The Trials of the American Snow George in the British Atlantic, 1805–6

Abstract

Abstract: The story of the George in 1805–6 drives home what "British Atlantic" really means. The owner and crew of this ordinary US merchant vessel tried the North Atlantic and Caribbean to make a profit buying, shipping, and selling products—and people—in a commercial environment so dominated by the world's greatest maritime empire that those excluded from the privileges of membership in that empire faced far more adversity than the already considerable hazards posed by the sea and the vagaries of the market. The concerns, ambitions, and challenges of the men of the George , and of those with whom they interacted, come through clearly in a narrative revealed almost completely by surviving primary documents, allowing us aboard the George as the snow's crew experienced the British Atlantic from North America to Ireland to the Caribbean.