ABSTRACT
This afterward, like other chapters in this volume, is concerned with the ‘silences’ of archives, though it may differ slightly in that I am an historian, not an archivist, and am approaching the topic from another perspective, that of a user of archives, not the keeper or manager of collections of documents, though we may have the same objective in elucidating or exploring the problem of ‘silences’. The perspective here is that of a research-oriented historian, who has spent nearly 50 years in archives seeking information and answers to questions of historical interest, during which I’ve gained an awareness of the ‘silences’ that at times seems to pervade archival research in them. My observations on the nature of these ‘silences’ and some of the remedial actions one may take to turn up the volume derive from undertaking research in the field of maritime history and in particular on topics relating to piracy and shipwrecks, working in archives literally stretching round the world. Indeed one such historical research project, locating Manila Galleons lost in the Mariana Islands, which will serve as the focus of archival experience in this chapter, took me into archives in London, Seville, Manila, the Marianas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Chicago, Bloomington, Acapulco, Mexico City, Simancas, Madrid and Rome.
