Voyages of maintenance: Exploration, infrastructure, and modernity on the Krusenstern–Lisianskii circumnavigation between Russia and Japan from 1803 to 1806

Against the common association of voyages of exploration with discovery and the arrival of modernity, this essay argues that maintenance and repair were essential to the success of such voyages and that maintenance and innovation are best seen as fundamentally integrated. Using the Russian circumnav...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Werrett, S
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10140755/1/00732753211060186.pdf
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10140755/
Description
Summary:Against the common association of voyages of exploration with discovery and the arrival of modernity, this essay argues that maintenance and repair were essential to the success of such voyages and that maintenance and innovation are best seen as fundamentally integrated. Using the Russian circumnavigatory voyage of Adam von Krusenstern and Urey Lisianskii in 1803–7 as a case study, the essay explores the diverse forms and roles of infrastructure and repair work in enabling a voyage of exploration, and reveals the tensions and debates that considerations of maintenance evoked among ships’ officers, crews, and the peoples they encountered.