Nineteenth Century Whaleboats: From commercial technology to essential Royal Naval craft

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Commercial maritime fleets represent an overlooked and understudied source of technological inspiration for the British Royal Navy. One such example is the whaleboat. The whaleboat was integrated into the navy in the mid nineteenth century and proved to be a remarkably versatile ship’s boat. It was only after a series of alterations in the late nineteenth century, however, that the whaleboat went from a specialised craft used in niche environments to universally popular across the fleet in the twentieth century. This study will trace the evolution of the whaleboat form, using the timing and types of alterations to the hull and rigging, to discuss how these changes contributed to the use of the whaleboat in wider contexts. The whaleboat serves as an example of the importance of addressing sources of extra-military exchange, and the viability of attempts to reconstruct the evolution of commercial technologies into naval technologies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 281