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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles
Marine Policy, Vol. 23, No. 4}5, pp. 275}287, 1999 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0308-597X/99 $ *see front matter
PII: S0308-597X(99)00011-1
The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles
Hance D Smith Introduction The historical geography of sea uses is outlined as a sequence of stages of development. The resulting geographical patterns are discussed in terms of the major sea use groups involved, including reference to urban and rural sea use categories. Source materials for the historical geography of the sea are considered, followed by evaluation of major factors involved, including in particular the roles of technological, economic and environmental considerations. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Keywords NHistorical geography of the sea, Development phases, Geographical patterns
Hance D Smith is Reader, Department of Maritime Studies and International Transport, Cardiff University, and co-ordinator of the Marine and Coastal Environment Group. He can be contacted at the Department of Maritime Studies and International Transport, PO Box 907, Cardiff Wales CFI 3YP, UK. Tel.: 01222-874271; Fax: 01222874301; E-mail: [email protected].
The idea that Britain is a maritime nation is axiomatic in the sense that such a nation is considered as one in which a substantial part of the cultural and economic life of the country is in various ways dependent upon the sea. However, the term &Britain' is to some extent geographically vague * even in relatively recent times the national political histories of the two major islands involved have been complicated in the extreme, and earlier political evolution is likewise complicated. Nonetheless, there is arguably a considerable degree of coherence in the overall political and economic development of the archipelago which repays a systematic approach to the historical geography. The term: &historical geography' in the present context covers the record of interaction between human activities on the one hand, and the marine and coastal environment on the other over a range of time spans which are further elaborated below. Accordingly, Section 1 deals with the development processes concerned, de"ned within a series of time scales which can be used to classify the historical record. Secondly, the regional geographical pattern arising from these development processes are classi"ed, principally in terms of overall use intensity di!erentiation. Finally, key issues in the study of this historical geography are considered. The paper as a whole thus provides the essential "rst step for consideration of the numerous management topics which form the bulk of this special issue.
Development The starting point for understanding the record of development of the seas and coasts of The British Isles is the physical environment itself, including
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the legacy of human activity both on the seabed and at the coast. Broadly speaking, the human impacts can be analysed as a series of stages of varying time spans. In terms of the detectable evidence these time spans may be grouped into four categories, being respectively premedieval, medieval, early modern, and the industrial group of &long-wave' stages. The pre-medieval is itself complex, and not surprisingly, generally the most di$cult to detect in the archaeological record, although there is environmental and early historical evidence available to aid in reconstruction of the sequence of events. In the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic the coast was an important focus of human activity [1]. In the Neolithic human in#uence penetrated more inland, with the beginning of forest clearance and agriculture. From this era also there is the remarkable development of funerary monuments which is parallelled throughout western and Mediterranean Europe [2]. Some of the evidence lies in coastal areas, notably archaeological remains in the islands of western and northern Britain and Ireland. Overall, there may have been a 2000-year series of stages [3] extending from the early Neolithic into the Iron Age just prior to the Roman invasion, and through the Roman period to the beginning of the mis-named * from a northern point of view * Dark Ages. It is probably true to say that the period from the end of the Roman Empire in Britain until the end of the Middle Ages (ca. 1000 years altogether) was characterised not only by the extensive migration of human populations into the archipelago from mainland Europe, but also by the progressive expansion of settlement, agriculture, "sheries and trade which reached a peak in the high Middle Ages in the mid-14th century, and declined thereafter, from the Black Death until the beginning of the Age of Exploration around 1450. From a maritime point of view, the apogee was the development of the Scandinavian maritime culture from the 6th to the 11th centuries [4], while the earlier Celtic culture * also to a signi"cant extent maritime-based * persisted along the western coasts of Britain and throughout Ireland [5]. In the latter part of the Middle Ages the maritime links based on the Hanseatic cities gradually came to dominate the eastern coasts all the way from Shetland in the north to London in the south [6]. There is extensive archaeological, philological and historical evidence of all these maritime-oriented cultures along the coasts of the British Isles, but it is certain that the cumulative environmental impact was minimal. There is little detectable underwater evidence of maritime activity. The third phase, the early modern period from around 1500 to around 1700 was characterised by maritime exploration and expansion on a European scale involving notable advances in ship technology [7], enormous expansion of "sheries [8], and the development of several substantial navies by the European great powers of the time [9]. The basic processes at work included notable migrations of population into the maritime peripheries of Europe from Scandinavia and Scotland in the north to the Canary Islands in the south; the substantial development of maritime commercial organisations in the leading maritime powers * notably Spain and Portugal, Holland, France and England; and the emergence of the modern state, directly associated with the naval expansion already alluded to, and which certainly encouraged maritime exploration and trade, not least through the establishment of the great national trading companies of which the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) and the East India Company (in England) were the greatest [10].
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The four constituent nations of the archipelago: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland had emerged in the course of the Middle Ages and with the exception of Wales remained politically relatively independent of one another throughout the early modern period. Maritime development overall was signi"cant, but nonetheless relatively limited in comparison to Portugal, Spain and the Low Countries. By 1707 Ulster had been colonised from Scotland, Great Britain had become a reality, and had emerged as a leading maritime power in Europe and therefore the world, level pegging with France for much of the ensuing century [11]. However, it should be noted that in the emergence of maritime industrialisation the Dutch led the way, with banking, marine insurance, shipbuilding and the herring "shing and processing industries, together with whaling [12]. Even by the end of the seventeenth century, when Holland had lost its naval supremacy, it is fair to say that the United Provinces were the world's leading maritime nation. Although the early modern is often separated from the later modern in the writing of British and European history, in the maritime context there may be a strong case for considering the processes of commercialisation, industrialisation and state-building as continuous from around 1500 until at least the second half of the twentieth century. In the "rst half of the eighteenth century the maritime economies of England and the smaller Scotland grew slowly in tandem with the overall economic development of the archipelago overall, although there were key developments such as the establishment of Lloyds of London in 1734 [13], the early development of whaling from the 1730s onwards [14], and the Seven Years War between Britain and France which was the "rst naval con#ict on a geographically global scale. Fisheries everywhere continued along traditional lines established in the Middle Ages. The &take-o! ' [15] in things maritime, as in the country generally, occurred in the period from 1780 to 1830. Maritime trade grew apace, typi"ed by the passing of the tonnage act in 1786 [16]; and despite the massive disruption of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of Independence. From having the might of Europe and North America largely hostile in the early 1780s, by 1805 Britain had emerged as the supreme maritime power, a