“Sailors of high seas are not made in a day”

men, ships and goods moving between Portugal, Paraíba and Macau (1767–1821)

Abstract

Based on the observation of the large port movement in Lisbon due to trade with the colonial domains, I investigate the role of the seafarers responsible for operating the vessels and transporting goods, who are almost always invisible in historiography. To do so, I analyzed ships and men traveling on two colonial trade routes: Lisbon-Paraíba and Lisbon-Macau. The hypothesis is that the first, shorter and less dangerous in terms of natural conditions, was also a place where sailors were trained, while the second, more distant and fuller of all kinds of dangers, employed more experienced crew members and carried larger crews. The selected ships operated between 1767 and 1821 and I intend to discuss issues such as typologies, journey times, crew size and the role played by captains, workers in specialized mechanical trades and manual laborers based on the presentation of profiles of these categories on these two maritime routes.