Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction : Making maritime history global / Nathan Perl-Rosenthal and Lauren Benton -- Chapter 1. Why did anyone go to sea? Structures of maritime enlistment from family traditions to violent coercion / Carla Rahn Phillips -- Chapter 2. Between the company and Koxinga : territorial waters, trade, and war over deerskins / Adam Clulow and Xing Hang -- Chapter 3. "The law Is the lord of the sea" : maritime law as global maritime history / Matthew Taylor Raffery -- Chater. 4. Reading cargoes : letters and the problem of nationality in the age of privateering / Nathan Perl-Rosenthal -- Chapter 5. Sailors, states, and the creation of nautical knowledge / Margaret Schotte -- Chapter 6. Indigenous maritime travelers and knowledge production / David Igler -- Chapter 7. Maritime marronage in colonial borderlands / Jeppe Mulich -- Chapter 8. Sovereignty at the water's edge : Japan's opening as coastal encounter / Catherine Phipps -- Chapter 9. Working women who got wet : a global survey of women in premodern and early modern fisheries / Lisa Norling -- Afterword : Land-sea regimes in world history / Lauren Benton and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal.

"This is a book in maritime history set in a global context, in the modern and early modern periods. The ocean is featured as a place where history happens"--