Introduction

Summary

It is generally conceded that biographers cannot be impartial toward their subjects: to live with the life of a single individual for a prolonged period requires a strong emotion for sustenance. For those who organize a festschrift, on the other hand, the choice is more limited. The only reason to undertake such a work is out of a genuine feeling of affection, which is what we, and all the contributors to this volume, feel toward Gordon Jackson. Gordon is a genuinely nice man, with a warm personality and a delightful sense of humour (that he would disagree with this characterization demonstrates that while his historical judgement is sound his selfassessment should not be trusted). Moreover, he has consistently been one of the most helpful people in the entire historical profession. The number of scholars, whether young or more established, who have benefited from his assistance, both professional and personal, is legion. It is a pleasure to be able to repay a small portion of our collective and individual debts to him by organizing this tribute.

But emotion cannot be the sole criterion for presenting a scholar with a festschrift. This honour retains its value only by being reserved for those few individuals whose contributions to the profession are of the highest order. By this standard there can be few maritime historians (or historians of any stripe, for that matter) more deserving of this honour than Gordon Jackson. There can be no doubt about his intellectual accomplishments. Gordon has not only produced a remarkable number of studies of importance to specialists but also a series of books that can justifiably be called seminal. Hull in the Eighteenth Century, for instance, has changed the way historians write about cities, and especially port cities. The British Whaling Trade is the single most influential volume yet written on European whaling. And The History and Archaeology of Ports, the obvious inspiration for this volume, has now served as an intellectual guide for a generation of scholars interested in the sea-land interface.

But it is important to underscore the fact that as important as his books have been, Gordon's other contributions have transcended them.