position the &Pax Britannica' maintained until the First World War. Meanwhile, the traditional "sheries expanded greatly, and were joined by the distant water cod "sheries [17]. This &industrial revolution' may be viewed as the "rst in a series of 50/60-year stages or phases extending from then until the present. While such a series can be readily and clearly described, cyclical economic and technological characteristics may also be ascribed to the economy as a whole * the so-called Kondratie! cycles, which it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss in detail [18]. It may be that these stages can be traced backwards in time as well, perhaps to the "rst-half of the 16th century on a European scale. Be that as it may, it is important to review each of the subsequent stages brie#y, as these were associated with unprecedentedly rapid change in the structure and management of marine activities, together with rapidly escalating environmental impacts. The "rst of these stages, from the 1830s until the early 1870s, marked in a way by the "nancial crashes of 1825 and 1873, respectively [19], was associated with a number of key developments in the major uses of the sea. In shipping this included the technological perfection of the ocean going sailing ship * including the advent of the clipper; and the repeal of the Navigation Laws which was associated with great expansion in international sea trade. Although iron ships and steam power began to be
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adopted, it was in the Royal Navy more so than in the merchant #eet: this was the age of the ironclad. This period also witnessed the apogee of the distant water sailing trawlers and cod smacks, together with the adoption of relatively small, fully decked sailboats in the herring #eet. Towards the end of the period steam powered whalers and the Svend Foyn explosive harpoon were introduced into the the Great Northern Whale Fishery. By the early 1870s there had been a great expansion in the "sheries, but it is doubtful if over"shing was a real problem. Fluctuations in catches were arguably more a re#ection of environmental and economic variables. Overall, the period from around 1850 was associated with the emergence for the "rst time of an integrated economy at a global scale geographically, dependent on sea transport, and with Britain at the heart of it. The next stage, from the 1870s to the 1930s * with the landmarks of the 1873 and 1929 "nancial crashes at either end * was characterised by the development and subsequent collapse of this global economy, associated with the period of maximum in#uence and beginnings of decline of the British Empire. At sea, iron and wood were replaced by steel in shipbuilding, with concentration of the shipbuilding industry in relatively few centres, the Clyde and the Tyne being dominant. The balance between sail and steam power did not tilt decisively in favour of steam until the advent of high boiler pressures and "rst double, then triple expansion engines, from the 1880s onwards [20]. In the sphere of naval power this was the age of the battleship and the big gun, and the replacement of reciprocating engines by steam turbines in warships [21]. It was also the time when Germany and the United States began to overtake Britain in naval technology, as well as more generally in industrial and economic development. In "sheries, steam technology was widely applied in both herring and distant water trawl "sheries, and petrol para$n engines subsequently replaced sail in the herring and inshore white "sheries. The era of over"shing arrived with a vengeance, "rst with the collapse of the Great Northern Whale Fishery in the 1880s, followed by the transfer of whaling to the Southern Ocean in the early 1900s; it reached a peak in 1925, with the introduction of factory ships, and decline set in shortly afterwards [22]. The fortunes of the herring industry were profoundly a!ected by the upheavals in Russia and Germany, the main markets, and this industry was the focus of government intervention through the creation of the Herring Industry Board in 1934 [23]. In the demersal "sheries the salt "sh trades of the previous phase were largely replaced by the fresh "sh trades focused on the home market, although both distant water trawling and inshore "shing were experiencing hard times by the 1930s. Meanwhile, this period witnessed the secure establishment of marine science in the international arena, associated both with "sheries problems which led to the establishment of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1902 [24], and in the pursuit of ocean exploration and oceanography instigated by the Challenger Expedition in the early 1870s [25]. The "nal period, from the 1930s until the 1990s has been characterised by the second phase of development of the integrated global economy led by the United States, Japan and mainly Germany in Europe, and the relative decline and disappearance of the central role played by Britain. This has been the era of the motor ship, and ship specialisation, with a small number of major ship types [26]. Long haul passenger tra$c moved decisively to the airlines in the 1960s. the shift from coal to oil fuel led to the rise of the oil tanker, which by the 1970s made up around half of world shipping tonnage. In naval a!airs the battleship was replaced by the
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nuclear powered and armed submarine and the aircraft carrier, in which Britain retained a stake. However, the Royal Navy was eclipsed in size and power by the navies of the United States and the Soviet Union, although it retained a global reach demonstrated by the Falklands War of 1982. Developments in shipping led to similar specialisation and di!erentiation in ports, which included the advent of bulk handling terminals for oil and ore, together with container terminals and the redundancy of most of the large dock systems of the previous period. The period was one of continued expansion of global "sheries until the 1970s, when catches increased more slowly as the majority of the major commercial stocks became fully or over-exploited. The herring "sheries of the North Sea collapsed under the onslaught of the purse seine, while distant water trawling was already experiencing a diminution of catches before Icelandic cod wars and the advent of the 200-mile limit in the 1970s [27]. Meanwhile, marine science became primarily a co-ordinated international activity of large scale programmes, beginning with the International Geophysical Year in 1957. Above all, however, the uses of the sea began to be more complex: o!shore hydrocarbons and aggregates became major activities in the waters around the British Isles; waste disposal grew greatly, to be curbed signi"cantly towards the end of the period, and marine conservation became a major concern, especially in coastal areas. The seaside holiday industry which had emerged in the previous period became much more diversi"ed, and much of the mass market was lost to Mediterranean resorts. Attention increasingly focused both on con#icts among uses and environmental impacts of these uses. It became possible to detect a regional pattern of use intensity associated with distinctive combinations of uses: small-scale urban sea areas directly adjacent to urban areas on land, with fully engineered coasts, a high level of waste disposal, concentrated port and navigation activities, and extensive development of marine leisure industries on the one hand; and a rural sea where "shing, "sh farming, aggregate and hydrocarbon extraction, naval exercise areas, and major shipping routes and marine conservation were the major coastal and o!shore uses [28] (Figure 1).
Geographical patterns The geographical patterns of sea and coastal uses which have emerged may be considered not only in terms of urban and rural seas and coasts, but also in terms of the seabed impacts and each use sector in turn. Consideration of the seabed as a record of human activity has been comparatively neglected. And yet such it is, not less than the landscapes of the land itself, and it is instructive to consider that record in conjunction with the major sea use groups in turn. By far the most extensive record relates to port and shipping developments. The record of the ports has already been extensively studied in Britain, with a detailed sequence of development initially worked out from "eld evidence by Bird [29] and elaborated in the &Anyport' development model [30]. This sequence does not exactly match the stages outlined above, and there is scope for research in this area. Further opportunities exist in matching the sequence to naval ports [31], and "shing ports, with raw material for the latter available in detailed regional studies, for example, the work of Gray [32]. The records of port activities are of course intimately related to those of shipping, initially * and primarily * through arrivals and sailings
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Figure 1. Sea uses.
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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
