Monsoon Voyages

Tag: History

  • The Legacy of HMS Eclipse

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    by

    Zoe Cheang
    in

    Hello everyone! We will be spotlighting HMS Eclipse, one of the few ships that you may have been transcribing from on our citizen-science project called Monsoon Voyages. HMS: What does it stand for? Before we jump straight into the history, you might have noticed the ship prefix “HMS”, followed by a name while transcribing the…

  • The El Nino Story

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    by

    Zoe Cheang
    in

    The Beginning of the Endeavour In the early 1891, a traveler named S.M. Scott was staying near Talara in northwestern Peru when clouds started building on the horizon. He described the extraordinary season of torrential rains and a transformed landscape as “a low-hanging, densely clouded sky, intense heat … The rain fell in inconceivable torrents…

  • Role of HMS Hornet in the Capture of Canton

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    Praveen Rao Teleti
    in

    The HMS Hornet, a 17-gun sloop of the Royal Navy, played a crucial role in the capture of Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) during the Second Opium War (1856–1860). Built in 1854 as part of the Royal Navy’s Cruizer-class sloops, the Hornet was equipped with a combination of sails and steam power, allowing it to operate effectively…

  • Understanding Data: A Window into History and Climate

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    Zoe Cheang
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    Let us go back by a century, and imagine ourselves to be one of the crew onboard a ship sailing vast global seas. Surrounded by the blue ocean and open sky, part of your daily routine would be to jot down weather observations in a logbook – a notebook filled with careful notes about what…

  • Let’s sail into climate past, charting historical rainfall in Southeast Asia

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    Praveen Rao Teleti
    in

    The historical rainfall rescue project, Monsoon Voyages is a new initiative that seeks to digitise and analyse old rainfall records, shedding light on historical weather patterns in Southeast Asia. These records, dating back as far as the 19th century, are a treasure trove of information that can enhance our understanding of climate change, inform water…

  • Maritime Trade in the Strait of Malacca and Sumatra

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    Fiona Williamson
    in

    The Malay Archipelago has historically been a significant region for maritime trade and diasporic settlement. It encompasses a vast area of Southeast Asia, from the Philippines in the northeast, south to the Celebes Islands, Moluccas and New Guinea and west to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. This project focuses in on the region of the Strait…