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Project Summary:

A. the study of marine observation practices and exchange networks after the coming of radio to the breakdown of scientific exchange in WWII B.the study of ships logs as resources to track hurricane frequency during WWII

Project Description:

This project analysed ships’ logs during 1939-45 in the Atlantic to consider how historical records might be used to study hurricanes. A preliminary study of marine records from this period connects to growing body of historical research on logs, and on hurricanes and climate change. It also contributes to the study of meteorology’s history as an international, observational science. But the chief innovation of the project is to ask how the perspectives and questions of the historian of science might shape our understanding of science and of climate change. An analysis of logs offers a unique opportunity to examine the intersection of historical and scientific studies. It seeks to build a foundation for shared work and to promote familiarity with the assumptions, practices, languages and scholarly products peculiar to different disciplines.
Publications arising from this work include:

“The weather ship: networks, disasters and imaginaries after 1945,” in Martin Mahony, Sam Randalls, eds. Weather and the Geographical Imagination (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, forthcoming).
“Marine Meteorology: Observing Regimes and Global Visions 1918-1939” in Anderson, Rozwadowski, eds. Soundings and Crossings (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History, 2016) 213-241.

Project Type:
Funded

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Canada

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Funder:
SSHRC RDI

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