European Sailors, Alcohol, and Cholera in Nineteenth-Century India

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter in a book

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In early modern Europe, British sailors had the reputation of being rootless, often violent, promiscuous, and dipsomaniacs—an idiom for social evil (Conley 2009, 2). However, in the late eighteenth century, this image started to change as naval authorities, Christian missionaries, authors, and playwrights sought to project sailors as valiant founders of Britain’s maritime empire. Subsequently, in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, sailors were increasingly portrayed as defenders of the nation and devoted family persons. American sailors were likewise presented sympathetically in accounts such as the 1852 annual report of the American Seamen’s Friend Society, which stated that more than 70,000 sailors had pledged themselves to the temperance movement and nearly 50 Sailors’ Homes had been established in port cities (Haughton 1855, 111). At the same time, the merchant and war navies of several countries supplied sailors with premium quality coffee and tea in an attempt to discourage them from drinking liquor. Naval authorities around the world floated the idea that abstinence improved the chance of surviving the ordeals of maritime voyages (Gustafson 1884, 97). However, in stark contrast to this generous characterization of the sailor in Europe, the British Indian government expressed great anxiety about the worsening situation of European sailors in Indian port cities. Its efforts to regulate the health and behaviour of sailors drew a fault line between imperial and colonial contexts of governance.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDisease Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World
EditorsGwyn Campbell, Eva-Maria Knoll
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages191-210
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-36264-5
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-36263-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2020

Publication series

NamePalgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan

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