A sea view: perceptions of maritime space and landscape in accounts of nineteenth-century colonial steamship travel

This article explores the introduction of steam propulsion into the sea route to India in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The entry of steam into shipping marked a radical development in the nature of sea travel, not least, I argue, in the imaginative geographies of the voyage. There were significant alterations in the way that maritime space came to be expressed and represented, changes which were articulated at the level of the visual, in responses to the maritime landscape. These historical geographies of colonial shipping are considered through the examination of voyage narratives by passengers who travelled aboard the steamships of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, on the distinct geography of transit that became known as the 'overland route'. Through an analysis of historical change as it was articulated at the level of experience, I argue that technological means of propulsion played a key role in shaping colonial responses to space and landscape.