http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2535-3008
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
The relationship between sailors and tropical birds is often ignored because of its association with swashbuckling pirates and their winged sidekicks. Links to pirates in popular culture such as Treasure Island's Long John Silver and Captain Flint have led to many misconceptions about the social functions of avian pets in the seafaring community. The transportation of parrots from exotic locations into western culture provides a unique opportunity to study the seamen involved in this exchange and lends insight into how this group fit into the larger social paradigm of European and American culture. Focusing on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this analysis draws on evidence from primary accounts, newspapers, legal documents, artwork, and archaeology to identify the social functions of bird ownership among sailors.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the anonymous referees and Dr Kevin Crisman, whose support and comments considerably improved the manuscript. I would also like to express gratitude to my colleagues Grace Tsai and Stephanie Koenig who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted my research.
Notes
1 Cordingly, Under the Black Flag, 8–10; Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America, 44; W. White, ‘A Venerable Cockatoo,’ The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 23 Jun. 1916.
2 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 34.
3 Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, 4.
4 Fuson, The Log of Christopher Columbus, 77, 83–4, 89.
5 Boehrer, ‘Men, Monkeys, Lap-dogs, Parrots’, 171.
6 Fuson, The Log of Christopher Columbus, 134.
7 Greer and Guelke, ‘Intrepid Naturalists and Polite Observers’, 323–46.
8 Kisling, ‘The Colonial Menageries’, 307.
9 Ibid., 304–5.
10 Latham, The Travels of Marco Polo, 66, 287, 307.
11 Boehrer, ‘The Parrot Eaters’, 51.
12 This association was also expressed in art. Netherlandish artist Adriaen Collaert included a parrot prominently featured to the right of a central indigenous figure in his ‘four continents’ series of engravings produced in the late sixteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘America, from the Four Continents’, Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1959, acc. no. 59.654.10.
13 Boehrer, ‘Men, Monkeys, Lap-dogs, Parrots’, 171–9.
14 Masefield, Dampier's Voyages, 223; Pinkerton, Early Australian Voyages, 147.
15 Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America, 42–4.
16 Ringrose, A Buccaneer's Atlas, 101, 126.
17 Grove, Green Imperialism, 16–72.
18 Ibid., 44.
19 Prince, et al, ‘Stuffing Birds’, 1–8.
20 Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 265.
21 Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages, 290.
22 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 9, 20.
23 Vanhaelen, ‘Local Sites, Foreign Sights’, 259; Grier, Pets in America, 236.
24 Vanhaelen, ‘Local Sites, Foreign Sights’, 257–8.
25 Ibid., 259.
26 Beaven, ‘The Resilience of Sailortown Culture’, 72–95. Melton in The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe discusses changing social status throughout Europe at large during the Age of Enlightenment, beyond what is discussed here which focuses on maritime community.
27 Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 271.
28 Larcom, A New England Girlhood, 95.
29 Stark, ‘Sailors’ Pets in the Royal Navy’, 79; Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, 82.
30 Zierden and Reitz, ‘Animal Use and the Urban Landscape’, 358. Although the exact type of parrot has not been identified, this bird ranged in size between 25 and 100 cm.
31 Pollock, ‘Companion Birds in Early America’, 148.
32 Milne and Crabtree, ‘Prostitutes, a Rabbi, and a Carpenter’, 31–41.
33 Stark's ‘Sailors’ Pets in the Royal Navy’ discusses the frequency of other pets kept by sailors in the Royal Navy; Mäenpää, ‘Sailors and their Pets’, discusses Finnish sailors’ pets as well as discusses themes of identity and masculinity.
34 The reliance of Europeans on indigenous peoples for bird acquisition fits within the larger trend of European reliance on indigenous knowledge. This is discussed in depth, in particular regarding indigenous botanical knowledge, in Grove, Green Imperialism, 73–94.
35 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 10.
36 Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 270.
37 Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 47, 51, 77, 353.
38 Linklater, The Voyage of the Challenger, 152–3.
39 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 10.
