The Northern Mariner, XXIV, 1: Book Reviews
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BOOK REVIEWS J.P. Andrieux. The White Fleet. A History meet a number of scholarly standards, such of the Portuguese Hand Liners. St. John’s, as references, and includes little information NL: Flanker Press, www.flankerpress.com, beyond what is well-established knowledge 2013. xiv+361 pp., illustrations, among fisheries historians, it does a good bibliography, index. CDN $24.00, paper: job in preparing the stage for the second and ISBN 978-1-77117-236-3. main part of the book–the photographs. The 200 remaining pages are filled with For anybody interested in fisheries history, hundreds of black-and-white photographs it is obvious that the term “White Fleet” that provide an amazing insight into the refers not only to the fleet of U.S. Navy everyday life of the Portuguese dory- battleships that sailed around the globe fishery, the life and work onboard the dory- (1907-1909), but also to the Portuguese schooners, the ships seeking shelter in fishing vessels that worked the Grand Banks Newfoundland harbours, the interaction of with hand-lines up until the 1970s. While the dory-fishermen with local residents, the this “White Fleet” is mentioned in nearly strike of the dory-fishers in 1974, and a every historical analysis of the fisheries of number of other topics. the Northwest Atlantic, a comprehensive These briefly annotated historical analysis of the Portuguese distant- photographs have been drawn from various water fishing activities with hand-lines is sources, including a substantial number still missing. Although the title of from private collections that have never Andrieux’s book suggests an attempt to before been published. They are the main close that gap, it does not fulfil this reason for picking up the book. They tell a expectation, at least not in traditional tale that has not really been told before; the scholarly terms. story of Portuguese fishermen utilizing As a pictorial history of the traditional, maybe even outdated, equipment Portuguese hand-lining fisheries, this book while at the same time being part of post- was probably never intended to offer a war Europe and, more important, plying comprehensive scholarly analysis, but their trade during the 1960s and 1970s, a rather, to provide an insight into a maritime period of major societal change. world of the past and a fishery that was often considered anachronistic, outdated Therefore, while the book can be and doomed to disappear with the highly recommended to anybody interested modernization and industrialization of the in the wider field of fisheries history and fishing industries and the introduction of maritime cultural history, it is not an factory-freezer trawlers. analytical or traditional historical Andrieux’s first 76 pages provide a publication. Instead, it is a cornucopia of brief overview of the history of Portuguese authentic photographs of a fishery that was fishing activities in the Northwest Atlantic already anachronistic during its heyday. covering the time between about 1500 and One question that needs to be the 1970s. Although this overview fails to raised is whether the chapter on eating The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord XXIV, No. 1 (January 2014), 65-110 66 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Bacalhau (cod) in Portugal and the related index. US $95.00, hardback; ISBN 978-1- photographs at the end of the book really fit 84383-869-2. into the book’s overall theme, particularly those photographs that look more like Riding the coattails of the Pirates of the typical family vacation photos. From the Caribbean movies, there has been a flood of point of view of the fisheries historian, it books on pirates in recent years. Often would have been much more appropriate to these books are sensationalist and rest on include at least some pictures of former substandard research, especially those that dory fishermen working on factory-freezer try to make the most of the scant trawlers from distant-water fishing nations information we have on female pirates. like West Germany, after the end of the While pirates like Ann Bonny and Mary hand-lining period. This would have Read loom large in popular culture, John underlined the anachronistic conditions Appleby shows that a significant number of these fishermen had to face and their rapid women were involved in early modern transition into the world of industrialized piracy, although not in the roles that are so fisheries once the “White Fleet” was no often seen or celebrated. While the author longer extant. does devote a chapter to female pirates, the While one must appreciate a book real story of women’s involvement in offering such a wealth of historical English piracy is far broader. photographs for such a reasonable price, it Appleby begins with an is regrettable that the reproductions and informative context chapter on the prints of the photographs are not always the development of English piracy. In the best quality, often