Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Some of the most exciting developments in the fi eld of maritime history have
come as a result of multidisciplinary efforts. The History of Marine Animal Popula-
tions research programme (HMAP), for example, a joint initiative between the
Universities of Southern Denmark, New Hampshire (USA) and Hull (UK) has
brought together marine ecologists and maritime historians to investigate how, why
and through what human or natural mechanisms there have been changes to the
biodiversity of the world's oceans over the last 2000 years (Holm et al., 2001; Holm,
2003). Historical perspectives are revealing long-term ecological declines in species
richness and abundance in some regions as a result of the combined impacts of past
fi shing extractions, habitat destruction and pollution (Holm, 2005). Such informa-
tion will prove pivotal in the formulation of appropriate policy and regulation of
fi sheries and marine habitats.
In a similar vein, a recently completed EU funded project has brought together
scholars from Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and South America and from a wide
variety of disciplinary backgrounds to construct a Climatological Database of the
World's Oceans, 1750-1850 (CLIWOC), from English, Dutch and Spanish mari-
time and mariners' records, including ships logbooks and trading documents (García-
Herrera et al
.,
2005). Analysis of the precise time and place specifi c information on
wind direction, wind force, weather conditions, sea state and sea ice reports held in
the log books is providing useful insight into climate variability associated with the
North Atlantic Oscillation and the Southern Oscillation. The project is also illumi-
nating a number of additional historical themes of interest to maritime environmen-
tal history. Analysis of the muster topics of the East India Company reveals that the
most frequent entries by naval offi cers relate to the health of the crew and mortality.
These data can be used to trace developments in ventilation, hygiene and diet on
board ship and to measure the effects of environmental conditions on the health of
the crews. It may also be possible to employ these sources to explore the relationship
between infectious disease and climate variability in the past (Wilkinson, 2005).
Health and disease in environmental history
Issues of land, health and sickness were, to some extent, central to the early con-
servation thought and practice of pioneering environmental historians like Aldo
Leopold (Mitman, 2005). Yet histories of disease, health and public health response
have not really featured as central tenets in recent environmental history discourse
(Luckin, 2004). Historical geographers and medical historians have examined
changing conceptualisations of the healthiness of places over time according to
advances in medical knowledge and of acclimatisation of plants, animals and people
(Livingstone, 1991; 2002; Anderson, 1996; Harrison, 1996). Geographers have also
been at the forefront of monitoring spatial diffusion of disease and particularly
epidemic disease at the local, regional and global levels (Smallman-Raynor et al.,
2003; Cliff et al., 2004). The study of epidemic disease, however, is beginning to
creep into the new suite of urban environmental histories. Craddock's exploration
of epidemic disease in nineteenth and twentieth century San Francisco provides
insight into the way in which scourges of smallpox and tuberculosis were under-
stood, conceptualised and addressed, but also demonstrates developments in the
fi eld of epidemiological thinking over time (Craddock, 2000). Attention is also now
shifting to the way in which health can be and has been 'infl uential historically to
