Nagai, Kaori (2023) Rattus-Homo-Machine: Rats as Seafarers in the Nineteenth Century. In: Nagai, Kaori, ed. Maritime Animals: Ships, Species, Stories. Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures . Penn State University Press, University Park, PA, USA, pp. 115-133. ISBN 978-0-271-09537-0. E-ISBN 0-271-09537-7. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:105923)
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| Official URL: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09... |
Abstract
As the saying goes, “rats abandon a sinking ship”: rats were once an integral part of any ship’s journey, and sailors had faith in the rats’ knowledge of a ship’s condition. This chapter explores the nature of the human-rat partnership formed onboard ships before the twentieth century. Ship rats did not only embody the force of European colonization by devastating local wildlife but they were also represented as fellow travelers: the ship was a site of multispecies flourishing, in which sailors witnessed rats’ resourcefulness in making their travel possible.
| Item Type: | Book section |
|---|---|
| Projects: | Cosmopolitan Rats: Rats as Seafarers in the Age of British Imperialism |
| Uncontrolled keywords: | rats, ships, vermin, human-animal relations, Robinson Crusoe, Joseph Conrad |
| Subjects: |
D History General and Old World D History General and Old World > D History (General) G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GC Oceanography P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
| Divisions: | Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English |
| Funders: | National Maritime Museum (https://ror.org/01f3njc68) |
| Depositing User: | Kaori Nagai |
| Date Deposited: | 11 May 2024 14:25 UTC |
| Last Modified: | 13 May 2024 11:38 UTC |
| Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/105923 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
University of Kent Author Information
Nagai, Kaori.
| Creator's ORCID: |
 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8289-0956
|
|---|---|
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