Jip van Besouw, From the Rivers to the Seas: Aims and Practices of Early Modern Depth Measurements

Jip van Besouw (USevilla/DEEPMED), From the Rivers to the Seas: aims and practices of depth measurement.
Jip van Besouw (grupo.us.es/deepmed/en/team-2/ ) is a historian of science and the author of, among others, "The product of practices: how natural history and mathematical physics gave meaning to depth contour lines" (Isis, June 2024)
Here his own summary of the talk:
Rivers and sea routes were critical pieces of infrastructure for early modern trade, warfare, and fishing. Not surprisingly, they were a central subject of the map-making industry. Here, I delve into a particular feature of hydrographic maps: the appearance of depth markings. More generally, I discuss the aims with which depths of waters were studied in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the techniques used to investigate them.
Given that early moderns generally only ever saw the surface of waters, the extent to which depth was studied is surprising. Of course, some depth measurements were made for navigation: particularly to avoid shoals and find anchorage. But depths were also studied to answer questions about the history of the Earth; the control of fish stocks; the explanation of phenomena such as tides and currents; the prevention of flooding, and the extraction of minerals from the seabed. Far from having a single practical aim, the study of depth came forth out of a heterogeneous bunch of questions and practices.
Existing scholarship tends to separate these into navigational and scientific problems, or practical and theoretical questions. I show, however, that there was much more overlap between the different practices than the literature recognizes. The people involved with different problems moved in the same spaces and built on each other’s innovations in measuring and conceptualizing depths. I finish by arguing that the juxtaposition of navigation and science does not stem from early modern practices but, instead, from nineteenth-century efforts to demarcate the science of oceanography.
This conference is brought to you by The DEEPMED Seminar: A #history forum for #ocean #science , #strategy , and #environment
To join online, visit our website: grupo.us.es/deepmed/
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It is organized by ERC-CoG DEEPMED-101002330. Discovering the Deep Mediterranean Environment: A History of Science and Strategy (1860-2020). Universidad de Sevilla.
Calendar for 2023/24. All times are CET.
20/09, 15PM. Antony Adler (Carleton College), From the #mediterranean to the Global Ocean: Albert 1st of Monaco and the Institutionalization of #marine Research.
4/10, 12PM. Jeffrey Brodsky (Independent journalist), The Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage: Investigating the Century's Biggest Geopolitical Mystery.
18/10, 12PM. Irmak Ertör (University of Boğaziçi), Blue Justice and coastal communities' struggles: An analysis based on Environmental Justice Atlas.
15/11, 12PM. Ellen Kreftig (University of Oslo), Ordering and visualising the ocean in early modern France.
13/12, 12PM. Effie Dorovitsa (USevilla/DEEPMED), Feeding the people/ nurturing a 'Great Idea'; the pivotal years of Greek #oceanography , 1900-1924.
17/01, 12PM. Peder Robers (KTH, Sweden), Floating Ice Islands and Cold War Oceanography: #infrastructure in Search of a Purpose.
21/02, 12PM. Marta Conde (UABarcelona), Mining questions of ‘what’ and ‘who’: the #seabed for future #policy and #governance .
13/03, 3PM. Katherine Anderson (York University, Canada), The Modern Ocean: oceans and #history between the world wars.
24/04, 12PM. Sam Robinson (University of Southhampton), “Paper #empire '': Hydrography and the Composition of British South Atlantic Oceanic Imperialism 1923-1939.
15/05, 12PM. Jip van Besouw (USevilla/DEEPMED), From the River to the #sea : aims and practices of #depth measurement.
12/06, 12PM. Helen @Rozwadowski (University of Connecticut), “Great Sea-Gash”, or Why Did A 19th-century Hydrographer Quote Shakespeare?: Continuities Between Early Modern and Modern #ocean Mapping.
Production: Alberto Celís Pozuelo