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Indian Ocean

Photo Archives and Maritime Cliches

During last week’s Tweetchat @agi_mv asked about the use of satellite technology in identifying submerged sites and shipwrecks. The discussion that followed ended up on the beaches of south India about 10 years ago, beaches which Julian had identified kattumaram boats on from GoogleEarth images and on which Lucy, Julian and I (along with Dr Colin Palmer, Dr Selvakumar and a handful of other fantastically patient Indian colleagues) spent some weeks recording and researching fishing boats. Continue reading →

The maritime rhythms of the Indian Ocean monsoon

Throughout the last few thousand years the mariners and trade routes of the Indian Ocean have moved to a unique rhythm based upon the prevailing seasonal weather patterns. These are known individually as a monsoon, derived from the Arabic mawsim, meaning a fixed time of year. Two main monsoons can be identified: blowing from the north-east in the winter and the south-west during the summer with a variable weather season in between. Continue reading →

Contemplating the necessity for international collaboration in maritime research

This has been a busy week. Instead of writing the dreaded chapter for a gazetteer, this week has been filled with meetings and seminars from visiting scholars undertaking maritime research around the globe. The arrival of our colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA), the University of Western Australia, Thessaloniki University (Greece) and Yokohama National University (Japan) has been coincidental; we were not hosting an international symposium or congress. Continue reading →