Ship of Death: A Voyage That Changed the Atlantic World
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.64 (942 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0300194528 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 328 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-02-12 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
In this gripping, grisly story of slavery, rebellion and yellow fever holocaust ricocheting around the Atlantic rim, Smith brilliantly shows how stowaway mosquitoes on a single ship reconfigured the societies of Africa, Europe, the West Indies, and North America as well as the armies and navies of Great Britain and other maritime nations.”—Gary B. Nash, UCLA. “This stunning book should catapult to the top of the must-read list for Atlantic basin studies
Billy G. Smith links the voyage and its deadly cargo to some of the most significant events of the erathe success of the Haitian slave revolution, Napoleon’s decision to sell the Louisiana Territory, a change in the geopolitical situation of the new United Statesand spins a riveting tale of unintended consequences and the legacy of slavery that will not die.. The few survivors on the Hankey eventually limped back to London, hopes dashed and numbers decimated. This extraordinary book uncovers the long-forgotten story of the Hankey, from its altruistic beginnings to its disastrous end, and describes the ship’s fateful impact upon people from West Africa to Philadelphia, Haiti to London. Smith chased the story of the Hankey from archive to archive across several continents, and he now brings back to light a saga that continues to haunt the modern world. It is no exaggeration to say that the Hankey, a small British ship that circled the Atlantic in 1792 and 1793, transformed the history of the Atlantic world. In the United States, tens of thousands died in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston. The resulting pandemic as the Hankey traveled from one port to the next was catastrophic. With the colony failing, the ship set sail for the Caribbean and then North America, carrying, as it turned out, mosquitoes infected with yellow fever. It began with a
How one disease and one ship changed the course of history Paul Mastin Montana State University professor Billy G. Smith travelled the world and dug into far-flung archives chasing down the forgotten story of a failed colony on the western coast of Africa, a ship called Hankey, and the viral outbreak the Hankey carried from Africa to ports of call around the Atlantic. The story of Hankey's yellow fever outbreak had been forgotten, but at the time, at the end of the 18th century, Hankey's reputation struck fear in. Ship of Death Erin Davies It is impossible to truly appreciate historic fiction without a basic understanding of the facts which is what led me to Billy G. Smith's Ship of Death. I'm not well-versed in nautical history and began reading this piece in the hopes of expanding my basic knowledge of the subject. If anything, I intended it to be background reading and was caught off guard when I found myself utterly immersed in an all but forgotten chapter of maritime cultur. Amazing book JLS The author has taken a small historical adventure and turned it into a broad history of the Atlantic area, slavery, and epidemic. It is exciting to read, and his attention to detail, individual lives, and historical impact is amazing. This seems to be a book necessary to read, not only for enjoyment, but to have an understanding of events which shaped the times and geography of the world. I can see why other historians are so impressed.I was s