Masters of the Gulf: Admiralty Understandings of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, circa 1759-1815

• In Event: What Do We Get Out of it? Extractivism in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1759-1856

Abstract

Even before the establishment of the British Admiralty’s Hydrographic Office in 1795, ships’ Masters were instructed to conduct surveys of coastlines, ports, their people, and trade. This paper uses these surveys of the Gulf of St. Lawrence regions housed in the United Kingdom National Archives ADM 346, to demonstrate how British understanding of the Gulf of St. Lawrence changed during and after the imperial wars of the long eighteenth century (Seven Years’ War, American Revolution, and War of 1812). These reports compliment official surveys by Samuel Holland and J.F.W. Des Barres in the 1760s, as discussed in the work of historical geographer Stephen J. Hornsby, and papers of the Board of Trade as analysed historian S. Max Edelson. Masters’ writings and drawings showcase how the Gulf of St. Lawrence was understood as a military and economic space during times of peace, war, and conquest.

Author

• Erin Spinney, University of New Brunswick (Saint John)