neither black nor white sixteenth century, more English seamen but only shades of grey. High quality prints indulged in piratical opportunities than lived would have made a wonderful coffee-table exclusively outside the law: piracy was book of aesthetic quality, but perhaps the often a male-dominated, haphazard present format is even more appropriate, maritime pursuit in and around the British since the ships of the “White Fleet” were Isles. Even those seamen whose fishing vessels dedicated to working on the livelihoods were derived largely from sea rather than enjoying the beauty of the illegal pursuits seemed to have had ocean. significant personal and business In conclusion, the book might not connections ashore. A fair number seemed be the most relevant contribution to to have maintained wives and children. scholarly literature, but it is definitely a While women were intimately welcome addition to the bookshelves of connected to English pirates as lovers and historians interested in fisheries history, wives, Appleby also demonstrates that maritime labour history, and Portuguese and piracy was heavily dependent on women Newfoundland history. who were buyers and receivers of stolen goods. These females had to have business Ingo Heidbrink acumen in order to hold their own in these Norfolk, Virginia transactions: “Doing business with pirates and sea rovers demanded flexibility, some John C. Appleby. Women and English degree of knowledge and skill, as well as Piracy 1540-1720. Partners and Victims of access to goods, provisions or services” Crime. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, (53). As receivers and dealers, there was a www.boydellandbrewer.com, 2013. xv+264 very significant opportunity for female pp., illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, agency and women of all ranks of society Book Reviews 67 were involved. These dealings took many of the custom of petitioning those in different forms: from small-scale exchanges positions of authority to aid them in their involving hospitality to a sustained pattern distress. While victimized by the growing of receiving, often involving taverns and lawlessness at sea, women could be pro- lodging houses. Women’s “agency formed active in reaching out to those who could part of the hidden undergrowth of organized help raise ransom money and negotiate the criminality and disorder at sea.” In the release of their spouses and loved ones. earlier part of the period under examination, While they worked within channels that these relationships illustrate the intimate were established and acceptable for connections and dependence between land respectable English women, there were in and sea, as well as between genders (84). stark contrast to those spouses, lovers and During the seventeenth century, female kin willing to go to great lengths to English pirates broadened their harbour pirates or to help them break them geographical horizons as their bases were out of jail. Clearly, women performed a increasingly stationed in the Mediterranean variety of roles in the web of piracy with and Caribbean. As a result, English pirates varying degrees of agency. had more contact and relationships with Overall, Appleby’s latest offering is non-British women, in various types of well researched and written in engaging unions, in paid-for sexual transactions and prose—a wonderful marriage of academic as violent episodes at sea. For women in content and readability. Much of the the British Isles, business opportunities argument rests on anecdotal evidence, were altered by the dispersal of English making his assertions difficult to prove or piracy, but these women could be quite disprove. There are only minor flaws in a adaptive to their new realities and book which is welcome for the light it sheds challenges. on women’s roles in piracy and the interplay Appleby maintains that piracy between the genders. Stripped bare of the became an even more organized, romance of Hollywood, pirates emerge– masculinized activity in the later part of the with a few notable exceptions–not so much period. This heightened masculinization as colourful swashbucklers, but more often corresponds with a rising tide of violence in as early modern people trying to cobble piracy during the later seventeenth century together a living through an increasingly and early eighteenth centuries. This meant dangerous occupation on the fringes of the that women were less likely to welcome maritime world. Their female loved ones, contact with pirates as they were more sexual partners, accomplices and victims likely to be victimized. And women were around the globe were dramatically affected not the only ones: given that men were far by these changes as they too sought ways to more prevalent on all types of ships, they, survive. too, were preyed upon which often affected Cheryl Fury women back in England. During the Grand Bay, New Brunswick seventeenth century, there was a marked increase of the English seamen captured and held for ransom by Barbary pirates.