Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates specific spaces where the re-invention of the ship took place. Richard Biddle presents this geographical survey in the dockyard, on the occupational health of labourers, unravelling the relationship between their bodies and the ships they built. Through dockyard records and contemporary testimony, Biddle shows how the changing nature of ship construction made the dockyard a more dangerous working environment, in need of greater regulation and healthcare provisions. Christopher Harvie employs a range of literary tracings to explore the re-invention of the symbolic ship in industrial Britain as a link in the chains of transportation, trade and war. Don Leggett similarly draws attention to the imagery surrounding the ship, examining it as a site of political debate, professional controversy and social disputes over engineering and naval aesthetics.