SAILING WITH THE FRENCH
Tracing Lives,
Linking Oceans
Sailing with the French
Our team is working to visualize and analyze more than 1300 voyages of the French East India Company during the 18th century, uncovering patterns and stories from archival records of the era.
Over the course of the 18th century, European vessels crisscrossed the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the name of commercial and political gain.
The merchant ships of the French ‘Compagnie des Indes’ produced reams of bureaucratic records, many of which have scarcely been analyzed. This project sets out to find patterns in these documents and to recover stories of the individuals on board–not just the European and South Asian sailors who kept the ships on course, but the diverse passengers, soldiers, and stowaways who travelled along with them.
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