1 Crown Estate, Annual Reports.
records from the early modern period onwards in some areas (cf. the English port books) [33], with very good records from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. These are supplemented by numerous shipping company records. However, on the ground is the evidence of the thousands of wrecks on the seabed. The de"nitive record of these is held by the Hydrographic O$ce, but for the great majority relatively little is known, although a valuable systematic basis for the archaeological investigation of wrecks has been laid [34]. With notable early exceptions such as certain medieval wrecks and the &Mary Rose', the earliest wrecks which have been extensively investigated date from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including those of the Spanish Armada and Dutch East Indiamen ([35]; see also The Mariner's Mirror), which are almost by de"nition coastal. The frequency of wrecks as demonstrated by the records of the Receivers of Wrecks and Lloyds, for example, increased continuously and dramatically after the middle of the 18th century, as economic development took o! from the &industrial revolution' onwards [36]. Many of these wrecks occurred o!shore as well as along the coast, but wooden ships do not survive intact for long in either environment. The widespread adoption of "rst iron, then steel ships after 1870, coupled with the coming of steam undoubtedly made shipping much safer, and reduced the frequency of losses relative to the total number of &ship-miles', as it were; but this was o!set to an unknown degree by continuing expansion in the volume of shipping tra$c. Further, iron and steel ships survive longer o!shore, although are more rapidly broken up on the coast. The o!shore wrecks pose serious hazards, especially for "shing gear, added to which a few carried dangerous cargoes, such as explosives. There was of course a marked increase in the frequency of wrecks during both World Wars. Still within the broad "eld of communications, submarine cables dating from the mid-19th century onwards are abundant. Probably, the majority measured in mileage terms are redundant and, used or not, present a major hazard, again principally to the operation of "shing gear [37]. The latest period of investment in submarine telecommunications has occupied just over a decade, in the form of the establishment of a network of highcapacity "bre optic cables to replace the older coaxial cables. The seabed evidence of naval activities per se includes substantial numbers of warship wrecks. Also important are ordnance remains, including mines, shells and ammunition. In common with a few merchant shipwrecks, warships sunk in action may be designated as war graves. In the deep water west and north west of the British Isles are anti-submarine warfare arrays for detection of submarines on passage to the open Atlantic from the Norwegian Sea and through the Denmark Strait [38]. The seabed impact of exploitation of mineral and energy resources is of course relatively recent. With the exception of early aggregate dredging, the impacts are all post-1960. Dredging for aggregates is widespread o! the coast of south-east England, but limited elsewhere. Considerable uncertainty has surrounded the environmental impact of this activity, although it is no doubt appreciable, as the annual withdrawal of aggregates from the licensed areas which are comparatively limited in extent now approaches 20 million tonnes per annum. The impact of the o!shore oil industry is widespread [39], the most obvious seabed elements being platforms and associated equipment, moorings, suspended wellheads and pipelines. Also, important are drill cuttings on the platform sites, and substantial areas of scattered junk
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produced during both construction and operational stages. The latter in particular pose serious hazards for the operation of "shing gear as their precise location is unknown, in contrast to the "xed installations which have mandatory safety zones surrounding them, within which "shing is prohibited. Overall, bottom or demersal "shing is the most widespread activity on the seabed. The principal gears used include a wide variety of bottom trawls, including beam trawls in the southern shallow waters; and seine nets. Also of signi"cance are shell"sh pots, and occasionally lines. Most of this activity, with the exception of beam and some bottom otter trawling [40], leaves little evidence. However, apart from not infrequent total losses of "shing boats caused by bad weather, vessel faults, submarine cables and submarine operations, there remains a vast quantity of redundant "shing gear on the seabed lost during "shing operations for a variety of reasons, notably snagging obstructions. The use of the seabed for waste disposal takes two principal forms. The "rst consists of dumping grounds [41], now practically phased out, except for dredge spoil. Sewage sludge and dredge spoil are generally inshore and relatively well documented. However, dangerous chemicals and low level radioactive waste o!shore are less well known. General public knowledge is occasionally gained almost by accident, for example, in the discovery of munitions in the North Channel [42]. The second major seabed impact is "xed installations in the form of coastal outfalls, including long sea outfalls for sewage disposal, and power station outfalls. As regards recreation and conservation, the seabed impact of the leisure industries is primarily highly concentrated in the tens of thousands of moorings in sheltered estuaries, mainly on the south and south-east coasts of England. The possible adverse impacts of diving on both the natural and cultural (wreck) heritage is guarded against in the Marine Nature Reserves provisions and the Wrecks Act 1973 respectively, but these are highly localised areas of conservation activity. The extensive conservation designations of the land components of the coast lie beyond the scope of this paper. Similar o!shore conservation designations have been mooted, but may well be di$cult to progress, bearing in mind the ubiquity of "shing operations discussed above [43]. In aggregate the impacts of the several categories of human activities outlined produce wide variations in both combinations and intensities of use. Broadly speaking, a distinction may be made between urban sea use combinations on the one hand, and rural sea use patterns on the other (Figure 1). The urban sea areas are highly localised, and adjacent to urban sea areas on land. Coasts are extensively engineered both through harbour and coast protection works. There is a high concentration of navigational activity associated with commercial shipping generally, as well as specialist leisure, "shing and naval port activities. By far the greatest proportion of waste disposed into the marine environment occurs here, both for coastal and inland settlement and industries. These waters are for the most part sheltered from the open sea, and legally very largely in internal waters. The rural seas constitute the rest. Commercial navigation is mainly localised along a network of major routes, parallelled by the network of redundant and active submarine cables. There are extensive naval exercise areas, especially for submarines, with more localised coastal "ring, torpedo and rocket ranges. Above all, the rural sea is characterised by
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extensive "sheries and more localised aggregate and hydrocarbon extraction activities.
The historical geography of the sea The "nal section of this paper is concerned to assess the overall state of the historical geography of the sea, bearing in mind that the seabed acts as a record for human activities not only on the seabed itself, but also for what happens in the water column, on the sea surface, and at the coast. The analysis begins with consideration of source material, followed by an overall assessment of the development process. The social aspects are then discussed, including the nature of the maritime tradition, followed by environmental considerations. Coastal and o!shore dimensions are then focused upon, before concluding with a brief discussion of management aspects. The idea of historical geography applied to the sea is a new one, and depends initially upon an assessment of the principal sources. These include charts and maps and their associated data bases; the record of place names; other types of documentary records of the major classes of activities, principally private and governmental records; museum collections; and the record of the environment itself. Charts and maps constitute a rich vein of material. Series of small scale maps of Britain [44] go back to the seventeenth century and can provide a limited indication of maritime activity through the recording of ports, even although the coastal waters are to varying degrees di!erent from the maps of the present day coastline. The Admiralty chart series dates from the "rst half of the nineteenth century, when the "rst large scale hydrographic surveys were completed. The Hydrographic O$ce remains the primary repository of charts and associated data, including wreck records. The priorities established for coverage and frequency of surveys naturally focus upon the major navigational routes, including port approaches, where the charts may be supplemented by ports-based survey material [45]. Other charts, maps and data bases are covered in detail in this issue in the paper by Lalwani and Stojanovic [46]. Land maps, especially large scale port and coastal maps, also constitute a valuable source for the historical geography of maritime activities. Maps and charts are supplemented by an enormous range of documentary source materials in both private and public sector organisations, which are probably best considered by sea use category. Shipping and port records abound from the seventeenth century onwards, and constitute the basis for a wide range of historical studies including port development, histories of particular trades and numerous histories of shipping companies as well as an appreciable amount of library and biographical material [47]. Naval history is also comparatively well documented, mainly from public record sources. The records of the "sheries are more diverse, and data exists mainly from the eighteenth century onwards. These include customs records, records of the Fishery Board for Scotland and other government departments records relating to "sheries; as well as numerous private and indivudal port records. For marine research, much of which has been "sheries related, there are the records of the marine laboratories, especially those of the marine biological associations and the "sheries laboratories, as well as ICES records extending back over a century. By comparison with the foregoing uses information mineral and energy extraction, waste disposal, leisure and marine conservation, which
