Dr Richard Blakemore

BIOGRAPHY

Richard Blakemore’s research focuses on the history of human society and the sea, particularly during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. His main current interest is the social history of seafarers. As sailors travelled ever further and more frequently during the early modern period, building and maintaining commercial networks and contacts across cultures, they brought home new wealth, objects and ideas. They also contributed to the emergence of new social, economic, political, and legal situations in Britain, Europe, and around the globe. His present research considers the experiences of seafarers across this period, their perceptions of the maritime environment, their professional culture, their relationships with communities ashore, and their role within empire and other political and legal regimes.