The UK has a long and perhaps not so proud history of maritime trade.
So when the UK's Department for Transport decided to use this as background to the launch of its Maritime 2050 plan last week, it drew heavy flak from historians and academics.
The problem was images featuring fluyts, East Indiamen and steamships — all vessels used in the slave trade and colonisation efforts in previous centuries.
“This is what happens when the historical memory is limited to a narrative in which we simply abolished slavery. It is remarkably tone-deaf, never mind historically illiterate,” historian and author Kim Wagner told UK newspaper The Guardian.
Priyamvada Gopal, of the faculty of English at Cambridge University, said that Britain’s history of commercial shipping was “a deeply violent one, which included shipping millions of black and indentured bodies tightly packed in the holds of ships to be exploited on plantations”.
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Prophetic scheduling of the week: the Saudi International Oil Fire Safety Conference started in Riyadh on Monday, two days after drone attacks set two major refinery centres ablaze in the country. So, no doubt, there was plenty to talk about for those in attendance.
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This guy really hates the Jones Act. For the last two months, an obscure Twitter account, @abolishjonesact, has tweeted once a day, every day.
The message is simple. Every tweet is the day of the week, and "we should abolish the Jones Act".
The Jones Act is the US cabotage law that ensures cargoes shipped between US ports are on American crewed, built and owned ships. Supporters of the century-old law say it protects domestic jobs in shipbuilding and seafaring, while bolstering national security.
Opponents of the Jones Act include many Puerto Ricans, who argue the Jones Act unfairly raises the prices of goods on the island, which has a median household income more than $37,000 lower than the national figure of $57,652.
The account includes the Puerto Rican flag as its avatar and "free Puerto Rico" in its bio.
