In April 1818, Catherine Macknally, described in the parish records of St Andrew, Plymouth, as a ‘common prostitute’, was apprehended while wandering and begging with her two illegitimate children—…

An Indian seaman (1929). Waterline Collection, National Maritime Museum, London. [RMG reference: P94093]. Shagnick BhattacharyaUniversity of Exeter In July 1945, as the Second World War was almost …

In this blog post Shagnick Bhattacharya (Independent Scholar) presents their research, which was supported by the 2026 Joint BME Small Research Grant. — Following the Great Depression, British shipown...

In this blog post Shagnick Bhattacharya (Independent Scholar) presents their research, which was supported by the 2026 Joint BME Small Research Grant. — Following the Great Depression, British shipown...

How did the caste system function aboard ships in the twentieth century? Shagnick Bhattacharya explores the history of lascars.

As hundreds of thousands of seamen criss-crossed the oceans in British ships in the Interwar period, instances of subaltern ‘smugglers’ aboard created a novel, radical problem especiall…