Englishmen at Sea

“The real strength of Englishmen at Sea lies in Hubbard’s emphasis on the agency and bargaining power held by seafaring laborers whose skills, knowledge, and mobility were vital to merchants and the state.”—American Historical Review

shortlisted for the John Ben Snow Prize, sponsored by North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS)

“An important contribution to debates on national, religious and cultural identity, empire, and economic expansion, as well as our understanding of England’s seafaring community at a crucial stage in its development.”—Bernard Capp, The University of Warwick

"Eleanor Hubbard’s indefatigable sleuthing in challenging sources has uncovered a remarkable global history of the fractious and savvy mariners who sustained and defined the English empire in its earliest and formative years. Her book is an extraordinary accomplishment."—Alison Games, Georgetown University

"A readable and deeply researched history that shows how mariners' struggles over identity shaped the idea of English nationhood during the first era of England's imperial expansion."—Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, University of Southern California, Dornsife

“A highly original and compelling analysis of how the first phase of British maritime expansion was experienced by sailors themselves. Hubbard’s reconstruction of shipboard politics is empirically rigorous, conceptually sophisticated, and engagingly written.”—Steve Hindle, The Huntington Library

“This is an illuminating and absorbing study of the seamen whose labour made possible England’s global maritime expansion, vividly recapturing an emergent world and the extraordinary lives of its creators.”—Keith Wrightson, Yale University