1 State Library of New South Wales, Sydney (henceforth SLNSW), 910.45/195, Tasma [no initial], ed., The Sobraon Occasional, 5, Melbourne, 1875, p. 58.

2 See Epple, Angelika, ‘Globale Mikrogeschichte: auf dem Weg zu einer Geschichte der Relationen’, in Eward Hiebl and Ernst Langthaler, eds., Im Kleinen das Große suchen: Mikrogeschichte in Theorie und Praxis; Hans Haas zum 70. Geburtstag, Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2012, pp. 37–47Google Scholar; Deacon, Desley, Russell, Penny, and Woollacott, Angela, ‘Introduction’, in Desley Deacon, Penny Russell, and Angela Woollacot, eds., Transnational lives: biographies of global modernity, 1700–present, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See, among many others, Osterhammel, Jürgen, Die Verwandlung der Welt, Munich: Beck, 2009CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 British Library, London (henceforth BL), 013918583 [no ed.], The Transatlantic Times, published on board the ‘St. Paul’ at Sea, en route for England, November 15th, 1899. See also Wedlake, G. E. C., S.O.S.: the story of radio communication, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973, pp. 25–26Google Scholar; Jolly, W. P., Marconi, New York: Stein and Day, 1972, p. 85Google Scholar. For changes brought about through the introduction of wireless communication aboard, see also Roland Wenzlhuemer, ‘The ship, the media, and the world: conceptualizing connections in global history’, pp. 163–86 in this issue.

5 For ships’ newspapers published after the introduction of wireless communication, see Möhn, Dieter, ‘Schiffszeitungen: Entdeckung eines Mediums’, in Dieter Möhn, Dieter Ross and Marita Tjarks-Sobhani, eds., Mediensprache und Medienlinguistik: Festschrift für Jörg Hennig, Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2001, pp. 263–282Google Scholar; Arceneaux, Noah, ‘The ecology of wireless newspapers publishing on islands and ships, 1899–1913’, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 91, 2, 2014, pp. 562–577CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See Wenzlhuemer, Roland and Offermann, Michael, ‘Ship newspapers and passenger life aboard transoceanic steamships in the late nineteenth century’, Transcultural Studies, 8, 1, 2012, pp. 77–121Google Scholar; Shaikh, Fariha, ‘The Alfred and The Open Sea: periodical culture and nineteenth-century settler emigration at sea’, English Studies in Africa 57, 1, 2014, pp. 21–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar, both of which analyse two shipboard publications. Eight handwritten newspapers on Arctic excursions, on British naval ships, and aboard ships en route to the Californian goldfields are described in Atwood, Roy Alden, ‘Shipboard news: nineteenth century handwritten periodicals at sea’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (80th, Chicago, Illinois, 1997), ERIC, 1998, pp. 4–31Google Scholar. For an analyse of poems published in shipboard newspapers, see Rudy, Jason R., ‘Floating worlds: émigré poetry and British culture’, English Literary History, 81, 1, 2014, pp. 325–350CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (henceforth NMM), THP 3, [no ed.], The Challenger Gazette, 1828; SLNSW, 910.45/66, Ferguson, John, ed., The Lady Jocelyn Weekly Mail: a journal of a voyage from Melbourne to London, London, 1869Google Scholar, unpaginated; SLNSW, Q656.509/V, F. E. Baily, ed., The Vanguard Times: a weekly journal of amusement and instruction, 1, Brisbane, 1867, p. 1.

8 Auerbach, Jeffrey, ‘Imperial boredom’, Common Knowledge, 11, 2, 2005, pp. 283–305Google Scholar.

9 NMM, PBA0222, Digby T. Brett, ed., The Maori Times: a paper containing the principal incidents which occurred on board the ship Maori, 1, 1, Auckland, 1868, p. 1; SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no ed.], The Garonne Journal, 1, 1879, p. 2.

