Sailing the British Empire : The Voyages of The Clarence, 1858-73 Main Menu Sailing the British Empire: The Voyages of the Clarence, 1858-73 The Crew / Acknowledgments The Provenance of Watson's Log Additional Sources: Logs, Crew Lists, Diaries Inside Lloyd's Register "Green's Celebrated Service" Details on owner of the ship at the time of our voyage, Richard Green. The Master Builder: William Pile The Master: Joseph Watson's Biography A Mate's Progress The Career of Henry Berridge, First Mate of the Clarence The Crew of the Clarence in 1864 An annotated crew list The 18th Hussars The Clarence and the Cyclone of 1864 Origins of Indian Emigrants Aboard The Clarence The Surgeon-Superintendant Wages of indentured labourers in Demerara (1870-1900) The Clarence Sails to Australia Mutiny! Violence and Resistance Aboard "Coolie Ships" Cholera: The Killer from Calcutta STSC 077, The University of Pennsylvania, fall 2015

Introduction

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(Splash page image: "'Clipper ship Clarence 1250 Tons', hand-coloured lithograph (n.d.); T.G. Dutton, artist; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Ms. Coll 832 at the University of Pennsylvania comprises a ship's log kept by Joseph Watson, master of the Clarence, in 1864-65, and a few other items from Watson's long career at sea (including a painting of another command, the Prince of Wales). The log, which chronicles a voyage from England to India, then Guiana and home, provides a fascinating glimpse of travel - and peril - in the heyday of Britain's global empire. In the telling, it offers vantages on military history, labor and economic history, the history of health and medicine, and environmental history.

Mapping the Clarence

Follow the ship on its travels, via a torque map made using CartoDB (thanks to Hannah Feldman for making the original spreadsheet):

The log of the Clarence illuminates multiple aspects of the working of the Victorian British empire: on the first leg of the voyage, European soldiers are deployed to India to garrison the "jewel in the Crown"; on the second leg, Indian laborers are deployed to British Guiana to produce sugar for the metropolitan economy (and dietary). En route master Joseph Watson witnesses two natural disasters: a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and an epidemic of fever aboard the ship (though, as we shall see, contemporaries debated whether this was in fact a 'natural' occurrence). These and other story lines will be explored in this book.


Story Map: An Overview of the Voyage

Here is a preview of the destinations, passengers and significant events in the 1864-65 journey of the Clarence. These - and other voyages of the ship - will be explored in greater detail within the site.

This page has paths:

  1. Sailing the British Empire: The Voyages of the Clarence, 1858-73 STSC 077, Fall 2015 First Year Seminar, University of Pennsylvania

Contents of this path:

  1. The Crew / Acknowledgments
  2. The Provenance of Watson's Log
  3. Lloyd's Register: Decoding the Clarence
  4. The Owner
  5. The Master Builder: William Pile
  6. Joseph Watson's Biography
  7. Watson Lineage
  8. Green's Vessels
  9. An Illustrious Uncle
  10. A Mate's Progress
  11. The British in India
  12. 18th Hussars
  13. 18th Hussars Background
  14. The Hussars Reborn: 1858-1864
  15. 310 Tickets to India, Please: The 18th Hussars Aboard the Clarence
  16. After Landing

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