syllabus maritime history and culture ccc ·...

SEA Semester®: Colonization to Conservation in the Caribbean

www.sea.edu Maritime History and Culture -‐ 1

Maritime History and Culture CAS NS 322 (4 credits) Course Catalog Description (max. 40 words): Explore impacts of European maritime ventures on the societies they contacted in the Atlantic or Pacific, with focus on the resulting social, political, economic, and cultural changes. Investigate responses documented in the post-‐Colonial literature of indigenous people. Instructor(s): Sea Education Association Faculty Location: SEA campus in Woods Hole, MA, at sea on a SEA sailing school vessel, and ashore during several island port stops. Prerequisites: Admission to SEA Semester. Sophomore standing or consent of instructor. Course Philosophy and Approach:

Maritime History and Culture (MHC) is a four-‐credit course team-‐taught by the Maritime Studies and Nautical Science professors. This course begins on shore and continues throughout the sea component. We will begin our journey on the eve of European Exploration and Expansion and explore social, political, cultural and demographic changes in the Caribbean from the arrival of Europeans and Africans to the contemporary era. We will focus on several themes including navigation, safety, meteorology, shipboard life and culture, colonization, migration, slavery and abolition, revolutions and uprisings, imperialism, independence movements, social and cultural movements in the developing nations, tourism, relations with the United States, expatriate communities, Diasporas, globalization and challenges and opportunities in contemporary Caribbean nations. Central to the course is an understanding of the developing technology in navigation, cartography, and shipbuilding that underpinned European expansion. In this course and as part of the Nautical Science (NS) course, students will learn practical application of navigation by first referring to historical documentation and following the evolution of knowledge, skills, techniques, tools, etc. that contributed to modern navigation. Concepts of navigation learned in MHC will be put to use when you become a member of the crew of the Corwith Cramer. During the six-‐week shore component this course consists of 19 lecture/discussion sessions (1.5 hours each), 2 laboratory sessions (3 hours each), and 2 field trips (10 hours); some of these sessions are joint activities integrated with other CCC courses, and the weekly contact hours given in the course calendar below reflects only the portion allocated to MHC. Activities for this course during the six-‐week sea component are combined with those for Maritime Environmental History (MEH), consisting of 9 lecture/discussion sessions (2 hours each) and 6 field trips (6 hours each), plus additional time for independent student exploration during port stops. These contact hours are shared equally by the two courses at sea; half of them are



included in the course calendar given below and the other half are included on the MEH course calendar. Learning Outcomes: 1. Understand the complex interplay of the evolution in navigation techniques and maritime

technologies and the development of Caribbean history and culture after 1492. 2. Apply interdisciplinary techniques and approaches to maritime studies. 3. Develop and support a thesis based on work with primary and secondary materials. 4. Work within a collaborative research and writing environment: present ideas for group

feedback and offer and exchange constructive critiques of written work in a peer revision process.

5. Interrogate and evaluate arguments and conclusions developed during onshore research through observations and interviews conducted during island visits.

6. Develop and practice graphic/illustrative skills to communicate complex ideas, display technical knowledge and relay personal experiences.

Evaluation:

MHC Documenting Change Research Project (60%) • Project proposal • Peer review participation • Document presentation • Final research paper

5% 5% 20% 30%

MHC Documenting Change Port Stop (Field) Research (25%) • Port stop exploration & field notes • Port stop presentation • Addendum to MHC Documenting Change Research Paper

5% 10% 10%

Cruise Track Report 5%

Sheet Anchor 10%

Assignments:

The MHC Documenting Change Research Project begins onshore and continues through the sea component. Onshore students choose a primary historical document (see list below) as an entry point into our exploration of the myriad course themes. Student research of additional primary and secondary literature onshore will expand our understanding of each course theme and develop a timeline of change up to contemporary times. The final research paper will progress through stages of development including an initial paper proposal due in week three, followed by a series of student presentations of work-‐in-‐progress in weeks four and five, and a peer review process in week 5. Results of this shore-‐based work culminate in a final research paper that illuminates our current understanding of a specific element of Maritime History and



