Sourcing maritime history over four decades: Crew agreement scholarship at Memorial University of Newfoundland

Abstract

Providing context for this forum on a major resource for nineteenth-century merchant seafarers’ history, this article treats the temporality of the politics – historical, archival and historiographical – of the Agreements and Accounts of Crew of British imperial vessels. The exercise brings to light significant differences in the projects and practice of maritime history during the time that two generations of historians have had access to the Agreements at Memorial University. While introducing the subsequent articles by emerging scholars, it raises questions about how archives are involved in the production and communication of maritime history. It makes particular reference to the digital transformation of archives and pays attention to the social reproduction and social purpose of our discipline.