Global Ships
Seafaring, Shipwrecks, and Boatbuilding in the Global Middle Ages

Examines major seafaring technologies that engendered long-distance connections across the world's oceans during the Global Middle Ages.

Amanda Respess (Author)

9781009494373, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 2025

70 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.271 kg

Global Ships examines the major seafaring traditions and technologies that engendered long-distance connections across the world's oceans during the Global Middle Ages. Between the years 500–1500 CE, maritime trade networks spanning the seas globalized commodities, religions, and trade diasporas in an increasingly mobile world. Focusing on shipbuilding traditions, nautical cultures, sailing itineraries, and examples of recovered shipwrecks and cargoes from around the world, Global Ships provides an expert overview of the major vessels that sailed the seas in the Global Middle Ages. A concise interpretive guide to global maritime technologies and cultures for researchers, teachers, and students, Global Ships highlights essential historical context, technological case studies, and logics of seafaring around the world before the modern age.

Global Ships: An Introduction
1. A Prehistory of Boatbuilding and Long-Distance Trade Networks
2. Austronesian Boatbuilding and Seafaring, Southeast Asian Lashed-Lug Vessels
3. Sewn-Boats from the Western Indian Ocean
4. Hybrid Ships in China and Southeast Asia
5. Competition and Change in the Mediterranean
6. Viking Ships and Trade Vessels in Northern and Western Europe
7. Weaponized Ships
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]