Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea David Cressy

Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780192863393,0192863398

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192863398
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0192863393
• Author(s): David Cressy, David (George III Professor of British History and Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus Cressy, George III Professor of British History and Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus Ohio State University)

Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea is a work of social history examining community relationships, law, and seafaring over the long early modern period. It explores the politics of the coastline, the economy of scavenging, and the law of ‘wreck of the sea’ from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I to the end of the reign of George II. England’s coastlines were heavily trafficked by naval and commercial shipping, but an unfortunate percentage was cast away or lost.

Shipwrecks were disasters for merchants and mariners, but opportunities for shore dwellers. As the proverb said, it was an ill wind that blew nobody any good. Lords of manors, local officials, officers of the Admiralty, and coastal commoners competed for maritime cargoes and the windfall of wreckage, which they regarded as providential godsends or entitlements by right. A varied haul of commodities, wines, furnishings, and bullion came ashore, much of it claimed by the crown. The people engaged in salvaging these wrecks came to be called ‘wreckers’, and gained a reputation as violent and barbarous plunderers. Close attention to statements of witnesses and reports of survivors shows this image to be largely undeserved. Dramatic evidence from previously unexplored manuscript sources reveals coastal communities in action, collaborating as well as competing, as they harvested the bounty of the sea.

Table contents:

Introduction

1. Ships at Risk

2. The Perils of the Sea

3. Wreccum Maris: The Law of ‘Wreck of the Sea’

4. The Barbarous Country People

5. The Great Profit of the Lords of Manors

6. The Lord Admiral’s Droits and His Majesty’s Profit

7. Shipwreck Tales from Sea and Shore

8. The Bounty of the Golden Grape

9. Mariners in Distress

10. Material Bounty Brought Ashore

11. Deep Recovery

12. Eighteenth-Century Wrecking Revisited

Appendix: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks

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