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are relatively recent as important activities, is mainly post-1940s. The most important sources are the records of central and local government, together with the oil companies, aggregate dredging companies and the Crown Estate. Assessment of the development process initially involves coming to a view on the interactions and relative importance in a temporal context of environmental, technological, economic social and perhaps psychological factors, the last operating in the context of the maritime cultural tradition. At the heart of understanding the stages or cycles outlined in the "rst part of this paper is the interaction of technological and economic factors on &long-wave' time scales, especially in the context of commercial shipping, naval activity, "sheries and marine science which were the most important activities overall until the mid-20th century. In technological development, it is important to distinguish initial innovation from large-scale application. For example, the Watt steam engine dated from the 1760s, but its descendants were not applied on a large scale in shipping until after 1870, when a combination of the use of steel ships and engines coupled with much more e$cient boilers made it worthwhile. It is this large scale application which is economically determined, which is decisive in identifying the stages abovementioned. Also, technology should be regarded as a sub-category of innovation: the large-scale application of new ideas, often to existing activities. A good example is in maritime trade. Without the commercial revolution and the development of marine insurance in the seventeenth century [48], it would not have been possible to realise the advantage of the technological changes of the industrial revolution (1780}1830) for the development of the global maritime economy. It goes beyond the scope of this paper to provide a detailed analysis of the interaction of technology and economic factors. However, it remains important to point out some key features of associated social and environmental developments on the comparatively long time scales covered in this paper. In a social context, two periods of equal length are of signi"cance, namely, the medieval period and the modern period, each of 500 years or so. The medieval period remains important as the roots of the regional di!erentiation of maritime cultures dates back to that time, including elements of ship and boat technology, placenames, and the origins of the contemporary nations. The modern period is arguably drawing to an end, especially as the role of the state is retreating in the face of advances in both the private and voluntary sectors, not least in the "eld of sea and coastal management. If this trend continues the role of the state will shortly be reminiscent of its position at the beginning of the early modern period, when it was necessary to go to great lengths to secure support from other interests in the social fabric in order to accomplish speci"ed state aims. Understanding the nature of the long time scales is fundamental to establishing the nature of British maritime tradition, with its combination of the very old (medieval) and the successive contributions of the modern era which has resulted in the building up and subsequent decline of speci"c maritime communities, especially in the context of commercial shipping and ports, the Royal Navy, "sheries, and marine science. Contemporary maritime communities involving these and the other uses of the sea are arguably much more communities of experience and ideas, and much less those of physical entities represented by the sailortowns, naval bases, "shing villages and marine laboratories of past times. The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles have not evolved against an unchanging physical environment. The Middle Ages of
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the Scandinavian maritime expansion, for example, were arguably milder and less stormy than the subsequent descent into the rigours of the Little Ice Age which persisted from the 16th}19th centuries. In particular this sea change in climate was associated with considerable instability of sandy coasts in early modern times, which had notable in#uences on port development, and undoubtedly had considerable implications for the "sheries. Arguably, however, the balance by which the environment had more in#uence on human activity than vice versa was not signi"cantly altered until the 1870}1930s phase, associated with the coming of steam and the advent of over"shing. Further, real con#ict among the major groups of uses is only now emerging as a serious issue, together with notions of sustainability of the current development process and the ability of the marine environment to sustain it. There remains the need to distinguish between the coastal and o!shore dimensions of the historical geography. Until the present 1930}1990s phase, the sea was to a considerable extent a world apart in cultural terms, with its own distinctive maritime communities and traditions. That is no longer the case and, combined with increasing intensities of sea use, particularly along the coast as well as to some extent o!shore, maritime a!airs are becoming much more integrated with those of the land, environmentally, technologically, economically and socially. This has particularly important implications for management of the coastal and marine environment not only at technical level, but also at general level for regions within the United Kingdom and the relationships between the British Isles and the evolving European project, which form the focus of the management papers in this Special Issue [18].
Conclusion The roots of the maritime culture of Britain lie in the Middle Ages, which witnessed the emergence of the constituent nations and related regional cultural di!erentiation. The succeeding Modern period which is now drawing to a close, was characterised by &long-wave' developments based on the interaction of changing technology and economic factors, which became more pronounced from the &industrial revolution' around the middle of the period and resulted in increasingly sharply di!erentiated maritime communities built especially on commercial shipping and ports, the Navy, and "sheries. The separate maritime tradition is now in decline, but an important part of the national heritage, as marine activities become both more diverse and more closely integrated into other aspects of national life. The geographical patterns arising from the development sequences are characterised by a division of sea use intensities and combinations of uses along urban}rural lines. Urban seas are restricted more or less to areas of coast and sea adjacent to urban areas on land, and generally within internal waters in a legal sense. Here con#icts of use and environmental impacts are at their maximum. Rural seas are used mainly for resource extraction. There remains much work to be done on the historical geography of the seas around the British Isles, which possesses a rich heritage of source materials. The overall development processes can be discerned as noted above on longer time scales, but much detailed work remains to be done to elucidate the precise nature of the changes involved. The strong maritime tradition of the British Isles has particularly originated in modern times,
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but is being currently transformed by closer integration into non-maritime aspects of the culture, which has been associated with the rise of new management approaches, especially focusing upon the coastal zone.
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[10] H Bang-Andersen, B Greenhill and E H Grude (eds), ¹he North Sea: A Highway of Economic and Cultural Exchange. Norwegian University Press, Stavanger/National Maritime Museum, London, 1985. [11] M Falkus and J Gillingham (eds), Historical Atlas of Britain, Grisewood and Dempsey, London, 1981. [12] M Aymard (ed), Dutch Capitalism, =orld Capitalism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982. [13] A Cameron and R Farndon, Scenes from Sea and City: ¸loyd1s ¸ist 1734}1984, Lloyd's of London Press, Colchester, 1984. [14] G Jackson, ¹he British =haling ¹rade, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1978. [15] W W Rostow, ¹he stages of economic growth: a non-Communist manifesto, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1960. [16] H D Smith, &The environmental management of ports and shipping'. In: P H Pellenberg, F Schuurmans and J. de Vries, (eds), Reisgenoten: liber amicorum prof. dr. = J van den Bremen, Nederlandse Geogra"sche Studies Vol. 214, 1996, pp. 521}533. [17] H A Innis, ¹he Cod Fisheries: the History of an International Economy, Toronto University Press, Toronto, 1954. [18] H D Smith, The regional management of the seas around the United Kingdom, Marine Policy, Vol. 23, Nos. 4}5, 1999, pp. 525}535. [19] C P Kindleberger, Manias, Panics and Crashes, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York, 1996.
[20] B Greenhill and R Gardiner (eds), ¹he Advent of Steam: the Merchant Steamship Before 1900, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1993. [21] D K Brown, R Gardiner (eds), ¹he eclipse of the big gun: the warship 1906}1945, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1992. [22] E J Slipjer, =hales, Basic Books, New York, 1962. [23] Chris Reid, Managing innovation in the British herring "shery: the role of the Herring Industry Board, 1945}77, Marine Policy, Vol. 22 Nos. 4/5, 1998, pp. 281}296. [24] A E J Went, Seventy years agrowing: a history of the International Council for the Study of the Sea, 1902}1972, Rapp. Proc.-< Reun. Cons. Int. Explor Mer, Vol. 165, 1972; E M Thomasson (ed.), Study of the Sea, Fishing News Books, Farnham, 1981. [25] S Schlee, A History of Oceanography: the Edge of an ;nfamiliar =orld, Hale, London, 1973. [26] Alastair D Couper, Robert Gardiner (eds), ¹he Shipping Revolution: the Modern Merchant Ship, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1992. [27] A Gilchrist, Cod wars and how to lose them, Q Press, Edinburgh, 1980; R Arnason, ¹he Icealndic Fisheries: Evolution and Management of a Fishing Industry, Fishing News Books, Farnham, 1994. [28] R B Clark, ¹he waters around the British Isles: their con-icting uses. Report of a Study Group of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986; J Hardisty, ¹he British Seas: an Introduction to the Oceanography and Resources of the North=est European Continental Shelf, Routledge, London, 1990.
