Harbor and Town [antikvár]

III'orewordA boy, like the author raised in one of the oldest seaport towns of the Baltic coast, in the dark region of warehouses and sailors' taverns, amidst ship-chandlers, boilermakers, brass foundries, lantern factories and ropewalkssuch a boy experiences, already at a te-nder age, the truth of the fact that there are more ways of cultural exchanges than are taught by his school books. When he reaches student age he will know that international cultural contacts of the seaboard are initiated in a greater variety of ways than shown by manuals. In this book we will discuss the interchange of the most varied objects of material culture, of customs, of standards of behavior, of institutions and value systems between nations in direct consequence of the encounter of man with man in port; in other words, the influence of seaports as places of communication on the civilization and manners of the peoples of the world at various historical periods.We have drawn the cultural history of the seaport in broad outline. A complete coverage of separate sectors, e.g. the history of ocean trade or of navigation, or of fields still more intimately connected with our theme, such as the history of education and science, was not attempted. The whole area of marine architecture and the technology of transportation had to be left blank, although they are an integral part of civilization. Some interesting phenomena might have tempted us to closer examination but for the unsatisfactory state of contemporary information. Many of the ethnographical, sociological and psychological facets of the overall cultural history of the seaport remain relatively unexplored. How easy it is, to say "International cultural exchange" but where did it happen? What went on? What was the precise topography, what the mechanics? It may be appropriate to say something in regard to these questions.The spectrum of culture contacts of the seaport is broad indeed. It comprises the old seamen's churches and the guild houses of the mariners' corporations; the merchants' exchange and the mansion of the ship-owner, as well as the dock-side tavern and the tattooing saloon; the entertainment center no less than the shelter of the Salvation Army. Within this wide compass com-partments are clearly formed by social barriers: of his own volition, a shipmaster would not set foot in a harbor pub or a boarding house; a foremast hand hardly ever entered the captain's room at a shipchandler's, and would visit only with the utmost reluctance the office of the harbor master or a consulate. South Europeans favored hostel-ries shunned by northerners. Inland skippers and fishermen on shore went for other areas than the salts of South Spainers. Is this true for all times and places?We have scant information of the effective mechanism of certain weekly or annual harbor fairs, for instance those of St. Petersburg or Tallinn, which were frequented by different nationalities. What was the relationship of the centers of pilgrimage on the north French-Flanders coast, or on the Kashubian coast, in regard to their function as profane communication places of the seafaring population? Information on these topics is incomplete. It is not much better on the role played by the fish dealers as international mediators, who used to cruise up and down the Baltic in their trading vessels, or by the operators of the bumboats plying the roadstead of every seaport of any significance.Research of the different re-export centers and of their peculiar mechanisms and modes of effectuating cultural exchanges gives us valuable knowledge of a variety of cultural value-systems. One example must suffice for many: in their day, the men from deepwater vessels going ashore in England would not accept just any manufactured product displayed in the windows of china shops for their homecoming purchases. But certain types of artifacts, in themselves quite useless, e.g. particular mantelpiece figurines or especially showy pieces of Staffordshire table ware, became prestigious objects and status symbols of a distinct group or social stratum, and may be regarded by us today, where they appear, as guide posts indicating the maritime culture of a given region and period.Close study of such-like matters reveals that not every objectivation or every phase of a transaction has equal rank in the value-scale of cultural interchange between members of different nations. An illustration is given by the three most common forms of self-expression of sailors ashore: