Abstract
The two ships, Bato (1806) and Brunswick (1805) wrecked in Simon’s Bay, South Africa, provide an opportunity to compare British and Dutch maritime technologies during the Napoleonic Era (1792–1815). The former was a Dutch 74-gun ship of the line and the latter a British East Indiaman. Their remains reveal pertinent information about the maritime technologies available to each European power. Industrial capacity and advanced metal working played a significant role in ship construction initiatives of that period, while the dwindling timber supplies forced invention of new technologies. Imperial efforts during the Napoleonic Era relied on naval power. Maritime technologies dictated imperial strategy as ships were deployed to expand or maintain colonial empires. Naval theorists place the strategy into a wider spectrum and the analysis of the material culture complements further understanding of sea power.
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Mollema, I. (2017). Technology and Empire: A Comparative Analysis of British and Dutch Maritime Technologies During the Napoleonic Era (1792-1815). In: Harris, L. (eds) Sea Ports and Sea Power. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46985-0_4
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