10 See Wenzlhuemer and Offermann, ‘Ship newspapers’, pp. 104–5.

11 Bell, Bill, ‘Bound for Australia: shipboard reading in the nineteenth century’, in Robin Myers and Michael Harris, eds., Journeys through the market: travel, travellers and the book trade, New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1999, p. 137Google Scholar.

12 Many individuals aboard also kept personal diaries or commonplace books as well as the newspapers penned during the passage: see e.g. Tamson Pietsch, ‘Bodies at sea: travelling to Australia in the age of sail’, pp. 209–28 in this issue; Blum, Hester, The view from the masthead: maritime imagination and antebellum American sea narratives, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008Google Scholar.

13 van Gennep, Arnold, Les rites de passage, Paris: Nourry, 1909Google Scholar.

14 Gilbert, Helen and Johnston, Anna, eds., In transit: travel, text, empire: travel writing across the disciplines, New York: Lang, 2002, p. 16Google Scholar.

15 Nash, Geoffrey, From empire to Orient: travellers to the Middle East, 1830–1926, London: I.B. Tauris, 2005Google Scholar; Robinson-Tomsett, Emma, Women, travel and identity: journeys by rail and sea, 1870–1940, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013Google Scholar; Morgan, Marjorie, National identities and travel in Victorian Britain, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 SLNSW, DSM/042/P179, Vincent, H. D. and Townsend, W., eds., The Netherby Gazette: a journal published on board the ship Netherby, Melbourne, 1866, p. 12Google Scholar, emphasis added.

17 SLNSW, A 1681, J. R. Grumm und W. Welch, eds., The Zealandia Free Press: a mid ocean miscellany, 1884.

18 SLNSW, MLMSS 2716, Mabel Maffey et al., eds., The Parramatta Journal, 1882. For families ‘commuting’ between India and Great Britain, see Buettner, Elizabeth, Empire families: Britons and late imperial India, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar.

19 SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no ed.], The Ligurian, 1, Cambridge, 1882, p. 1; SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/C, [no. ed.], The Carthaginian: a ship newspaper, 1, Melbourne, 1885, p. 1. The latter quote is also an example to gloss the fact that not all newspapers refer to a British context but use the denomination ‘English’.

20 SLNSW, MJ3Q17, [no ed.], The Pioneer: a weekly newspaper published on board the S.S. Queen of the Thames, Melbourne, 1871, p. 1.

21 SLNSW, 910.42/S, [no ed.], The Sutlej Times, 1, Melbourne, 1887, p. 2.

22 National Library of Australia (henceforth NLA), 2095396, W. G. Roberts and E. Quayle, eds., The Cuzco Chronicle, Portsmouth, 1882.

23 SLNSW, Q910.42/W, Henry Davy, ed., The White Star Journal, 6, 1855, p. 15.

24 BL, YD.2011.b.1007, George Ritchie and Henry Davies, eds., The Great Britain Times, 3, 1865, unpaginated, emphasis in original. See also NMM, PBA0222, Brett, Maori Times, 3, p. 9.

25 SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no ed.], The Garonne Journal, 1879; NMM, THP 3, [no ed.], The Challenger Gazette, 1828.

26 NLA, MS 4221, [no ed.], Monsoon Mail and Black-Ball Bulletin, 1858, cover page.

27 SLNSW, MAV/FM4/10750, Braidwood, Peter Murray and Cape, Alfred John, eds., Parramatta Times: issued on board the S.S. Parramatta during her voyage from Sydney to London, April 2nd to May 25th 1886, Liverpool, 1886, p. 8Google Scholar, emphasis in original.

28 NLA, NK726, [no ed.], British Empire Gazette, 1, Christchurch, 1864, p. 1.

29 Bell, ‘Bound for Australia’, p. 136.

30 Verne, Jules, A floating city, London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searl, & Rivington, 1876, p. 92Google Scholar.

