Tides of History: Ocean Science and Her Majesty's Navy.
Fowler, William M.
Tides of History: Ocean Science and Her Majesty's Navy, by Michael S. Reidy. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008. xiv, 389 pp. $40.00 US (cloth).
When the rising tide refused Canute's command to stay its advance, the king scampered up the beach proclaiming that only God could rule the sea. Thus began, in legend at least, English fascination with tides. This is hardly surprising since on this island nation most people live within a short distance of the sea. From Roman times forward knowledge of the rise and fall of the sea along the jagged coasts of the British isle was crucial for the safe movement of people and goods. Beginning in the seventeenth century, England's overseas expansion increased the need for a better understanding of the sea. Unlike Canute, inquisitive Victorian Englishmen understood that that they could not command the sea, but they had hubris enough to believe that they might tame it in some places and understand it everywhere.
William Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Anglican priest, theologian and historian of science was the epitome of the confident Victorian scientist. He sought to discover order and meaning in the universe. For Whewell and his colleagues the mystery of tides offered an opportunity to discern God's plan. It also opened a realm of knowledge that would help Britannia rule the waves.
This book, according to the author, "is a history of British scientific culture during the transition from industrialization to empire, when understanding the sea became important politically, economically, and strategically" (p. 10).
Historians may cavil a bit about Reidy's periodization, particularly his juxtaposition of industrialization and empire. "Empire" as a geopolitical concept predates industrialization. Nonetheless, he is quite correct in asserting the importance of understanding the sea as an element contributing to the colossal expansion of Britain's overseas interests in the nineteenth century.
The ebb and flow of tides fascinated the English. Nowhere did rides seem to behave the same, yet by the seventeenth century eminent scientists, Newton and Halley among them, sought general theories to explain the ocean's rise and fall. Unfortunately, not only did these intellectual giants dispute one another's theories, but the theories themselves collapsed in the face of actual observation. In the post-Napoleonic world, Britain's rapidly expanding oceanic trade drew the attention of scientists, navigators, and port officers to the central role of tides. Massive land reclamation projects along rivers, particularly those aimed at improving crowded facilities along the Thames, coupled with bridge and dock construction, affected tidal movements that both enabled and endangered navigation. No major port escaped attention and improvement. Accurate prediction of tidal movement became a national preoccupation.
Reidy's depiction of the quest for the mastery of tidal predictions is enlivened by his engaging description of the characters involved. Three worlds circled about one another--the Admiralty, academic scientists, and mariners. The first brought the support of government (that is, money and ships). The second advocated the development of encompassing theories that might explain not simply local tidal behavior, but global patterns as well. Chief among these men was Whewell himself who, in 1833, at the beginning of his tidal studies, actually coined the word "scientist." The third panel in this triptych was composed of mariners and merchants. They were practical men. Some navigated dangerous coastal waters, piloting vessels into port. Others were businessmen and builders who sought to improve port facilities. Harmony among these communities did not always prevail. Not surprisingly, class distinctions provided particularly nettlesome divides separating these "tidologists." From their lofty perches at Oxford and Cambridge, scientists gazed down on the field observers and the calculators who assembled and processed vast amounts of data. Increasingly, as Reidy points out, men such as Whewell and his university colleagues formed an "elite" aiming "to maintain an intellectual high ground" to be held against popularizers and amateurs.
Despite the complicated and sometimes contentious relationship bedeviling these tidal constituencies, the interaction amongst them advanced knowledge and eventually brought them into a relationship that advanced state-sponsored "big science."
Reidy's history of this corner of ocean history is remarkable in its implications. If there is a criticism to be made it is that the subtitle Ocean Science and Her Majesty's Navy understates the scope of the work, for Tides of History provides a splendid prism through which we may view the wider world of Victorian science.
Reidy has scoured the sources, manuscript and printed, and presented an engaging and lively narrative. Historians of science will have cause to heap praise on this book, but so too will the non-specialists. The author's splendid writing style, at times appropriately Puckish, makes this work an accessible and enjoyable read. Inasmuch as the sea links so many disciplines, scholars from a wide range of interests will find much of value in this study.
William M. Fowler
Northeastern University
