of childbirth on extensive whaling voyages in the nineteenth century, at a time when, even on land, giving birth was still a potentially hazardous experience. Next, in a research note, Raquel Esther Rey Charlo offers her perspective on the development of radio communication on board from a historical perspective. And finally, David Eltis and Filipa Ribeiro da Silva remember the life and career of David Richardson, who passed away in August 2023. David was instrumental in the making of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, and was the founding director of the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull. The issue concludes, as per usual, with 10 book reviews.
As the editors of the International Journal of Maritime History, looking forward to 2024 and beyond, we like to remind our readers to consider submitting their work to us. We are fortunate enough to receive a steady stream of submissions from an ever-widening circle of scholars in the field of maritime history, but there is always room for more original work – including multi-author forums and round tables. Please contact us if you want to discuss the possibilities to publish your work.