Comments | little_details: Any good sources on 1800s-ish merchant ship life?

tamtrible in little_details

Any good sources on 1800s-ish merchant ship life?

Dec 08, 2016 12:23

My story's set in a broad-AU (Earth with magic), and I'd like to get the "feel" right (and maybe steal some ideas of events that can happen to Our Heroine ( Read more... )

~boats and other things that float, uk: history: regency period, 1800-1809, 1810-1819, 1780-1789, uk: history (misc), 1800s (no decades given), 1790-1799

Comments 21

Mod Request orange_fell December 9 2016, 14:15:43 UTC

Please edit your post to include sources and search terms you've already tried, so we don't recommend things you've already seen. Thank you.

RE: Mod Request tamtrible December 9 2016, 16:20:33 UTC

kinda wasn't sure what to search for/with.

RE: Mod Request orange_fell December 9 2016, 18:04:21 UTC

No worries, just say that :)

reapermum December 9 2016, 14:25:24 UTC

Voyages with a Merchant Prince is very readable. That link takes you to Amazon where the book is available as a free Kindle download.

It's the diary of the wife of a Liverpool merchant who accompanied him on a trading voyage to China in 1830. And her descendants have added extra information about her life.

tamtrible December 9 2016, 16:22:49 UTC

Only free with Kindle Unlimited, but I'll poke around and see if I can find it at the library or something. Thank you.

reapermum December 9 2016, 16:27:56 UTC

Sorry about that, it was a free download when I got it. But it is a very good book, I hope you can find it.

ffutures December 9 2016, 15:50:54 UTC

Obvious question - steam or sail, or a mixture? By 1830 you start to see sailing ships with paddle-wheel steam engines mostly used if the wind stops blowing, by the mid 1840s steam ships with propellers are starting to do the whole trip under power. It makes a huge difference to navigation, of course!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamship

tamtrible December 9 2016, 16:11:29 UTC

Sail. The give-or-take-half-a-century was mostly because I figured at least for a pure sailing ship, half a century shouldn't make *that* much difference to the kinds of details I'm looking for.

dragonbat2006 December 9 2016, 16:05:17 UTC

Might want to check out the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer. It's set during the Napoleonic wars. First book is about a London Street urchin who disguises herself as a boy and signs up as a ship's boy on a British Man-O-War charged with hunting pirates.

tamtrible December 9 2016, 16:12:53 UTC

Probably a bit more military-focused than I was aiming for, but I'll keep it in mind.

laridian December 9 2016, 16:18:03 UTC

I've just started "Hen Frigates" by Joan Druett, nonfiction about women (wives) aboard merchant ships. I'm not very far in yet but it sounds like it could be useful to you.

tamtrible December 9 2016, 16:23:18 UTC

Very. Thank you.