Although I did not see the sea until I was fourteen, it was love at first sight.
Since first moving across salt water in a small dinghy, I have been fascinated by all things maritime. I have been especially interested in the history of merchant sail.
Ships are unique. The ease with which they move heavy cargo prodigious distances is, to me, a source of wonder. They are not bothered by the size, condition, or steepness of the road, the strength of bridges or the altitude of mountain ranges. The sea is unique. It provides a level weight-bearing surface over which a ship can pass relatively effortlessly.
As well, oceans cover 72% of the world’s surface. Without sailing ships, Western civilisation would never have reached the vast land masses of the Americas and Australia.
Consider the first Portuguese carracks that returned from the East Indies. They may have only carried twenty or thirty tons of immensely valuable spices, but it was a single load. How many camels and horses and people would have been required to fulfil that task on land; how many times the multiple bundles of cargo would have had to change hands before they reached their final destination, and the cost and the risks involved?
True, many ships and sailors perished then and have since, but sea transport was (and remains) very cost-effective and, indeed, vital. It was a necessary part of the rise of nations such as Portugal and Spain, and later the Netherlands, which, grew enormously wealthy on its ability to exploit the immense convenience that the oceans provide.
Great Britain would also prosper through its ability to prey on the merchandise trade of other nations, laying the foundations of what would become the mightiest navy in the world, a major factor in its global domination.
Sailing ships were the handmaidens of the age of globalisation. They contributed immensely not only to the wealth of nations, but to the spread of knowledge and ideas. My book is hopefully a worthwhile contribution to how that all came about.
As an economist by profession, I am an alumnus of Sydney University from which I hold two degrees and where I was an active participant in varsity sailing. But whilst I earned my living from the discipline, and it provided many insights in compiling this book, my great love is history, and especially the era that relied so heavily on sail as a means of propulsion.
Personally, a career opportunity took me and my young family to Tasmania in 1982. I have lived here ever since. I have owned several boats, the last one being a 10m Van de Stadt ketch in which, among other voyages, I circumnavigated Tasmania.
