Title: The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914
Author: Boyd Cothran and Adrian Shubert
Major Themes: Ships, Economics, Trade, Slavery, Immigration, Travel, Crimean War, Australia, New Zealand
Synopsis: How was one ship connected with the spread of global trading?
A few years ago, our family took a trip around the top of our island. When we were in Picton, we noticed a museum displaying an old ship, the Edwin Fox. Because we love museums, and it didn’t cost too much to get our large family in, we toured the museum and learned all we could about this fascinating vessel. We even got to walk inside the ship and touch it! Last month we were there again, so we toured the museum again. This time we were not allowed to go on our touch her, but when we were talking to the lady in charge, she mentioned that a book had been written about the boat and her part in world history. That caught my attention, so as soon as we got back to our cabin for the night I looked up The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914. I finished reading it today, and what a fascinating story the authors have told!
Publisher’s description:
It began as a small, slow, and unadorned sailing vessel—in a word, ordinary. Later, it was a weary workhorse in the age of steam. But the story of the Edwin Fox reveals how an everyday merchant ship drew together a changing world and its people in an extraordinary age of rising empires, sweeping economic transformation, and social change. This fascinating work of global history offers a vividly detailed and engaging narrative of globalization writ small, viewed from the decks and holds of a single vessel. The Edwin Fox connected the lives and histories of millions, though most never even saw it.
Built in Calcutta in 1853, the Edwin Fox was chartered by the British Navy as a troop transport during the Crimean War. In the following decades, it was sold, recommissioned, and refitted by an increasingly far-flung constellation of militaries and merchants. It sailed to exotic ports carrying luxury goods, mundane wares, and all kinds of people: not just soldiers and officials but indentured laborers brought from China to Cuba, convicts and settlers being transported from the British Empire to western Australia and New Zealand—with dire consequences for local Indigenous peoples—and others. But the power of this story rests in the everyday ways people, nations, economies, and ideas were knitted together in this foundational era of our modern world.
My thoughts:
I was intrigued by the way the world became so interconnected so fast. It took very little time for countries and cultures on opposite sides of the world to become dependent on each other for many items and for manpower to get jobs done. I was also impressed with the number of people who could be crammed into that ship—400 on one of the voyages that transported convicts to Australia! From what I remember of standing in the hull, they would have been extremely crowded.
One thing I noticed as I read The Edwin Fox was the nod to modern politically correct ideas. This showed up in the chapters that talked about the Chinese and Indian coolies that were taken to places like Cuba to work in the sugar plantations, and the one that talked about the immigrants to New Zealand—the single women were watched over very closely. Also, throughout the book, I noticed that the ship was always referred to as “it” rather than “she” or “her.” Political correctness bugs me—but not enough to stop me from reading the book! I really enjoyed the history in this book, and ended up sharing a lot of what I learned with one of my sons who also loves history. If you, too, are a history buff, check out The Edwin Fox. You might just find a new favorite ship!
WARNING: Chapters 2 and 3 talk about the coolies and convicts, and some of the details in both are rather gruesome.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Kindle | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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