Mariners: Race, Religion and Empire. Special Issue: Introduction

Drawing from a conference held at the SS Great Britain, Bristol, on 12–13 September 2024 out of the funding and auspices of the AHRC funded project ‘Mariners: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports, 1801–1914’, we have brought together papers that extend our knowledge of the role of religion in understanding the social and cultural lives of mariners, sailors, seafarers, shipworkers and their families and associates. This introduction engages with existing historiography around religion, race and mariners’ lives from the late eighteenth to mid twentieth century, explaining the interventions of the special issue and the gaps that still exist in bringing together religious histories with the social and cultural histories of mariners, especially as they relate to the topics of race and empire on ships and in port cities in the modern era.