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Article: The charting of the Red Sea: Sarah Searight tells how the efforts of the little-known Robert Moresby, together with the innovation of the marine steam engine, revolutionized trade and transport for the British Empire in the perilous waterway.
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- March 1, 2003
- Author:
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THE RED SEA HAS been described as a sea on its way to somewhere else. In other words its shores were not lined with valuable commodities waiting to be exported; instead it was an essential link between the two great commercial zones of the Mediterranean/ European world and that of the Indian Ocean. In the nineteenth century this treacherous sea would come to play a key role in a new era of communication between industrial Britain, with its rapidly expanding economy, and British India, with its raw materials and imperial requirements. Crucial in the development of the Red Sea route between the two countries was the harnessing of steam power, most notably in the form of the ...