The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith [29] J H Bird, ¹he Major Seaports of the ;nited Kingdom, Hutchison, London, 1963. [30] J H Bird, Seaports and Seaport ¹erminals, Hutchison, London, 1971. [31] David Pinder (ed.), Heritage resources and naval port regeneration: potential and issues, Ocean & Coastal Management, 1999, in press.
[37] C S Lalwani, European seabed information service: Stage 1 European =orking Group =orkshop Proceedings, European Union DGXIV, Consultancy report No. CR80, 1994.
[44] See e.g. Je!rey C Stone, The preparation of the Bleau maps of Scotland: a further assessment, Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 86, No. 1, 1970, pp. 16}24.
[38] D Larson and P Tarpgaard, The law of the sea and ASW: national security versus arms control, Marine Policy, Vol. 6, No. 2. 1982, pp. 90}102.
[45] See e.g. C F Wooldridge, Environmental auditing of port and harbour operations, Journal of the Dock & Harbour Authority, Vol. 76, No. 864, 1996, pp. 180}183.
[32] Malcolm Gray, ¹he Fishing Industries of Scotland, 1790}1914: a Study in Regional Adaptation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978.
[39] W J Cairns (ed.), North Sea oil and the Environment: Developing Oil and Gas Resources 2 Environmental Impacts and Responses, Elsevier Applied Science, London & New York, 1992.
[33] R W K Hinton, ¹he England trade and the Common =eal in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1959.
[40] S de Groot, The impact of bottom trawling on benthic fauna in the North Sea, Ocean Management, Vol. 9, 1984, pp. 177}190.
[34] K Muckelroy, A systematic approach to scattered wreck sites, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 4, 1975, pp. 173}190; K Muckelroy, Historic wreck sites in Britain and their environment, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1977, pp. 47}59.
[41] M G Norton and M S Rolfe, ¹he ,eld assessment of e+ect of dumping wastes at sea 1: an introduction. Fisheries Research Technical Report, 45, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Fisheries Directorate, 1978.
[35] See the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and The Mariners' Mirror. [36] J King, An inquiry into the causes of shipwrecks: its implications for the prevention of pollution, Marine Policy, Vol. 19, No. 6, 1995, pp. 469}476.
[42] Anon, Sea dumping: deep problems, ¹he Economist, October, 14th 1995, p. 44.
[46] C S Lalwani and T Stojanovic, The development of marine information systems in the UK, Marine Policy, Vol. 23, No. 4/5 1999, pp. 427}438. [47] J Raban (ed.), ¹he Oxford Book of the Sea, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993. [48] J Sperling, The international payments mechanism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Economic History Review, Series 2, Vol. 14, 1961}62, pp. 446}468; B E Supple, Currency and commerce in the early seventeenth century, Economic History Review, Series 2, Vol. 10, 1957, pp. 239}245.
[43] Callum Roberts, No-take marine reserves: providing "shery and conservation bene"ts, North Sea Monitor, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1998, pp. 4}8; Bernadette Clarke, No-take marine reserves: the practicalities, North Sea Monitor, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1998, pp. 13}17.
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PII: S0308-597X(99)00011-1
The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles
Hance D Smith Introduction The historical geography of sea uses is outlined as a sequence of stages of development. The resulting geographical patterns are discussed in terms of the major sea use groups involved, including reference to urban and rural sea use categories. Source materials for the historical geography of the sea are considered, followed by evaluation of major factors involved, including in particular the roles of technological, economic and environmental considerations. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Keywords NHistorical geography of the sea, Development phases, Geographical patterns
Hance D Smith is Reader, Department of Maritime Studies and International Transport, Cardiff University, and co-ordinator of the Marine and Coastal Environment Group. He can be contacted at the Department of Maritime Studies and International Transport, PO Box 907, Cardiff Wales CFI 3YP, UK. Tel.: 01222-874271; Fax: 01222874301; E-mail: [email protected].
The idea that Britain is a maritime nation is axiomatic in the sense that such a nation is considered as one in which a substantial part of the cultural and economic life of the country is in various ways dependent upon the sea. However, the term &Britain' is to some extent geographically vague * even in relatively recent times the national political histories of the two major islands involved have been complicated in the extreme, and earlier political evolution is likewise complicated. Nonetheless, there is arguably a considerable degree of coherence in the overall political and economic development of the archipelago which repays a systematic approach to the historical geography. The term: &historical geography' in the present context covers the record of interaction between human activities on the one hand, and the marine and coastal environment on the other over a range of time spans which are further elaborated below. Accordingly, Section 1 deals with the development processes concerned, de"ned within a series of time scales which can be used to classify the historical record. Secondly, the regional geographical pattern arising from these development processes are classi"ed, principally in terms of overall use intensity di!erentiation. Finally, key issues in the study of this historical geography are considered. The paper as a whole thus provides the essential "rst step for consideration of the numerous management topics which form the bulk of this special issue.
Development The starting point for understanding the record of development of the seas and coasts of The British Isles is the physical environment itself, including
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the legacy of human activity both on the seabed and at the coast. Broadly speaking, the human impacts can be analysed as a series of stages of varying time spans. In terms of the detectable evidence these time spans may be grouped into four categories, being respectively premedieval, medieval, early modern, and the industrial group of &long-wave' stages. The pre-medieval is itself complex, and not surprisingly, generally the most di$cult to detect in the archaeological record, although there is environmental and early historical evidence available to aid in reconstruction of the sequence of events. In the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic the coast was an important focus of human activity [1]. In the Neolithic human in#uence penetrated more inland, with the beginning of forest clearance and agriculture. From this era also there is the remarkable development of funerary monuments which is parallelled throughout western and Mediterranean Europe [2]. Some of the evidence lies in coastal areas, notably archaeological remains in the islands of western and northern Britain and Ireland. Overall, there may have been a 2000-year series of stages [3] extending from the early Neolithic into the Iron Age just prior to the Roman invasion, and through the Roman period to the beginning of the mis-named * from a northern point of view * Dark Ages. It is probably true to say that the period from the end of the Roman Empire in Britain until the end of the Middle Ages (ca. 1000 years altogether) was characterised not only by the extensive migration of human populations into the archipelago from mainland Europe, but also by the progressive expansion of settlement, agriculture, "sheries and trade which reached a peak in the high Middle Ages in the mid-14th century, and declined thereafter, from the Black Death until the beginning of the Age of Exploration around 1450. From a maritime point of view, the apogee was the development of the Scandinavian maritime culture from the 6th to the 11th centuries [4], while the earlier Celtic culture * also to a signi"cant extent maritime-based * persisted along the western coasts of Britain and throughout Ireland [5]. In the latter part of the Middle Ages the maritime links based on the Hanseatic cities gradually came to dominate the eastern coasts all the way from Shetland in the north to London in the south [6]. There is extensive archaeological, philological and historical evidence of all these maritime-oriented cultures along the coasts of the British Isles, but it is certain that the cumulative environmental impact was minimal. There is little detectable underwater evidence of maritime activity. The third phase, the early modern period from around 1500 to around 1700 was characterised by maritime exploration and expansion on a European scale involving notable advances in ship technology [7], enormous expansion of "sheries [8], and the development of several substantial navies by the European great powers of the time [9]. The basic processes at work included notable migrations of population into the maritime peripheries of Europe from Scandinavia and Scotland in the north to the Canary Islands in the south; the substantial development of maritime commercial organisations in the leading maritime powers * notably Spain and Portugal, Holland, France and England; and the emergence of the modern state, directly associated with the naval expansion already alluded to, and which certainly encouraged maritime exploration and trade, not least through the establishment of the great national trading companies of which the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) and the East India Company (in England) were the greatest [10].