40 Ibid., 26.
41 Martire, The Decades of the Newe Worlde, 147.
42 Masefield, Dampier's Voyages, 223
43 Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America, 43; Young ‘Notes on Certain Birds’, 399; Alexander Exquemelin refers to the practice of catching noodies on ships, which was a bird he reports was inedible, as does William Dampier.
44 Gardner, Above and Under the Hatches, 41–2.
45 Valentin, Voyages and Adventures of La Pérouse, 7.
46 Young, ‘Notes on Certain Birds’, 399.
47 Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 49.
48 Linklater, The Voyage of the Challenger, 133.
49 Ledyard, A Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage, 122.
50 Greer and Guelke, ‘Intrepid Naturalists and Polite Observers’, 339.
51 Greer, ‘Ornithology on “The Rock”‘, 37–42.
52 Stark, ‘Sailors’ Pets in the Royal Navy’, 77.
53 Cordingly, Under the Black Flag, 8–10.
54 Wilton, ‘Characterization in Selected Novels of Pierre Loti’, iii.
55 Loti, An Iceland Fisherman, 141.
56 ‘Obituary: Frank T. Bullen’, 344; Bullen, A Sack of Shakings, 336–40.
57 Rosenman, Two Voyages to the South Seas, xi, 48.
58 Cochrane, The Autobiography of a Seaman, 58.
59 Nordhoff, Sailor Life, 650.
60 Stark, ‘Sailor's Pets in the Royal Navy’, 79.
61 ‘A Venerable Cockatoo,’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 May 1916; Gilchrist, ‘The Cocky Bennett Story’.
62 Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, 208.
63 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 22–3.
64 Hardy, ‘Parrots’, 244.
65 Vygotsky mentions the teaching of parrots to swear as a common sailor diversion, supporting this interpretation. Vygotsky, Thinking and Speech, 117.
66 ‘Charles II is said to have taught his ladies to swear like parrots, but oaths were still only the plaything and not part of the serious business of the Court.’ Sharman, A Cursory History of Swearing, 134.
67 Dolling, Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum, 107–6.
68 Beaven, ‘The Resilience of Sailortown Culture’, 90.
69 Pieter van den Berge, Indische bootsgezel, Rijksmuseum object number RP-P-1889-A-14810.
70 Bullen, A Sack of Shakings, 340.
71 Fingard, ‘Masters and Friends, Crimps and Abstainers’, 22.
72 In Pierre Loti notes that sailors entertained themselves by holding parrot races after purchasing the animals in Singapore. Loti, An Iceland Fisherman, 141.
73 Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 45–9.
74 Ibid., 72.
75 Ibid., 51.
76 Kisling, ‘The Colonial Menageries’, 111.
77 Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 50.
78 Challes, Journal d’un Voyage, 301.
79 Boehrer, Men, Monkeys, Lap-dogs, Parrots’, 53–5.
80 Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, 208.
81 Gardner, Above and Under the Hatches, 42.
82 Migaud, ‘A First Approach’, 287.
83 Gardner, Above and Under the Hatches, 51.
84 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 20.
85 Young, ‘Notes on Certain Birds’, 399.
86 Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, 208–13.
87 Rosenman, Two Voyages to the South Seas, 48; Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, 213; Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 20. See also Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 77.
88 Masefield, Dampier's Voyages, 223.
89 Rosenman, Two Voyages to the South Seas, 48.
90 Cochrane, The Autobiography of a Seaman, 58.
91 Stark, ‘Sailor's Pets in the Royal Navy’, 79; Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 10.
92 Robbins, Elephants, Slaves and Pampered Parrots, 22–3; Rosenman, Two Voyages to the South Seas, 59; Löwenstern, The First Russian Voyage Around the World, 76.
93 Bullen, A Sack of Shakings, 340.
94 Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 270.
95 Stark, ‘Sailor's Pets in the Royal Navy’, 79; Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, 82.
96 Migaud, ‘A First Approach’, 283 and 287.
97 Ibid., 208–9.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Megan C. Hagseth
Megan Hagseth completed her Masters of Arts in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in 2015 from the Nautical Archaeology Program. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the same institution. Her research focuses on human–animal interaction in the maritime community.