From Macao to Havana

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2014 in the subject History - Miscellaneous, Lund University (Cultural science), language: English, abstract: This is primarily the story about the Norwegian ship Constantin which was caught up in an international network of trade with migrant Chinese workers known as coolies. Constantin belonged to a partnership of owners (partsrederi), a kind of ownership that was common in Norwegian shipping as far as sailing vessels were concerned. Part-owners in Constantin were Jens Amundsen (father of the famous polar explorer Roald Amundsen)and two of his brothers who each owned 1/6 of the ship, while P. Anker in Fredrikshald had a smaller part, but he was the managing owner ("e;korresponderende reder"e;). There were also other part owners. In 1866 Constantin sailed from Macao to Havana in 103 days with 295 Chinese "e;coolies"e;. 16 of them died during the passage which the captain considered fortunate because he thought it was a moderate number. Initially Constantin's captain referred to them as "e;passengers"e; when he sent a letter informing the managing owner about the matter.