Culture in the Caribbean. The conclusions of the shore-‐based research are then corroborated with student field research during our many port stop visits. Guided field trips, independent exploration, and interviews are recorded in student field journals. Based on these observations students will then compare their first-‐hand experiences to their onshore research and share their findings in a port stop presentation and addendum to their final research paper. This major course assignment and the associated research process are specifically designed to complement the similar type of work students undertake in Marine Environmental History (MEH) using different documents and with a different focus. Additional assignments include the Cruise Track Report where small groups of students plan the entire sea component cruise track including navigational plan, course directions, sail configurations, and a summary of expected wind and weather conditions along the route; as well as the Sheet Anchor, a condensed version of class notes summarizing and illustrating the technical skills and knowledge of a mariner regarding coastal piloting, navigation, ship stability, sail theory, and weather. The Sheet Anchor thus functions as a resource for students during the sea component when they become the crew aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer. Document List: Richard Blome, A description of the island of Jamaica (London, 1672)

Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger, Course of the Gulf Stream (Paris 1778)

The Nautical Almanac and Board of Longitude, Longitude Reward Proclamation (London 1777)

Josiah Wedgewood, “Am I Not A Man and A Brother?” medallion (England 1787)

National Constituent Assembly, Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen (France 1789)

John Davis, The Seamans Secrets (England 1594)

Daniel Parrot, Tall Ships Down (USA 2003)

Marcus Garvey, Black Star Line investment announcement (USA 1919)

John Harrison, An account of the proceedings, in order to the discovery of the longitude (London 1763)

John Smith, A sea grammar (London 1627)

Richard Hakluyt, Divers Voyages (London 1582)

Baptista Boazio, The Famouse West Indian Voyadge made by the English fleet (London 1589)

Haiti’s Declaration of Independence (Haiti 1804)

John Clarkson, Diagram of the Slave Ship Brookes (London 1789)

John Seller, The English Pilot IVth Book (London 1706)

Ptolemy, Geographia (Bologna 1477)

John Seller, Practical Navigation (London 1680)



Pedro de Medina, The Arte of Navigation (Valladolid 1545)

David Steel, Elements and practice of rigging, seamanship, and naval tactics (London 1800)

International Maritime Organization (IMO) weekly Piracy report (various)

Preliminary Reading List:

Bailyn, Bernard, Atlantic History, Concepts and Contours (2005)

Black, Stephanie, Life & Debt (Film 2001)

Brown, Alexis (translator), The Buccaneers of America by Alexander O. Exquemelin 1678 (1969)

Brown, Llyod A., The Story of Maps (1949)

Chase, Carl, An Introduction to Nautical Science (1991)

Cohen, Colleen B., Take Me to My Paradise: Tourism and Nationalism in British Virgin Islands (2010)

Cohen, J.M. (editor, translator), The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1969)

Curtin, Philip D., The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (1998)

Cutler, Thomas J., Dutton’s Navigation and Piloting, 13th ed. (1978)

Games, Alison, Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges and Opportunities in The American Historical Review, v. 111:3 (2006)

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. and Donald Yacovone, The African Americans – Many Rivers to Cross (2013)

Kincaid, Jamaica, A Small Place (2000)

Moya Pons, Frank, History of the Caribbean (2007)

Rediker, Marcus, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1987)

Roorda, Eric P., Cuba, America and the Sea (2005)

Sea Education Association (SEA), Deck logbook of the SSV Corwith Cramer (various cruises/years)

Expectations and Requirements: • Punctual attendance is required at every class meeting. • Active participation in class discussion is expected. • Late assignment submissions are not accepted. • The policy on academic accuracy, quoted below, will be strictly followed in this class.

The papers that you submit in this course are expected to be your original work. You must take care to distinguish your own ideas and knowledge from wording or substantive information that you derive from one of your sources. The term “sources” includes not only published primary and secondary material, but also



information and opinions gained directly from other people and text that you cut and paste from any site on the Internet. The responsibility for learning the proper forms of citation lies with you. Quotations must be placed properly within quotation marks and must be cited fully. In addition, all paraphrased material must be acknowledged completely. Whenever ideas or facts are derived from your reading and research, the sources must be indicated. (Harvard Handbook for Students, 305)

• Considerations for use of internet sources: As you browse websites, assess their usefulness very critically. Who posted the information and why? Can you trust them to be correct? Authoritative? Unbiased? (It’s okay to use a biased source as long as you incorporate it knowingly and transparently into your own work.) Keep track of good sources that might be useful for subsequent assignments, and annotate in your bibliography any sites you cite. Your annotation should include the name of the author or organization originating any material that you reference. If you can’t identify the source, don’t use it!



Course Calendar:

Topic Readings/Assignments Due Week 1 (9 hours) – on shore at SEA campus in Woods Hole

Introduction to CCC and Maritime History and Culture (MHC)

Lecture/Discussion Topics: • Pilot Chart Exercise & Historic Voyages

(joint w/ all courses) • Welcome to the Atlantic World?

Methods and Approaches • Introduction to Primary Historical

Documents (with MEH) • Mariners’ Earth and Mapping a New

World: Development of Navigation as a science

• The Caribbean before European Arrival

Readings: Bailyn (2005) Brown (1949) Games (2006) Moya Pons (2007)

Review and choose Historical Document

Week 2 (3 hours) – on shore at SEA campus in Woods Hole

Lecture/Discussion Topics: • Practical Navigation I: DR, LOPs, Fix

(with NS) • Voyages of Exploration • Sugar and the Contingency of

Colonization & African Arrival

Readings: Chase (1991): Selected portions. Cohen (1969) Curtin (1998) Cutler (1978): Selected portions. Cruise Track report due


Lecture/Discussion Topics: • Cramer: Rig and Sails, Tacking and

Gybing, Points of Sail, Sail Trim • Colonial Exploitation: Slaves in the New

World • Revolutions and Interventions

Readings: Chase (1991): Selected portions. Cutler (1978): Selected portions. Gates and Yacovone (2013) Roorda (2005) SEA, Deck logbook of the SSV Corwith Cramer (various cruises/years)

Research paper proposals due.


Lecture/Discussion Topics: • Colonial Legacies and the Caribbean

Diaspora

Readings: Black (Film, 2001) Kincaid (2000)



Document presentations by students.

Field Trip to Boston (with MS)

Roorda (2005)

Week 5 (7 hours) – on shore at SEA campus in Woods Hole Field trip to John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island. (with MEH & MS)

Lecture/Discussion Topics: • International Law of the Sea and

Maritime Regulations • No Jack Sparrows Here: Piracy and

Security in the Modern World

Document presentations by students.

Peer-‐review meetings/workshop.

Readings: Brown, translator (1969) Rediker (1987)


Lecture/Discussion Topics: • Seamanship Lab (w/ NS) • Port Stop Research Methods • Doing Oral History: Two Case Studies –

WPA Ex-‐Slave Narratives & the Maroons of Jamaica

Readings: Cohen (2010) Final MHC Documenting Change Research Paper due

Week 7 (1 hour) – at sea

Port Stop Orientation and Planning (w/ MEH)

Port-‐specific readings.

Sheet Anchor – ship equipment and sail evolution illustrations.

Week 8 (7 hours) – at sea

Port Stop Visit #1 (w/ MEH) • Guided field trips • Independent student exploration

Port Stop Debrief and Discussion (w/ MEH)

Field Journal entries.

Week 9 (1 hour) – at sea



Sheet Anchor – Island recognition illustration and ship piloting directions.













Sheet Anchor – Harbor plan and plane-‐table mapping.


Port Stop Presentations (3 afternoons) Port Stop Addendum to MHC Documenting Change Research Project due.