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‘This strange little floating world of ours’: shipboard periodicals and community-building in the ‘global’ nineteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2016

Johanna de Schmidt
Johanna de Schmidt*
Affiliation:
Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’, Heidelberg University, Building 4400, Voßstr. 2, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Publishing a newspaper was a popular undertaking for passengers aboard intercontinental vessels during the nineteenth century. Although in almost complete isolation for weeks or even months, many travellers saw the need to issue a regular periodical. This article sheds light on the functions that these publications had for the ships’ on-board communities. On the one hand, passengers used them to inculcate a sentiment of togetherness, no matter how ephemeral their community might initially appear. On the other, the periodicals also served to separate and create boundaries between different groups of individuals aboard. Focusing on these unique historical sources allows us to study the building and dissolving of a community feeling in transit in this era of globalizing intercontinental travel. This article shows that ship newspapers were simultaneously a space for social exchange and a means of establishing social boundaries at sea in an age of increasing global shipboard travel.

Keywords

communitypassengersshipboard periodicalstransittravel
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , July 2016 , pp. 229 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

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10 See Wenzlhuemer and Offermann, ‘Ship newspapers’, pp. 104–5.

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18 SLNSW, MLMSS 2716, Mabel Maffey et al., eds., The Parramatta Journal, 1882. For families ‘commuting’ between India and Great Britain, see Buettner, Elizabeth, Empire families: Britons and late imperial India, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar.

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20 SLNSW, MJ3Q17, [no ed.], The Pioneer: a weekly newspaper published on board the S.S. Queen of the Thames, Melbourne, 1871, p. 1.

21 SLNSW, 910.42/S, [no ed.], The Sutlej Times, 1, Melbourne, 1887, p. 2.

22 National Library of Australia (henceforth NLA), 2095396, W. G. Roberts and E. Quayle, eds., The Cuzco Chronicle, Portsmouth, 1882.

23 SLNSW, Q910.42/W, Henry Davy, ed., The White Star Journal, 6, 1855, p. 15.

24 BL, YD.2011.b.1007, George Ritchie and Henry Davies, eds., The Great Britain Times, 3, 1865, unpaginated, emphasis in original. See also NMM, PBA0222, Brett, Maori Times, 3, p. 9.

25 SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no ed.], The Garonne Journal, 1879; NMM, THP 3, [no ed.], The Challenger Gazette, 1828.

26 NLA, MS 4221, [no ed.], Monsoon Mail and Black-Ball Bulletin, 1858, cover page.

27 SLNSW, MAV/FM4/10750, Braidwood, Peter Murray and Cape, Alfred John, eds., Parramatta Times: issued on board the S.S. Parramatta during her voyage from Sydney to London, April 2nd to May 25th 1886, Liverpool, 1886, p. 8Google Scholar, emphasis in original.

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37 For trench newspapers and their function for the soldiers, see Nelson, Robert L., German soldier newspapers of the First World War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011Google Scholar. For family newspapers, see Alexander, Christine, ‘Play and apprenticeship: the culture of family magazines’, in Christine Alexander and Juliet McMaster, eds., The child writer from Austen to Woolf, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 31–50Google Scholar. One of the most famous examples is probably the family newspaper written by Virginia Woolf and her siblings in the 1890s: Woolf, Virginia et al., Hyde Park Gate News: the Stephen family newspaper, London: Hesperus, 2005Google Scholar (handwritten in 1891–2 and 1895).

38 For shipboard encounters and communities on the route between Sydney and San Francisco, see Frances Steel, ‘Anglo-worlds in transit: connections and frictions across the Pacific’, pp. 251–70 in this issue.

39 Bell, ‘Bound for Australia’, p. 137.

40 See Pietsch, ‘Bodies at sea’.

41 See, for instance, NLA, 2511612, James Edward Alexander, ed., The Albatross: record of voyage of the ‘Great Britain’ steam ship from Victoria to England in 1862, 1, Stirling, 1863, p. 2; SLNSW, 910.42/P, Musgrave, George Arthur, ed., The Parramatta Sun: a serio-comic magazine, issued fortnightly, during the voyage of the ship ‘Parramatta’ from London to Sydney, 1, Sydney, 1879, p. 3Google Scholar.

42 NLA, 2200823, [no ed.], The Sobraon Mercury: an occasional journal published at sea during the voyage of the ship ‘Sobraon’ from Melbourne to London, 3, London, 1877, p. 43. See also NLA, 2896974, Robinson, Francis Whitfield, ed., The Marco Polo Chronicle: a weekly journal of events arising during a voyage from Liverpool to Australia, 3, 1854, p. 2Google Scholar.

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44 SLNSW, 910.42/O, [no ed.], Our voyage: extracts from the Sobraon Gossip: a weekly newspaper published on board the Sobraon during the passage from Melbourne to London, London, 1875, p. 60; NLA, 2200823, [no ed.], The Sobraon Mercury, 1, p. 9; NLA, 2166147, Hosking, Himalaya Observer, 4, p. 49.

