The Ship In Geography and the Geography of Ships (Hasty and Peters, 2012)

Author & Year: Woodman, 2005

Key Idea: Ships played a central role in shaping the modern world by enabling global exploration, trade, colonization, and scientific exchange.

Evidence:

• Ships allowed mobility of goods, people, and ideas, creating early globalization.

• Maritime routes connected distant societies, fostering economic and cultural interdependence.

• Naval power determined political dominance and the spread of empires.

• Ships served as technological and scientific platforms, extending observation and data collection across the globe.
  Summary Quote (paraphrased): The world as we know it was “forged at sea,” through ships that linked continents and constructed global networks.

Author & Year: Sorrenson, 1996

Key Idea: The ship functioned as a scientific instrument during the age of exploration.

Evidence:

• Ships acted as floating laboratories, equipped with instruments for mapping, navigation, and observation.

• They enabled controlled scientific work at sea, standardizing data collection (e.g., temperature, depth, species).

• Voyages like those of Cook and Darwin used ships to gather specimens and measurements that built global scientific knowledge.

• The ship’s mobility and stability allowed scientists to extend the reach of European science to distant regions.
  Summary Quote (paraphrased): The ship was not just transport—it was the primary tool through which science expanded globally.

Author & Year: Latour, 1987 (Science in Action)

Key Idea: The “mobilisation of the world” describes how scientific and technological networks bring distant parts of the world into a manageable, knowable form.

• Science depends on the ability to collect, transport, and represent phenomena from faraway places (e.g., specimens, data, maps).

• Through instruments, ships, charts, and documents, the world is made mobile, stable, and visible — it can be studied and acted upon from afar.

• This process translates local realities into standardized, transportable representations (immutable mobiles).

• The mobilisation of the world allows scientists, states, and institutions to control and coordinate distant territories without being physically present.
  Example:

• Expeditions that use ships to collect specimens and then turn them into data or maps back in Europe exemplify the mobilisation of the world.
  Summary Quote (paraphrased): The mobilisation of the world is the process by which the distant becomes accessible, the mobile becomes immutable, and the world becomes knowable and governable through networks.

Author & Year: Latour, 1987 (Science in Action)

Key Idea: The “immutable mobile” describes an object that can move through space and time while remaining stable and reliable.

Evidence:

• Examples include ships, maps, charts, and scientific reports that transport standardized information without distortion.

• These objects allow knowledge and power to circulate, connecting distant places and actors.

• The ship, for instance, carries data and specimens across the world while maintaining controlled, scientific conditions.

• Immutable mobiles are essential for building global networks of science, empire, and administration.
  Summary Quote (paraphrased): An immutable mobile is something that “combines mobility with stability,” allowing facts and objects to travel intact through networks.

Authors & Year: Linebaugh & Rediker, 2005 (The Many-Headed Hydra)

Key Idea: Means of communication and transport—especially ships and maritime networks—were the driving force behind global commerce and capitalism.

Evidence:

• Ships acted as vehicles of exchange, moving goods, people, and ideas across continents.

• Maritime routes formed the infrastructure of the early global economy, linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

• Sailors, slaves, and merchants created a circulating labor and knowledge system, fueling capitalist expansion.

• Communication through the sea was not just economic but also political and cultural, shaping global interconnection.
  Summary Quote (paraphrased from p.152): The sea was the medium of communication that made global commerce and empire possible.