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The four constituent nations of the archipelago: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland had emerged in the course of the Middle Ages and with the exception of Wales remained politically relatively independent of one another throughout the early modern period. Maritime development overall was signi"cant, but nonetheless relatively limited in comparison to Portugal, Spain and the Low Countries. By 1707 Ulster had been colonised from Scotland, Great Britain had become a reality, and had emerged as a leading maritime power in Europe and therefore the world, level pegging with France for much of the ensuing century [11]. However, it should be noted that in the emergence of maritime industrialisation the Dutch led the way, with banking, marine insurance, shipbuilding and the herring "shing and processing industries, together with whaling [12]. Even by the end of the seventeenth century, when Holland had lost its naval supremacy, it is fair to say that the United Provinces were the world's leading maritime nation. Although the early modern is often separated from the later modern in the writing of British and European history, in the maritime context there may be a strong case for considering the processes of commercialisation, industrialisation and state-building as continuous from around 1500 until at least the second half of the twentieth century. In the "rst half of the eighteenth century the maritime economies of England and the smaller Scotland grew slowly in tandem with the overall economic development of the archipelago overall, although there were key developments such as the establishment of Lloyds of London in 1734 [13], the early development of whaling from the 1730s onwards [14], and the Seven Years War between Britain and France which was the "rst naval con#ict on a geographically global scale. Fisheries everywhere continued along traditional lines established in the Middle Ages. The &take-o! ' [15] in things maritime, as in the country generally, occurred in the period from 1780 to 1830. Maritime trade grew apace, typi"ed by the passing of the tonnage act in 1786 [16]; and despite the massive disruption of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of Independence. From having the might of Europe and North America largely hostile in the early 1780s, by 1805 Britain had emerged as the supreme maritime power, a position the &Pax Britannica' maintained until the First World War. Meanwhile, the traditional "sheries expanded greatly, and were joined by the distant water cod "sheries [17]. This &industrial revolution' may be viewed as the "rst in a series of 50/60-year stages or phases extending from then until the present. While such a series can be readily and clearly described, cyclical economic and technological characteristics may also be ascribed to the economy as a whole * the so-called Kondratie! cycles, which it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss in detail [18]. It may be that these stages can be traced backwards in time as well, perhaps to the "rst-half of the 16th century on a European scale. Be that as it may, it is important to review each of the subsequent stages brie#y, as these were associated with unprecedentedly rapid change in the structure and management of marine activities, together with rapidly escalating environmental impacts. The "rst of these stages, from the 1830s until the early 1870s, marked in a way by the "nancial crashes of 1825 and 1873, respectively [19], was associated with a number of key developments in the major uses of the sea. In shipping this included the technological perfection of the ocean going sailing ship * including the advent of the clipper; and the repeal of the Navigation Laws which was associated with great expansion in international sea trade. Although iron ships and steam power began to be
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adopted, it was in the Royal Navy more so than in the merchant #eet: this was the age of the ironclad. This period also witnessed the apogee of the distant water sailing trawlers and cod smacks, together with the adoption of relatively small, fully decked sailboats in the herring #eet. Towards the end of the period steam powered whalers and the Svend Foyn explosive harpoon were introduced into the the Great Northern Whale Fishery. By the early 1870s there had been a great expansion in the "sheries, but it is doubtful if over"shing was a real problem. Fluctuations in catches were arguably more a re#ection of environmental and economic variables. Overall, the period from around 1850 was associated with the emergence for the "rst time of an integrated economy at a global scale geographically, dependent on sea transport, and with Britain at the heart of it. The next stage, from the 1870s to the 1930s * with the landmarks of the 1873 and 1929 "nancial crashes at either end * was characterised by the development and subsequent collapse of this global economy, associated with the period of maximum in#uence and beginnings of decline of the British Empire. At sea, iron and wood were replaced by steel in shipbuilding, with concentration of the shipbuilding industry in relatively few centres, the Clyde and the Tyne being dominant. The balance between sail and steam power did not tilt decisively in favour of steam until the advent of high boiler pressures and "rst double, then triple expansion engines, from the 1880s onwards [20]. In the sphere of naval power this was the age of the battleship and the big gun, and the replacement of reciprocating engines by steam turbines in warships [21]. It was also the time when Germany and the United States began to overtake Britain in naval technology, as well as more generally in industrial and economic development. In "sheries, steam technology was widely applied in both herring and distant water trawl "sheries, and petrol para$n engines subsequently replaced sail in the herring and inshore white "sheries. The era of over"shing arrived with a vengeance, "rst with the collapse of the Great Northern Whale Fishery in the 1880s, followed by the transfer of whaling to the Southern Ocean in the early 1900s; it reached a peak in 1925, with the introduction of factory ships, and decline set in shortly afterwards [22]. The fortunes of the herring industry were profoundly a!ected by the upheavals in Russia and Germany, the main markets, and this industry was the focus of government intervention through the creation of the Herring Industry Board in 1934 [23]. In the demersal "sheries the salt "sh trades of the previous phase were largely replaced by the fresh "sh trades focused on the home market, although both distant water trawling and inshore "shing were experiencing hard times by the 1930s. Meanwhile, this period witnessed the secure establishment of marine science in the international arena, associated both with "sheries problems which led to the establishment of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1902 [24], and in the pursuit of ocean exploration and oceanography instigated by the Challenger Expedition in the early 1870s [25]. The "nal period, from the 1930s until the 1990s has been characterised by the second phase of development of the integrated global economy led by the United States, Japan and mainly Germany in Europe, and the relative decline and disappearance of the central role played by Britain. This has been the era of the motor ship, and ship specialisation, with a small number of major ship types [26]. Long haul passenger tra$c moved decisively to the airlines in the 1960s. the shift from coal to oil fuel led to the rise of the oil tanker, which by the 1970s made up around half of world shipping tonnage. In naval a!airs the battleship was replaced by the
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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
nuclear powered and armed submarine and the aircraft carrier, in which Britain retained a stake. However, the Royal Navy was eclipsed in size and power by the navies of the United States and the Soviet Union, although it retained a global reach demonstrated by the Falklands War of 1982. Developments in shipping led to similar specialisation and di!erentiation in ports, which included the advent of bulk handling terminals for oil and ore, together with container terminals and the redundancy of most of the large dock systems of the previous period. The period was one of continued expansion of global "sheries until the 1970s, when catches increased more slowly as the majority of the major commercial stocks became fully or over-exploited. The herring "sheries of the North Sea collapsed under the onslaught of the purse seine, while distant water trawling was already experiencing a diminution of catches before Icelandic cod wars and the advent of the 200-mile limit in the 1970s [27]. Meanwhile, marine science became primarily a co-ordinated international activity of large scale programmes, beginning with the International Geophysical Year in 1957. Above all, however, the uses of the sea began to be more complex: o!shore hydrocarbons and aggregates became major activities in the waters around the British Isles; waste disposal grew greatly, to be curbed signi"cantly towards the end of the period, and marine conservation became a major concern, especially in coastal areas. The seaside holiday industry which had emerged in the previous period became much more diversi"ed, and much of the mass market was lost to Mediterranean resorts. Attention increasingly focused both on con#icts among uses and environmental impacts of these uses. It became possible to detect a regional pattern of use intensity associated with distinctive combinations of uses: small-scale urban sea areas directly adjacent to urban areas on land, with fully engineered coasts, a high level of waste disposal, concentrated port and navigation activities, and extensive development of marine leisure industries on the one hand; and a rural sea where "shing, "sh farming, aggregate and hydrocarbon extraction, naval exercise areas, and major shipping routes and marine conservation were the major coastal and o!shore uses [28] (Figure 1).