31 Elce, Erika Behrisch, ‘“One of the bright objects that solace us in these regions”: labour, leisure, and the Arctic shipboard periodical, 1820–1852’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 46, 3, 2013, pp. 343–367CrossRefGoogle Scholar (quote from p. 360). Indeed, newspapers on Arctic expeditions are an extremely well-researched phenomenon: see Coppinger, Eve, ‘Publishing on ice: personal experiences and incarnations of print culture aboard the HMS Hecla’, Constellations, 2, 2, 2011, pp. 118–124Google Scholar; Leane, Elizabeth, ‘The Adelie Blizzard: the Australasian Antarctic Expedition’s neglected newspaper’, Polar Record, 41, 1, 2005, pp. 11–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stam, David H. and Stam, Deirdre C., ‘The function of periodicals in nineteenth-century polar naval expeditions’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 41, 4, 2008, pp. 301–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoag, Elaine, ‘Caxtons of the north: mid-nineteenth-century Arctic shipboard printing’, Book History, 4, 1, 2001, pp. 81–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 There is an abundance of studies focusing on the social history of Victorian society: see, for instance, Harrison, John F. C., Late Victorian Britain, 1875–1901, London: Routledge, 1991Google Scholar; Gorman, Daniel, Imperial citizenship: empire and the question of belonging, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006Google Scholar.

33 NLA, 2166147, Hosking, J. H., ed., The Himalaya Observer, 2, London, 1896, p. 22Google Scholar.

34 BL, 002826629, J. H. W. [no name beyond the initials], The James Baines Times, published on board Her Majesty’s mail ship ‘James Baines’, during the passage from Melbourne to Liverpool, 5, 1, 1856, Birmingham: J. Tonks, pp. 2–4, for a detailed description of this ship, mentioning the fact that not even the captain needed to enter the ladies’ cabins in order to communicate with the wheel-house, owing to the well-thought-out architecture.

35 Hassam, Andrew, ‘“Our floating home”: social space and group identity on board the emigrant ship’, Working papers in Australian studies 76, Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, 1992, p. 18Google Scholar.

36 BL, YD.2011.b.1007, Ritchie and Davies, Great Britain Times, 2, unpaginated.

37 For trench newspapers and their function for the soldiers, see Nelson, Robert L., German soldier newspapers of the First World War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011Google Scholar. For family newspapers, see Alexander, Christine, ‘Play and apprenticeship: the culture of family magazines’, in Christine Alexander and Juliet McMaster, eds., The child writer from Austen to Woolf, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 31–50Google Scholar. One of the most famous examples is probably the family newspaper written by Virginia Woolf and her siblings in the 1890s: Woolf, Virginia et al., Hyde Park Gate News: the Stephen family newspaper, London: Hesperus, 2005Google Scholar (handwritten in 1891–2 and 1895).

38 For shipboard encounters and communities on the route between Sydney and San Francisco, see Frances Steel, ‘Anglo-worlds in transit: connections and frictions across the Pacific’, pp. 251–70 in this issue.

39 Bell, ‘Bound for Australia’, p. 137.

40 See Pietsch, ‘Bodies at sea’.

41 See, for instance, NLA, 2511612, James Edward Alexander, ed., The Albatross: record of voyage of the ‘Great Britain’ steam ship from Victoria to England in 1862, 1, Stirling, 1863, p. 2; SLNSW, 910.42/P, Musgrave, George Arthur, ed., The Parramatta Sun: a serio-comic magazine, issued fortnightly, during the voyage of the ship ‘Parramatta’ from London to Sydney, 1, Sydney, 1879, p. 3Google Scholar.

42 NLA, 2200823, [no ed.], The Sobraon Mercury: an occasional journal published at sea during the voyage of the ship ‘Sobraon’ from Melbourne to London, 3, London, 1877, p. 43. See also NLA, 2896974, Robinson, Francis Whitfield, ed., The Marco Polo Chronicle: a weekly journal of events arising during a voyage from Liverpool to Australia, 3, 1854, p. 2Google Scholar.

