I learned this week that I (along with 92% of other applicants) had been unsuccessful in applying for a particular research fellowship. The scarcity of such fellowships, and the high demand for them, means that applications always represent the very longest of longshots. I was disappointed nevertheless, knowing that the fellowship would have provided the time and focus I need to finish the book. For now, though, I keep on keeping on.
This week also brought more positive things. On Monday I attended a presentation by Margaret Schotte, delivered as part of the Prize Papers Lunch Talks series. Margaret’s paper, “Sailing with the Prince de Conti: Recovering individual stories in the Prize Papers”, told a very interesting story about the seizure of the French ship Prince de Conti during the Seven Years’ War. During her talk, Margaret mentioned a resource that I was totally unaware of: digitised crew and passenger lists from French East India Company ships. These lists were primarily digitised by a volunteer organisation, the Association des Amis du Service Historique de la Défense à Lorient. As soon as Margaret’s talk was finished, I immediately delved into the collection and was able to find Macintosh (albeit transcribed as (“MACINTORF”) in the passenger list for the Brisson, along with his fellow Briton, the Reverend Thomas Yate.
Macintosh (or “MACINTORF”) in the Rôle du Brisson (1778-1780).
These listings are really useful since they give a much fuller picture of the cast of characters within whom Macintosh interacted on the Brisson, some of whom he refers to in Travels by rank or role rather than by name. Being able to connect the two—between text and archive—is potentially very beneficial.
Shortly after Margaret’s talk I discovered, for the fist time, a really interesting podcast, Drafting the Past, that focuses on the art and craft of historical writing. Each episode focuses on the work of one academic and invites them to reflect on the approach they take, practical and conceptual, to writing history. The most recent episode features an interview with Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, discussing his new book, The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It. Since listening to this episode I have been working my way slowly back through earlier episodes, taking inspiration from the stories of all those who have carved out the time and maintained the drive to get their books over the line.