The Mediterranean maritime community of Camogli: evolution and transformation in the age of transition from sail to steam (1850s-1910s)

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the nineteenth-century evolution of an Italian maritime community, Camogli, within the broader framework of the technological transition from sail to steam. Thus, the thesis aims to shed light on an understudied process, at least with regard to the Mediterranean merchant marines, by adopting a micro-global perspective focused on the community of Camogli, its fleet and its seafarers. In so doing, the thesis outline the evolution of the maritime activities of the community, from the “local” cabotage scale to the “global” oceanic tramp shipping, and aims to examine the transformations occurred in its shipping business and maritime labour, throughout a process which led to the gradual decline of the community, culminated in the fleet breakdown during the First World War.