Review of Burleson

BOOK REVIEWS Stephen Fisher (ed.). Recreation and the Sea. common thread in Waltons case studies of Exeter: Universi ty of Exeter Press, 1997. ix + 181 Brighton, Nice, and San Sebastian, and Cusack pp., figures, maps, tables, photographs. £13.99, and Ryan both recognise its role in the develop- paper; ISBN 0-85989-540-8. Distributed in No rth ment of yachting. On a more practical level, America by Northwestern University Press, improvements in transpo rtation — from steam- Evanston, IL. boats to trains to automobiles — encouraged mass tourism and permitted the emergence of seaside This is a collection of six essays originally pre- resort towns and even resort "clusters." [Walton, sented at a 1993 conference organised by the 46] With the onset of mass tourism, advertising Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the assumed a key role, as Morgan makes clear for University of Exeter. John Travis writes on Torquay. As for image, Walton and Morgan both English sea-bathing between 1730 and 1900; argue convincingly that, at least until 1939, local John Walton looks at the spread of sea-bathing communities had a large say in how they wished from England where it began to other European to be portrayed to potential visitors. centres during the period 1750 to 1939; Paul There is little with which to quibble in this Thornton provides a regional study of coastal fine collection. Travis offers no explanation for tourism in Cornwall since 1900; Nigel Morgan the nineteenth-century transition in bathing examines the emergence of modern resort activi- circles from a medicinal focus to an emphasis on ties in inter-war Torquay; and Janet Cusack and the physical activity of swimming, though he Roger Ryan write on aspects of English yachting admits that this was "a fundamental ch ange in the history, the former focusing on the Thames and bathing ritual." [16] Citing Perrys work on Corn- south Devon, the latter on the northwest. wall, Thornton seems to embrace the notion that, The essays cover a broad time period and because tourism has become commodified, its subject matter, but there are some common shelf life is necessarily limited "like all mass con- themes, with class the domin ant one. Although sumer products." [76] That conclusion is contra- sea-bathing first gained notice in the eighteenth dicted by the evidence in this collection, which century among the well-to-do for its supposed attests to the long and rich history of seaside medicinal value, Travis and Walton both argue tourism, and the industrys ability to adapt over that the practice had a "pre-history" in folk cul- time. While the commodity may indeed change, ture. Thus its growth followed a route from folk it gives every appearance of being here to stay. custom to elite practice before it "percolated downwards" [Walton, 40] to the working class in James E. Candow the nineteenth century. Morgan notes the demo- Dartmouth, Nova Scotia cratising influence of the automobile on Torquays tourist trade. This caused a shift in the Ulla Ehrensvärd , Pellervo Kokkonen, and Juha makeup of the holidaying public from the "cl asses Nurminen (Philip Binham, trans.). Mare to the masses." [85] Only in yachting did the Balticum: The Baltic — Two Thousand Years. transition beyond the wealthy élite not extend to Helsinki: Otava and John Nurminen Foundation, the working class (at least not before 1939); Ryan 1995. 287 pp., illustrations, maps, photographs attributes this largely to snobbery [168]. Still, fear (b+w, colour), appendix, bibliography, indices. of the superior physical and sailing abilities of 480 FM, cloth; ISBN 951-1-13994-0. fishermen did not prevent yachtsmen from taking them on as crewmembers for races, which was Mare Balticum: The Baltic — Two Thousand permissible so long as they did not take the helm. Years is a magnificently produced summary of The importance of royal patronage in legiti- Baltic maritime history, aimed at non-specialists. mising and popularising recreational pursuits is a A "coffee-table book," this large-format volume 81 82 The Northern Mariner is not designed to break new ground; rather, it Mare Balticums visual appeal and wide does an admirable job of introducing and synthe- scope make it a delight for browsing; there are sizing the main sweep of Baltic history over the tidbits worth a pause on nearly every page. For longue durée. Ehrensvärd and Kokkonen are instance, scattered throughout pages 39-100 are academic historians who specialize in marine numerous seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cartography; Nurminen is a business leader who cityscapes, some in birds-eye view, others de- is a serious map collector and student of maritime picted from the vantage point of a ship approach- exploration. It therefore comes as no surprise that ing the harbour. Among the cities featured are the Baltics geography, topography, and hydro- ones important for Baltic trade but less well graphy are foregrounded here. Mare Balticum is known to many anglo- and francophonic scholars, lavishly illustrated to suppo rt its main focus, with such as Visby, Stralsund, and Reval (Tallinn). a great many full-colour reproductions of rare Elsewhere one learns that Tallinns name comes historical charts, portolans, and atlas-maps as well from the Estonian for "Danish Ci ty," a reminder as modern maps showing trade routes. of geopolitics and colonization in a bygone age. The story begins with the first recorded [38] We learn that the water levels of Stockholm mentions of the Baltic, with a discussion of Pliny, harbour have been measured continuously since Strabo, Ptolemy, and of Pytheas of Marseilles 1774, the longest series of such measurements in who sailed with Phoenicians from Cadiz in 320 the world, [14] that the Hanseatic merchants BC to Jutland and "Thule" (possibly northern apparently did not make much use of map or Norway). It then continues through the Vikings, compass, [51] and that the Swede Johan the Hanseatic League, the Teutonic Knights, the Maansson, whose sailing directions for the Baltic rise and rivalry of the Danish and Swedish king- were very influential when published in 1644, did doms, and the domination of the carrying trades not include any coastline sketches and determined by the British and the Dutch, ending with the distances by guesswork. [128] Appendices pro- coming of steam. The dominant maritime techno- vide detail on fifty-three naval battles fought in logies of each epoch receive special a ttention, the Baltic between 1000 and 1855, and on sixty- usually in sidebars or inserts. Thus, one gets good eight historic wreck sites. capsule histories of the Viking long-ship, [32-33] The editors have given us a valuable gateway the Hanseatic cog, [50] the hulk, [88] and the to Baltic maritime history. Mare Balticum pro- flute. [117] There are also informative reviews of vides not only a good framework of that history, navigational tools and techniques such as com- but, with its lush graphics, also provides insights passes, [25, 146] goniometry, [102] measurement into how the peoples ringing the Baltic have of longitude, [164] sounding, [84] salvage, [192] perceived and imagined, visualized and conceived pilotage, [96] and lighthouses. [223] One minor of their shared sea. The book is thus a cultural critique: the analogous inse rts on various trades, history as much as a compendium of data on e.g., grain, tar, fish, etc., are less informative than Baltic technology, mathematics, naval conflict, the descriptions of technologies. and economy. It deserves a place on bookshelves Although all areas of the Baltic are covered, next to Johannes Schildhauers Die Hanse: Sweden and Russia are examined particularly Geschichte und Kultur (Kohlhammer, 1984) and closely. For scholars and others who know little the 1990 reissue of Blaeus The Grand Atlas by about the Baltic, or who view the Baltic through, the Royal Geographic Society/Rizzoli. One final say, a British or Dutch lens, the emphasis on the comment: Mare Balticum may also be an exem- activities of the eastern Baltic monarchies will be plar for fruitful collaboration between academe especially useful. Thus, Russias emergence as a and the business world, sponsored as it was by Baltic power is traced concisely through the dev- the Nurminen Foundation (linked to the elopment of Russian knowledge about the sea- Nurminen business group); one can only hope lanes and coastlines. [188-200, 236-238] that other commercial enterprises will emulate Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Swedish Nurminens good efforts. contributions to marine cartography, coastal forti- fication design, and ship architecture are des- Daniel A. Rabuzzi cribed well and succinctly. [158, 174, 210-216] Decorah, Iowa Book Reviews 83 Roger C. Smith, James J. Miller, Sean M. Kelley, sive and inviting introduction to Floridas mari- Linda G. Harbin. An Atlas of Maritime Florida. time heritage. Six chapters are entitled the "Physi- Gainesville: University Press of Florida for cal Environment," "Growth of Maritime Florida," Florida Heritage, 1997. iv + 45 pp., photographs, "Maritime Industries," "Navigation and Ship illustrations, maps, figures, sources and further Types," "Hazards and Aids to Navigation," and reading. US $9.95, paper; ISBN 0-8130-1512-X. "Ship Losses and Shipwrecks." As would be expected from an atlas there are maps — about With An Atlas of Maritime Florida, the team of fifteen of them, though they tend to be a little authors led by Roger Smith, chief maritime simplistic and all are reproduced only in black, archaeologist at the Florida Bureau of Archaeo- white and grey tones. Colour maps and some logical Research, have created a model for future photos could well have generated a sufficient publications aiming to combine geographic, increase in sales to offset their greater cost. historic, and archaeological data in an examina- An introductory study should skim a broad tion of regional maritime activity.

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