43 SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no. ed.], The James Baines Times, published on board Her Majesty’s mail ship ‘James Baines’, during the passage from Melbourne to Liverpool, 1, 3, Birmingham, 1856, p. 2; SLNSW, F656.505/J, [no ed.], The John Elder Times and General Advertiser, 2, 2, London, 1879, p. 5; SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/C, [no. ed.], The Carthaginian: a ship newspaper, 3, pp. 31–2.

44 SLNSW, 910.42/O, [no ed.], Our voyage: extracts from the Sobraon Gossip: a weekly newspaper published on board the Sobraon during the passage from Melbourne to London, London, 1875, p. 60; NLA, 2200823, [no ed.], The Sobraon Mercury, 1, p. 9; NLA, 2166147, Hosking, Himalaya Observer, 4, p. 49.

45 For one quite special case of sea travelling and the notion of ‘home’, see Ryan, James R., ‘“Our home on the ocean”: Lady Brassey and the voyages of the Sunbeam, 1874–1887’, Journal of Historical Geography, 32, 3, 2006, pp. 579–604CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 NLA, 5299711, [no ed.], The Cuzco Torpedo: an explosive magazine, Sydney, 1885 (Christmas double number), p. 1.

47 SLNSW, RAV/FM4/853, [no. ed.], The James Baines Times, 1, 3, p. 1.

48 NMM, PBH3685, William A. Smith, ed., Sketches at sea: a periodical issued on board the ship ‘Young Australia’, 1, Brisbane, 1864, p. 1.

49 BL, YD.2011.b.1007, Ritchie und Davies, The Great Britain Times, 3, unpaginated.

50 Cuzco Torpedo, Christmas double number, p. 6.

51 See Pietsch, ‘Bodies at sea’.

52 SLNSW, 910.42/G, George Hodgson Wayte, ed., The Great Britain Miscellany, Melbourne, 1862, p. 25.

53 For the relation between physical and social space aboard emigration ships, see Hassam, Our floating home, pp. 4–8.

54 SLNSW, DSM/042/P179, Vincent and Townsend, Netherby Gazette, 1, pp. 7–8.

55 Ibid., 2, p. 13.

56 Ibid., emphasis added.

57 Bell, ‘Bound for Australia’, p. 137.

58 SLNSW, A 1681, Grumm and Welch, Zealandia Free Press, preface.

59 Ibid., 1, unpaginated, emphasis added.

60 Ibid., 2, unpaginated.

61 See, for instance, The Man at the Wheel and the Vanguard Times, both published during a passage from London to Brisbane in 1866 aboard the ship Vanguard: SLNSW, Q656.509/M, S. Pole, ed., The Man at the Wheel, Brisbane, 1867; SLNSW, Q656.509/V, [no ed.], The Vanguard Times, Brisbane, 1867. Or the Argonaut Times and the Argonaut Critic, both published aboard the Argonaut on a voyage from London to Adelaide in 1878: SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/A, [no ed.], The Argonaut Times [n.p., n.d.], although there is no existing copy of the Argonaut Critic, so that we only know about its existence through the recurring mentions in the Argonaut Times.

62 NLA, SRq 387.54205 Y68, George Grimley, ed., The Young Australia Times, Brisbane, 1864; NMM, PBH3685, William A. Smith, ed., Sketches at Sea: a periodical issued on board the ship ‘Young Australia’, Brisbane, 1864 (issued as Etches and Sketches on board the Young Australia but as Sketches at Sea when printed because the printed version did not include illustrations).

63 NLA, SRq 387.54205 Y68, Grimley, Young Australia Times, 9, p. 21.

64 Ibid., 8, p. 22, emphasis added.

65 Grimley, ed., Young Australia Times, 3, p. 22 (announcement); NMM, PBH3685, Williams, Sketches at Sea, 3, p. 9 (mockery).