Geographical patterns The geographical patterns of sea and coastal uses which have emerged may be considered not only in terms of urban and rural seas and coasts, but also in terms of the seabed impacts and each use sector in turn. Consideration of the seabed as a record of human activity has been comparatively neglected. And yet such it is, not less than the landscapes of the land itself, and it is instructive to consider that record in conjunction with the major sea use groups in turn. By far the most extensive record relates to port and shipping developments. The record of the ports has already been extensively studied in Britain, with a detailed sequence of development initially worked out from "eld evidence by Bird [29] and elaborated in the &Anyport' development model [30]. This sequence does not exactly match the stages outlined above, and there is scope for research in this area. Further opportunities exist in matching the sequence to naval ports [31], and "shing ports, with raw material for the latter available in detailed regional studies, for example, the work of Gray [32]. The records of port activities are of course intimately related to those of shipping, initially * and primarily * through arrivals and sailings
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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
Figure 1. Sea uses.
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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
1 Crown Estate, Annual Reports.
records from the early modern period onwards in some areas (cf. the English port books) [33], with very good records from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. These are supplemented by numerous shipping company records. However, on the ground is the evidence of the thousands of wrecks on the seabed. The de"nitive record of these is held by the Hydrographic O$ce, but for the great majority relatively little is known, although a valuable systematic basis for the archaeological investigation of wrecks has been laid [34]. With notable early exceptions such as certain medieval wrecks and the &Mary Rose', the earliest wrecks which have been extensively investigated date from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including those of the Spanish Armada and Dutch East Indiamen ([35]; see also The Mariner's Mirror), which are almost by de"nition coastal. The frequency of wrecks as demonstrated by the records of the Receivers of Wrecks and Lloyds, for example, increased continuously and dramatically after the middle of the 18th century, as economic development took o! from the &industrial revolution' onwards [36]. Many of these wrecks occurred o!shore as well as along the coast, but wooden ships do not survive intact for long in either environment. The widespread adoption of "rst iron, then steel ships after 1870, coupled with the coming of steam undoubtedly made shipping much safer, and reduced the frequency of losses relative to the total number of &ship-miles', as it were; but this was o!set to an unknown degree by continuing expansion in the volume of shipping tra$c. Further, iron and steel ships survive longer o!shore, although are more rapidly broken up on the coast. The o!shore wrecks pose serious hazards, especially for "shing gear, added to which a few carried dangerous cargoes, such as explosives. There was of course a marked increase in the frequency of wrecks during both World Wars. Still within the broad "eld of communications, submarine cables dating from the mid-19th century onwards are abundant. Probably, the majority measured in mileage terms are redundant and, used or not, present a major hazard, again principally to the operation of "shing gear [37]. The latest period of investment in submarine telecommunications has occupied just over a decade, in the form of the establishment of a network of highcapacity "bre optic cables to replace the older coaxial cables. The seabed evidence of naval activities per se includes substantial numbers of warship wrecks. Also important are ordnance remains, including mines, shells and ammunition. In common with a few merchant shipwrecks, warships sunk in action may be designated as war graves. In the deep water west and north west of the British Isles are anti-submarine warfare arrays for detection of submarines on passage to the open Atlantic from the Norwegian Sea and through the Denmark Strait [38]. The seabed impact of exploitation of mineral and energy resources is of course relatively recent. With the exception of early aggregate dredging, the impacts are all post-1960. Dredging for aggregates is widespread o! the coast of south-east England, but limited elsewhere. Considerable uncertainty has surrounded the environmental impact of this activity, although it is no doubt appreciable, as the annual withdrawal of aggregates from the licensed areas which are comparatively limited in extent now approaches 20 million tonnes per annum. The impact of the o!shore oil industry is widespread [39], the most obvious seabed elements being platforms and associated equipment, moorings, suspended wellheads and pipelines. Also, important are drill cuttings on the platform sites, and substantial areas of scattered junk
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The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
produced during both construction and operational stages. The latter in particular pose serious hazards for the operation of "shing gear as their precise location is unknown, in contrast to the "xed installations which have mandatory safety zones surrounding them, within which "shing is prohibited. Overall, bottom or demersal "shing is the most widespread activity on the seabed. The principal gears used include a wide variety of bottom trawls, including beam trawls in the southern shallow waters; and seine nets. Also of signi"cance are shell"sh pots, and occasionally lines. Most of this activity, with the exception of beam and some bottom otter trawling [40], leaves little evidence. However, apart from not infrequent total losses of "shing boats caused by bad weather, vessel faults, submarine cables and submarine operations, there remains a vast quantity of redundant "shing gear on the seabed lost during "shing operations for a variety of reasons, notably snagging obstructions. The use of the seabed for waste disposal takes two principal forms. The "rst consists of dumping grounds [41], now practically phased out, except for dredge spoil. Sewage sludge and dredge spoil are generally inshore and relatively well documented. However, dangerous chemicals and low level radioactive waste o!shore are less well known. General public knowledge is occasionally gained almost by accident, for example, in the discovery of munitions in the North Channel [42]. The second major seabed impact is "xed installations in the form of coastal outfalls, including long sea outfalls for sewage disposal, and power station outfalls. As regards recreation and conservation, the seabed impact of the leisure industries is primarily highly concentrated in the tens of thousands of moorings in sheltered estuaries, mainly on the south and south-east coasts of England. The possible adverse impacts of diving on both the natural and cultural (wreck) heritage is guarded against in the Marine Nature Reserves provisions and the Wrecks Act 1973 respectively, but these are highly localised areas of conservation activity. The extensive conservation designations of the land components of the coast lie beyond the scope of this paper. Similar o!shore conservation designations have been mooted, but may well be di$cult to progress, bearing in mind the ubiquity of "shing operations discussed above [43]. In aggregate the impacts of the several categories of human activities outlined produce wide variations in both combinations and intensities of use. Broadly speaking, a distinction may be made between urban sea use combinations on the one hand, and rural sea use patterns on the other (Figure 1). The urban sea areas are highly localised, and adjacent to urban sea areas on land. Coasts are extensively engineered both through harbour and coast protection works. There is a high concentration of navigational activity associated with commercial shipping generally, as well as specialist leisure, "shing and naval port activities. By far the greatest proportion of waste disposed into the marine environment occurs here, both for coastal and inland settlement and industries. These waters are for the most part sheltered from the open sea, and legally very largely in internal waters. The rural seas constitute the rest. Commercial navigation is mainly localised along a network of major routes, parallelled by the network of redundant and active submarine cables. There are extensive naval exercise areas, especially for submarines, with more localised coastal "ring, torpedo and rocket ranges. Above all, the rural sea is characterised by
282
The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles: H D Smith
extensive "sheries and more localised aggregate and hydrocarbon extraction activities.
