13 research outputs found
Sailors and Traders
Written by a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Like all others who live and work at sea, Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death.
The period of prehistoric seafaring is discussed using archaeological data, interpretations from inter island exchanges, experimental voyaging, and recent DNA analysis. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded inter island shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages.
The book’s final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer. Most Pacific sailors in the global maritime labor market return home after many months at sea, bringing money, goods, a wider perspective of the world, and sometimes new diseases. Each of these impacts is analyzed, particularly in the case of Kiribati, a major supplier of labor to foreign ships
The island trade: an analysis of the environment and operation of seaborne trade among three island groups in the Pacific
Part I considers physical conditions affecting navigation and trade. These are: island types,
remoteness from international trade routes, fragmentation of territory, difficulties of access, currents and tides. Environment and population are also considered
in relation to exploitable resources. Populations are
growing rapidly but the range of marketable resources
are limited often due to inadequate transport services,
and all agricultural resources are liable to diminish
with destructive droughts and hurricanes.
Part II traces the development of the trading
systems. Historically the archipelagoes have followed
similar lines. First came itinerant traders, then the
creation of port bases and the spread of resident agents.
The exchange economy was thus established. With colonialism came port of entry restrictions and the
rise to power of Anglo-Australasian companies, especially
in Suva. The companies competed in various ways but the
trend. was towards oligopoly. The islanders did not
emerge as traders, although they did have indigenous
trading systems. The extended family was one factor
against participation in the commercial system, but
islanders did protest against commercial exploitation,
and some attempts were made to usurp the role of alien
traders and to operate island shipping. Only with the
emergence of co-operatives have islanders had significant
successes in trading ventures.
Part III deals with present day trade. Many islands
are threatened with economic isolation for freights are
expensive, services poor and the risks great. Shipping
where cash is received from phosphate workers the position organisations differ in the three territories but nowhere
are they profitable - unless maintenance is neglected and
safety factors reduced. In Tonga and the GEIC government
supports shipping. Reasons for low profitability are:
long hauls for small quantities, rising crew costs and
repair costs, intensive competition (in Fiji) and marine accidents. Under these conditions freights must be high
if vessels are to operate.
It is possible that standards could be improved and
ships made more viable. Before this is considered the
study looks in detail at marketing and retailing in the
hinterlands, the functions of shipping, and the degree
to which communities are dependent on trade. In the
GEIC virtually all commercial activities are in the hands
of co-operatives. In Tonga the government controls
marketing and private enterprises control retailing.
In Fiji marketing and retailing is, apart from co-operatives,
under private enterprise. The GEIC system gives a more
equable distribution of cash returns, but highest returns are received by estates in Fiji and lowest by people in
the outer islands of Fiji. In these latter areas there
is no central trading place. A more consolidated system
of marketing and retailing appears to be desirable.
Patterns of ship movements in the archipelagoes are determined by copra production, and many islands with
high potentials for fresh products cannot market these.
A certain amount of fresh produce is carried by passengers
and passenger traffic to and from the port towns is
extensive. On outward voyages cargoes comprise foodstuffs,
oils and building materials. Tonnages depend on regional
incomes and these in turn generally on copra. But not
entirely so, for cash comes from sources external to the
islands (from phosphates especially). It is shown that
all islands are truly dependent on cargoes and in the GEIC
where cash is received from phosphate workers the position will be serious in the small Ellice Islands and drought-prone
southern Gilberts when phosphates are exhausted.
Part IV is the conclusion, this considers trends and
future prospects in island trade. In the past development
has centred mainly around port towns, planning is
required to spread development outwards. All archipelagoes
have adopted plans but outer areas do not always
figure in these and in the GEIC plans are inadequate to
meet the future. Port towns continue to attract people
ahead of urban employment, opinion is divided on the
value of this. These towns are now part of the archipelago
community - not simply alien entrepots. To spread
development outwards from the towns there has to be
adequate shipping.
Two courses are open, either subsidise ships or
rationalise the trades. Already limited rationalisation has taken place in Fiji. The solution appears to
be consolidation of trading places to speed turn-around
times. This would also facilitate the centralising of
commercial activities and minimise the amount of money
and time spent on travelling to port towns. In the
GEIC rationalisation might involve altering international
channels of trade. Links between GEIC and Australia
could be altered to links between GEIC and Fiji and the
locational disadvantages of the small Ellice Islands
and drought islands would be changed.
Part V is a postscript emphasising that islanders
are not simply becoming 'economic men'. There is a non-commercial trading system still operating. Nowadays
this relies on inter-island and inter-territorial
commercial shipping. It is unprofitable by commercial standards but must be taken into account when planning
island transport
Sailors and Traders
Written by a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Like all others who live and work at sea, Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death.
The period of prehistoric seafaring is discussed using archaeological data, interpretations from inter island exchanges, experimental voyaging, and recent DNA analysis. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded inter island shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages.
The book’s final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer. Most Pacific sailors in the global maritime labor market return home after many months at sea, bringing money, goods, a wider perspective of the world, and sometimes new diseases. Each of these impacts is analyzed, particularly in the case of Kiribati, a major supplier of labor to foreign ships
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Sailors and Traders: A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples
Written by a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Like all others who live and work at sea, Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death.
The period of prehistoric seafaring is discussed using archaeological data, interpretations from interisland exchanges, experimental voyaging, and recent DNA analysis. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded interisland shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages.
The book’s final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer. Most Pacific sailors in the global maritime labor market return home after many months at sea, bringing money, goods, a wider perspective of the world, and sometimes new diseases. Each of these impacts is analyzed, particularly in the case of Kiribati, a major supplier of labor to foreign ships.Knowledge Unlatche
Fishers and plunderers: theft, slavery and violence at sea
Abuses and slavery at sea are largely missing from narratives of work and environmental exploitation in the mainstream. This book shines a light on the exploitation of fish and fishers alike in a global industry driven by profits.
Conservation and human rights in this industry are huge problems: with vast overprovision of vessels and shortages of fish, labour costs are targeted and young men are trafficked from poor areas onto vessels in virtual slavery. The resultant poverty and debt bonding pushes many towards trafficking drugs and piracy - although the criminality linked to the industry extends far beyond the level of the individual, vessel or fleet.
Using first hand testimony and shocking examples of these abuses, the book uncovers these crimes and injustices, with the authors arguing for regulations which if implemented could protect the rights of fishers across the board