Document details

The Leviathan Drives the Plot

Author(s): Vieira, Nina ; Carvalho, Patrícia ; Vieira, Carla Cristina da Costa ; Brito, Cristina Maria Ribeiro da Silva

Date: 2026

Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/205950

Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL

Subject(s): Sperm whales; Nonhuman agency; Knowledge transfer; Brazil; Ocean history; Atlantic studies; Borderscapes; Environmental history; Blue humanities


Description

This article examines the voyage of the Leviathan, a brigantine that sailed from Newport, Rhode Island, in 1773, in search of new sperm whale grounds in the South Atlantic but ended its journey off the coast of Brazil. There, its crew was arrested and persuaded to teach sperm-whaling techniques under Portuguese colonial authorities. Bringing together the trajectories of a Jewish merchant, a New England captain, a Portuguese viceroy, and sperm whales themselves, the voyage marked the beginning of sperm whale hunting in Brazilian waters. At the same time, it triggered an unplanned process of technological and environmental knowledge transfer across imperial borders. Drawing on Environmental History, Blue Humanities, and Atlantic Studies, the article argues that the Leviathan functioned as both a borderscape and as a boundary-crossing device, linking human and nonhuman actors across political, ecological, social, and oceanic frontiers. By reconstructing this incidental voyage through a connected and more-than-human perspective, the article proposes a transdisciplinary approach to the writing of Early Modern Atlantic history.

Document Type Journal article
Language English
Contributor(s) RUN; CHAM - Centro de Humanidades; Departamento de História (DH); MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
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