About
The Team
Craig Lambert (PI);
Department of History, University of Southampton
Craig's research focuses on English shipping, maritime communities, maritime logistics and naval operations over the period c.1300-c.1600. He is currently Principal Investigator for a £1million project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, entitled 'English Merchant Shipping, Maritime Communities, and Trade from the Spanish Armada to the Seven Years War, c.1588-c.1765.' He recently completed a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council entitled 'The Merchant Fleet of Late Medieval and Tudor England, 1400-1580': http://medievalandtudorships.org/.
Jason Sadler (CI);
Geodata, Southmapton University
[need something from Jason here]
John McAleer (CI);
Department of History, University of Southampton
John's work explores the British encounter and engagement with the wider world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, situating the history of empire in its global and maritime contexts. He was previously Curator of Imperial and Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
John McAleer (CI);
Department of History, University of Southampton
John's work explores the British encounter and engagement with the wider world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, situating the history of empire in its global and maritime contexts. He was previously Curator of Imperial and Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Gary Paul Baker (Research Fellow);
Department of History, University of Southampton
Gary is an historian with research interests in maritime and military history from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. He has published several works in these areas and worked on a number of research projects at the universities of Hull, Southampton, and East Anglia, including Lambert's 'The Merchant Fleet of Late Medieval and Tudor England, 1400-1580' (2014-16) and the recent AHRC project: 'Warhorse: The Archaeology of a Medieval Revolution?' (2019-22).
Lucy Huggins (Research Fellow);
Department of History, University of Southampton
As a social and cultural historian of early modern England, Lucy's work focuses on maritime and riverine communities, identities, and networks.
Background to the Project
Our research focuses on three key themes: merchant shipping, seafarers, and maritime trade.
Ships
Our key question is what was the size and geographical distribution of the English/British merchant fleet, c.1588–1765? Using a rich seam of sources we will examine the merchant fleet of England through an analysis of the country’s head-ports, providing the first systematic, nationwide analysis of this sector of the economy over two centuries. Our nationwide approach means we can investigate the exogenous and endogenous factors that shaped the shipping capacity of a particular region or port and compare this directly with developments elsewhere.
Seafarers
For this theme we will analyse the size and regional distribution of the English/British maritime community, examine the careers of individual mariners, and reconstruct linkages between individuals through factors like kinship, financial exchanges, and trade. To penetrate further into the socio-cultural world of these seafarers we will undertake three enriched case studies of ports that represent different aspects of the maritime community: London, because of its concentration of prominent merchant companies and persons trading globally; Bristol, because of its links to the ‘Atlantic world’; and Southampton, with its focus upon European and coastal trade. Our findings from this theme will help shape our work with our impact partners.
Trade
We are examining the development of England’s/Britain’s overseas and coastal trade. Our dataset will allow us to reconstruct the directional flow of trade routes over two centuries, and enable us better to understand the symbiotic nature of both branches of activity by demonstrating, for example, how often ships, merchants, and shipmasters moved between various branches of trade. Utilising GIS-Mapping technology, this information will, in due course, be displayed in an interactive map on our website.
Useful Links
We are examining the development of England’s/Britain’s overseas and coastal trade. Our dataset will allow us to reconstruct the directional flow of trade routes over two centuries, and enable us better to understand the symbiotic nature of both branches of activity by demonstrating, for example, how often ships, merchants, and shipmasters moved between various branches of trade. Utilising GIS-Mapping technology, this information will, in due course, be displayed in an interactive map on our website.
Medieval and Tudor Ships Project - http://medievalandtudorships.org/
Danish Soundtoll Registers online - http://www.soundtoll.nl/index.php/en/over-het-project/sonttol-registers
Navigocorpus Online - http://navigocorpus.org/
Medieval Londoners - https://medievallondoners.ace.fordham.edu/
Tudor Revels - http://www.tudorrevels.co.uk/