45 For one quite special case of sea travelling and the notion of ‘home’, see Ryan, James R., ‘“Our home on the ocean”: Lady Brassey and the voyages of the Sunbeam, 1874–1887’, Journal of Historical Geography, 32, 3, 2006, pp. 579–604CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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49 BL, YD.2011.b.1007, Ritchie und Davies, The Great Britain Times, 3, unpaginated.

50 Cuzco Torpedo, Christmas double number, p. 6.

51 See Pietsch, ‘Bodies at sea’.

52 SLNSW, 910.42/G, George Hodgson Wayte, ed., The Great Britain Miscellany, Melbourne, 1862, p. 25.

53 For the relation between physical and social space aboard emigration ships, see Hassam, Our floating home, pp. 4–8.

54 SLNSW, DSM/042/P179, Vincent and Townsend, Netherby Gazette, 1, pp. 7–8.

55 Ibid., 2, p. 13.

56 Ibid., emphasis added.

57 Bell, ‘Bound for Australia’, p. 137.

58 SLNSW, A 1681, Grumm and Welch, Zealandia Free Press, preface.

59 Ibid., 1, unpaginated, emphasis added.

60 Ibid., 2, unpaginated.

61 See, for instance, The Man at the Wheel and the Vanguard Times, both published during a passage from London to Brisbane in 1866 aboard the ship Vanguard: SLNSW, Q656.509/M, S. Pole, ed., The Man at the Wheel, Brisbane, 1867; SLNSW, Q656.509/V, [no ed.], The Vanguard Times, Brisbane, 1867. Or the Argonaut Times and the Argonaut Critic, both published aboard the Argonaut on a voyage from London to Adelaide in 1878: SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/A, [no ed.], The Argonaut Times [n.p., n.d.], although there is no existing copy of the Argonaut Critic, so that we only know about its existence through the recurring mentions in the Argonaut Times.

62 NLA, SRq 387.54205 Y68, George Grimley, ed., The Young Australia Times, Brisbane, 1864; NMM, PBH3685, William A. Smith, ed., Sketches at Sea: a periodical issued on board the ship ‘Young Australia’, Brisbane, 1864 (issued as Etches and Sketches on board the Young Australia but as Sketches at Sea when printed because the printed version did not include illustrations).

63 NLA, SRq 387.54205 Y68, Grimley, Young Australia Times, 9, p. 21.

64 Ibid., 8, p. 22, emphasis added.

65 Grimley, ed., Young Australia Times, 3, p. 22 (announcement); NMM, PBH3685, Williams, Sketches at Sea, 3, p. 9 (mockery).

66 State Library of Queensland, TR 1815, William A. Smith, Diary 1864, p. 155.

67 NMM, NWT 5, R. J. Hough, ed., Sierra Cordova Magpie, 1901–02.

68 For the different meanings that the term ‘lascar’ could carry, see Balachandran, Gopalan, Globalizing labour? Indian seafarers and world shipping, c. 1870–1945, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012Google Scholar, esp. pp. 28–30.

69 SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/C, [no. ed.], The Carthaginian, 3, p. 32. For the late nineteenth century, Steel, Frances, Oceania under steam: sea transport and the cultures of colonialism, c.1870–1914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011, pp. 105–125Google Scholar, speaks of 15% of the sailors aboard a British ship being lascars. See also Balachandran, Globalizing labour.

70 NLA, 1078016, Groom, S. R., ed., The R.M.S. Shannon Times and Maregraph: weekly journal during voyage from Sydney to Gravesend in April, May and June 1883, 3, London, 1883, pp. 15–16Google Scholar.

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72 Port cities and their role in processes of globalization have already been the topic of many historical studies. See, for instance, Vink, Markus, ‘From port-city to world-system: spatial constructs of Dutch Indian Ocean studies, 1500–1800’, Itinerario, 28, 2, 2004, pp. 45–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Basu, Dilip K., The rise and growth of the colonial port cities in Asia, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985Google Scholar; Broeze, Frank, ed., Gateways of Asia: port cities of Asia in the 13th–20th centuries, London: Kegan Paul International, 1997Google Scholar.

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78 SLNSW, 910.42/E, Ashburner, B. and Taylor, P. S., eds., The Elderslie Lucifer: a weekly journal of facts and fancies, 2, 4, Oamaru 1887Google Scholar, unpaginated.

79 Said, Edward W., Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books, 1979, p. 332Google Scholar. Since the work’s first publication, countless scholars have reacted and responded to Said’s ideas.

80 NLA, 2166147, Hosking, Himalaya Observer, 4, p. 49.

81 SLNSW, PAM 89/1132, Gilbert Watson and Joseph Coats, eds., The Gothic Weekly Chronicle: being contributions on board R.M.S. Gothic, 1, Wellington, 1897, p. 13, emphasis added.

82 SLNSW, DSM/910.42/H, [no ed.], Horae Marinae: a journal issued on board the Queensland Steam Navigation Company’s steam ship ‘Lady Bowen’ on her voyage from Glasgow to Brisbane, Brisbane, 1864, Preface [no pagination].

83 Hassam, Our floating home, p. 20.

84 Ibid.