The historical geography of the sea The "nal section of this paper is concerned to assess the overall state of the historical geography of the sea, bearing in mind that the seabed acts as a record for human activities not only on the seabed itself, but also for what happens in the water column, on the sea surface, and at the coast. The analysis begins with consideration of source material, followed by an overall assessment of the development process. The social aspects are then discussed, including the nature of the maritime tradition, followed by environmental considerations. Coastal and o!shore dimensions are then focused upon, before concluding with a brief discussion of management aspects. The idea of historical geography applied to the sea is a new one, and depends initially upon an assessment of the principal sources. These include charts and maps and their associated data bases; the record of place names; other types of documentary records of the major classes of activities, principally private and governmental records; museum collections; and the record of the environment itself. Charts and maps constitute a rich vein of material. Series of small scale maps of Britain [44] go back to the seventeenth century and can provide a limited indication of maritime activity through the recording of ports, even although the coastal waters are to varying degrees di!erent from the maps of the present day coastline. The Admiralty chart series dates from the "rst half of the nineteenth century, when the "rst large scale hydrographic surveys were completed. The Hydrographic O$ce remains the primary repository of charts and associated data, including wreck records. The priorities established for coverage and frequency of surveys naturally focus upon the major navigational routes, including port approaches, where the charts may be supplemented by ports-based survey material [45]. Other charts, maps and data bases are covered in detail in this issue in the paper by Lalwani and Stojanovic [46]. Land maps, especially large scale port and coastal maps, also constitute a valuable source for the historical geography of maritime activities. Maps and charts are supplemented by an enormous range of documentary source materials in both private and public sector organisations, which are probably best considered by sea use category. Shipping and port records abound from the seventeenth century onwards, and constitute the basis for a wide range of historical studies including port development, histories of particular trades and numerous histories of shipping companies as well as an appreciable amount of library and biographical material [47]. Naval history is also comparatively well documented, mainly from public record sources. The records of the "sheries are more diverse, and data exists mainly from the eighteenth century onwards. These include customs records, records of the Fishery Board for Scotland and other government departments records relating to "sheries; as well as numerous private and indivudal port records. For marine research, much of which has been "sheries related, there are the records of the marine laboratories, especially those of the marine biological associations and the "sheries laboratories, as well as ICES records extending back over a century. By comparison with the foregoing uses information mineral and energy extraction, waste disposal, leisure and marine conservation, which
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are relatively recent as important activities, is mainly post-1940s. The most important sources are the records of central and local government, together with the oil companies, aggregate dredging companies and the Crown Estate. Assessment of the development process initially involves coming to a view on the interactions and relative importance in a temporal context of environmental, technological, economic social and perhaps psychological factors, the last operating in the context of the maritime cultural tradition. At the heart of understanding the stages or cycles outlined in the "rst part of this paper is the interaction of technological and economic factors on &long-wave' time scales, especially in the context of commercial shipping, naval activity, "sheries and marine science which were the most important activities overall until the mid-20th century. In technological development, it is important to distinguish initial innovation from large-scale application. For example, the Watt steam engine dated from the 1760s, but its descendants were not applied on a large scale in shipping until after 1870, when a combination of the use of steel ships and engines coupled with much more e$cient boilers made it worthwhile. It is this large scale application which is economically determined, which is decisive in identifying the stages abovementioned. Also, technology should be regarded as a sub-category of innovation: the large-scale application of new ideas, often to existing activities. A good example is in maritime trade. Without the commercial revolution and the development of marine insurance in the seventeenth century [48], it would not have been possible to realise the advantage of the technological changes of the industrial revolution (1780}1830) for the development of the global maritime economy. It goes beyond the scope of this paper to provide a detailed analysis of the interaction of technology and economic factors. However, it remains important to point out some key features of associated social and environmental developments on the comparatively long time scales covered in this paper. In a social context, two periods of equal length are of signi"cance, namely, the medieval period and the modern period, each of 500 years or so. The medieval period remains important as the roots of the regional di!erentiation of maritime cultures dates back to that time, including elements of ship and boat technology, placenames, and the origins of the contemporary nations. The modern period is arguably drawing to an end, especially as the role of the state is retreating in the face of advances in both the private and voluntary sectors, not least in the "eld of sea and coastal management. If this trend continues the role of the state will shortly be reminiscent of its position at the beginning of the early modern period, when it was necessary to go to great lengths to secure support from other interests in the social fabric in order to accomplish speci"ed state aims. Understanding the nature of the long time scales is fundamental to establishing the nature of British maritime tradition, with its combination of the very old (medieval) and the successive contributions of the modern era which has resulted in the building up and subsequent decline of speci"c maritime communities, especially in the context of commercial shipping and ports, the Royal Navy, "sheries, and marine science. Contemporary maritime communities involving these and the other uses of the sea are arguably much more communities of experience and ideas, and much less those of physical entities represented by the sailortowns, naval bases, "shing villages and marine laboratories of past times. The historical geography of the seas around the British Isles have not evolved against an unchanging physical environment. The Middle Ages of
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the Scandinavian maritime expansion, for example, were arguably milder and less stormy than the subsequent descent into the rigours of the Little Ice Age which persisted from the 16th}19th centuries. In particular this sea change in climate was associated with considerable instability of sandy coasts in early modern times, which had notable in#uences on port development, and undoubtedly had considerable implications for the "sheries. Arguably, however, the balance by which the environment had more in#uence on human activity than vice versa was not signi"cantly altered until the 1870}1930s phase, associated with the coming of steam and the advent of over"shing. Further, real con#ict among the major groups of uses is only now emerging as a serious issue, together with notions of sustainability of the current development process and the ability of the marine environment to sustain it. There remains the need to distinguish between the coastal and o!shore dimensions of the historical geography. Until the present 1930}1990s phase, the sea was to a considerable extent a world apart in cultural terms, with its own distinctive maritime communities and traditions. That is no longer the case and, combined with increasing intensities of sea use, particularly along the coast as well as to some extent o!shore, maritime a!airs are becoming much more integrated with those of the land, environmentally, technologically, economically and socially. This has particularly important implications for management of the coastal and marine environment not only at technical level, but also at general level for regions within the United Kingdom and the relationships between the British Isles and the evolving European project, which form the focus of the management papers in this Special Issue [18].
Conclusion The roots of the maritime culture of Britain lie in the Middle Ages, which witnessed the emergence of the constituent nations and related regional cultural di!erentiation. The succeeding Modern period which is now drawing to a close, was characterised by &long-wave' developments based on the interaction of changing technology and economic factors, which became more pronounced from the &industrial revolution' around the middle of the period and resulted in increasingly sharply di!erentiated maritime communities built especially on commercial shipping and ports, the Navy, and "sheries. The separate maritime tradition is now in decline, but an important part of the national heritage, as marine activities become both more diverse and more closely integrated into other aspects of national life. The geographical patterns arising from the development sequences are characterised by a division of sea use intensities and combinations of uses along urban}rural lines. Urban seas are restricted more or less to areas of coast and sea adjacent to urban areas on land, and generally within internal waters in a legal sense. Here con#icts of use and environmental impacts are at their maximum. Rural seas are used mainly for resource extraction. There remains much work to be done on the historical geography of the seas around the British Isles, which possesses a rich heritage of source materials. The overall development processes can be discerned as noted above on longer time scales, but much detailed work remains to be done to elucidate the precise nature of the changes involved. The strong maritime tradition of the British Isles has particularly originated in modern times,
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but is being currently transformed by closer integration into non-maritime aspects of the culture, which has been associated with the rise of new management approaches, especially focusing upon the coastal zone.
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