Read in the August issue of the IJMH (requires subscription) the review by Lewis Wade of Le trafic dunkerquois au XVIIIe siècle (1729–1792) by Christian Pfister-Langanay

Dunkirk is well known to historians and the general public as the capital of privateers, with its namesake hero Jean Bart. In the Spanish era, however, the Armada of Flanders and its privateers won successes just as considerable—if not greater—than those of the Northern Squadron under the Sun King. One forgets that the Flemish port, after the demolition of its facilities in 1713, had a hard time finding its way back to peaceful trade over the course of the eighteenth century.

Dunkirk’s maritime trade experienced spectacular growth, and its maritime reach extended across all the seas of the world. The leave registers kept by the Admiralty and the reports of annual accounts make it possible to examine Dunkirk’s navigation. Even more interesting are the pilotage reservation registers kept by the sailors themselves, which detail the port’s arrivals and departures in a French phonetic transcription of a whole series of idioms, from Scandinavian to the French these Flemings had not yet mastered.

This work collects—and above all, synthesizes in a uniform manner—all these data. More than 32,000 ship departures are classified according to their origin and destination, and recorded across more than 730 ports. To this day, it is the best statistical coverage available for a French port of the eighteenth century.

Revue du Nord n° Hors-série 48. Le trafic dunkerquois au XVIIIe siècle (1729-1792)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08438714251355568