| We hope to continue building this page so that enthusiasts for the world of the sea, starting here, can set out on any virtual voyage of maritime exploration that takes their fancy. Let us know your favorite sites by e-mailing info@hkmaritimemuseum.org |
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General |
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An excellent starting point is always Yahoo's maritime history directory, though like most maritime history sites, it is western biased: http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/By_Subject/Maritime_History/ |
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Maritime research on the internet http://ils.unc.edu/maritime/home.shtml, based on the University of North Carolina is slightly US biased, but a good starting point to where to look for resources for researching maritime history on the internet.
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You can find good links to library, archival, and internet material in maritime history at http://www.adp.fsu.edu/uwdirectFiles/history.html a website of Florida State University.
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Probably the best bibliography on the history of ships you can find is at http://cma.soton.ac.uk/HistShip/UWB01.htm a website from a course given at Southampton University, UK. It has 45 pages and covers every aspect of maritime historical study you can think of in exhaustive detail.
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The above site is also home, at http://cma.soton.ac.uk/HistShip/shipind.htm, to the Eurocentric, but extremely thorough and useful series of lecture notes on the History and Archaeology of the Ship (its development through the ages) by John Illsley. |
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An excellent guide to relevant websites at the same place is http://cma.soton.ac.uk/HistShip/nautical.htm |
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General Asian Maritime History |
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For the best introduction to Asian Maritime history see http://www.maritimeasia.ws/ especially their chronology of Asian maritime history
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http://www.maritimeasia.ws/topic/chronology.html Note that as the website authors say, because of the paucity of material on Asian maritime history, they have put everything in without discrimination, so there's a lot of very doubtful history. The bibliography is very good.
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A rather eccentric view teetering on the edge of 'alternative history', but interesting nonetheless is http://nabataea.net/china1.html . The page takes an innovative look at early trade contacts between the Middle East and the Far East. The Nabateans were inhabitants of parts of present day Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, between the 4th century BCE and the 7th century CE.
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http://www.iseas.edu.sg/nsc/ website of the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. The Centre is devoted to research in historical interactions among Asian societies and civilizations, most of which until the late 20th century were by sea. |
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Chinese maritime history |
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An attractive website and a good general introduction to the American trade with China, with good links to other pages looking in general at 19th century Chinese-American maritime links, the gold rush and emigration ships, as well as the vexed issue of opium smuggling can be found at http://www.maritimeheritage.org/newtale/opium.html |
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Much of the material on Chinese maritime history is still locked up in (mostly Chinese language) books and articles in learned journals. However, there are good starting points to be found on the Internet. Here are some: For the serious scholar, a listing of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge UK's holdings can be found at
http://www.nri.org.uk/library.html |
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For a general, if rather rose-tinted look at China's role in the history of innovation in maritime and other technologies go to http://www.inventions.org/culture/asian/chinese.html |
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For a fascinating look a the story of one, far-ranging Fuzhou pole junk, the Ningpo, see Hans Van Tilburg's 'An Obsessed Mariner's Notes on the Ningpo, A Vessel from the Junk Trade', at http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/pubs/explore/v1/v1n2-art6.html. A new research programme has recently started on the extensive archives, held in Nanjing, of the Imperial maritime Customs, which represents an important, if problematic chapter in Qing dynasty maritime history. For more information you can go to: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/Customs/ancestors.htm. The project also has a China Coast Family History element accessible via the same link. A report on the archive can be found at http://www.bacsuk.org.uk/Bull00Ven.html.
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For more general material on China and waterborne trade try http://www.chinapage.com/main2.html where there are links to articles about Dragon Boats, the Grand Canal and more general history including maritime history - for example the Opium War and Admiral Zhenghe
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The 600th anniversary celebration of Admiral Zhenghe's great voyages: A good general introduction written in 2001 can be found on the TimeAsia website at Http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/ Very general and well laid out but, it has to be said, beating a partisan gong, http://www.china-inc.com/education/history/ming.html gives a broad-brush view of the great expeditions of Admiral Zhenghe.
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A lot less authoritative, and a drum-beat for Gavin Menzies' fanciful ideas, is SL Lee's http://www.chinapage.com/history/zhenghe2.html. It has links to other general sources.
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The New York Times Magazine published a six part series you can access athttp://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m3/kristof.html , a part of it dealing with one of the earliest signs of the great Chinese diaspora - on the island of Pate off Kenya in East Africa - can also be found at http://www.huaren.org/diaspora/background/doc/kristof.html.
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Michael L. Bosworth's 'The Rise and Fall of 15th century Chinese Seapower', a brief introduction to the fascinating story of Admiral Zhenghe's voyages can be found at http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/china.htm |
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http://www.dragonvoyage.com/ship/rig.shtml is the page of the voyage of a Hong Kong built replica sailing fishing junk that had sailed to England and was shipped back to Hong Kong for enthusiasts to retrace Zhenghe's voyage. It is interesting partly for what it reveals of the actual performance of sailing junks. Sadly the Precious Dragon later sank.
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It would be wrong not to mention Gavin Menzies 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, see http://www.1421.tv/, though we at the HKMM are extremely skeptical of most of Mr Menzies' claims. If nothing else, the website is very entertaining. For authoritative scholars' takes on 1421, see http://www.1421exposed.com. |
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