66 State Library of Queensland, TR 1815, William A. Smith, Diary 1864, p. 155.

67 NMM, NWT 5, R. J. Hough, ed., Sierra Cordova Magpie, 1901–02.

68 For the different meanings that the term ‘lascar’ could carry, see Balachandran, Gopalan, Globalizing labour? Indian seafarers and world shipping, c. 1870–1945, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012Google Scholar, esp. pp. 28–30.

69 SLNSW, DSM/Q910.42/C, [no. ed.], The Carthaginian, 3, p. 32. For the late nineteenth century, Steel, Frances, Oceania under steam: sea transport and the cultures of colonialism, c.1870–1914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011, pp. 105–125Google Scholar, speaks of 15% of the sailors aboard a British ship being lascars. See also Balachandran, Globalizing labour.

70 NLA, 1078016, Groom, S. R., ed., The R.M.S. Shannon Times and Maregraph: weekly journal during voyage from Sydney to Gravesend in April, May and June 1883, 3, London, 1883, pp. 15–16Google Scholar.

71 See, for instance, an interview with the midshipman Gerald O’Brien about his career in NLA, 757455, Madden, Frank and Goodland, Gillmore, eds., The Ormuz Optic, 1, 2, 1895, p. 42Google Scholar.

72 Port cities and their role in processes of globalization have already been the topic of many historical studies. See, for instance, Vink, Markus, ‘From port-city to world-system: spatial constructs of Dutch Indian Ocean studies, 1500–1800’, Itinerario, 28, 2, 2004, pp. 45–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Basu, Dilip K., The rise and growth of the colonial port cities in Asia, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985Google Scholar; Broeze, Frank, ed., Gateways of Asia: port cities of Asia in the 13th–20th centuries, London: Kegan Paul International, 1997Google Scholar.

73 Huber, Valeska, Channelling mobilities: migration and globalisation in the Suez Canal region and beyond, 1869–1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 For a specific group of travellers – Australian women going to Great Britain – and their perception of ‘locals’ in port cities, see Woollacott, Angela, ‘“All this is the empire, I told myself”: Australian women’s voyages “home” and the articulation of colonial whiteness’, American Historical Review, 102, 4, 1997, pp. 1003–1029CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 See Osterhammel, Jürgen, ‘Distanzerfahrung: Darstellungsweisen des Fremden im 18. Jahrhundert’, in Hans-Joachim König, Wolfgang Reinhard, and Reinhard Wendt, eds., Der europäische Beobachter außereuropäischer Kulturen: Zur Problematik der Wirklichkeitswahrnehmung, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1989, pp. 9–42Google Scholar.

76 SLNSW, MAV/FM4/10750, Braidwood and Cape, Parramatta Times, pp. 25 and 126.

77 See, for example, SLNSW, MAV/FM4/10751, [no ed.], The Oroya Times, Melbourne, 1889.

78 SLNSW, 910.42/E, Ashburner, B. and Taylor, P. S., eds., The Elderslie Lucifer: a weekly journal of facts and fancies, 2, 4, Oamaru 1887Google Scholar, unpaginated.

79 Said, Edward W., Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books, 1979, p. 332Google Scholar. Since the work’s first publication, countless scholars have reacted and responded to Said’s ideas.

80 NLA, 2166147, Hosking, Himalaya Observer, 4, p. 49.

81 SLNSW, PAM 89/1132, Gilbert Watson and Joseph Coats, eds., The Gothic Weekly Chronicle: being contributions on board R.M.S. Gothic, 1, Wellington, 1897, p. 13, emphasis added.

82 SLNSW, DSM/910.42/H, [no ed.], Horae Marinae: a journal issued on board the Queensland Steam Navigation Company’s steam ship ‘Lady Bowen’ on her voyage from Glasgow to Brisbane, Brisbane, 1864, Preface [no pagination].

83 Hassam, Our floating home, p. 20.

84 Ibid.