Mark C. Hunter, PhD

Mark C. Hunter is a naval/military historian of the Atlantic world. His specialization is the 19th- and early-20th centuries, with a focus on maritime economic history; non-state actors – like pirates, slave traders and smugglers; and maritime, military and naval education and employment. His work uses the broad strokes of economic theory to understand the behavior of non-state actors and their reaction to state intervention in their “illegal” marketplaces. In addition, Dr. Hunter has studied extensively the transition of youth to adulthood and their recruitment, retention, professionalization and education as US Navy officers. He has also written on similar efforts by the Royal Navy to recruit and train reservists and the role of naval reserve work in a person’s employment cycle. He has also studied how nations use navies as safety valves in international affairs and British, Canadian and Newfoundland relations while attempting to police rum-running during the prohibition era and uphold international obligations and agreements.

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EDUCATION:
PhD (History), University of Hull, UK (January 2004).
Thesis: “The Political Economy of Anglo-American Naval Relations: Pirates, Slavers and the Equatorial Atlantic, 1819 to 1863.”

MA (History), Memorial University of Newfoundland, NL, Canada (October 1999). Thesis: “ ‘… With the Propriety and Decorum which Characterize the Society of Gentlemen’: The United States Naval Academy and its Youth, 1845-1861.”

BA Hons, First Class (History Major/Archaeology Minor), Memorial University of Newfoundland, NL, Canada (October 1997).

AWARDS: 
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Publication Subsidy/Subvention, for To Employ and Uplift Them: The Newfoundland Naval Reserve, 1899-1926, ISER Books, 2009. Value: Cdn$8,000 (awarded 2010).

Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004-2006). Value: Cdn$35,028/a + $3,572 travel funds.

Smallwood Foundation, Research Grant (2003-2004). Value: Cdn$2,500.

PhD Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1999-2002). Value: Cdn$17,700/a.

Rothermere Foundation Fellowship (1999-2002). Value: UK£8,200/a + Tuition (UK£6,200/a).

University Medal for Excellence in a Thesis Based Masters Program. Memorial University of Newfoundland (May 2000).

Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland (1999). Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland (1998).

Graduate Fellowship, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (1998). Value: Cdn$8,500.

Graduate Fellowship, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (1997). Value: Cdn$7,500.

Electoral Scholarship for Grand Falls Riding, Newfoundland, Canada (1992). Value: Cdn$1,000.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada. Contract Per-Course lecturer/instructor (2003-2007).

Courses Taught:
History 1010: North Atlantic in the Age of Expansion, 1492-1776.
History 1012: The World in the 20th Century.
History 1014: US Issues. Pt. 1: Atlantic Slave Trade/Slavery. Pt. 2: Communism.
History 2110: The North Atlantic since 1820.
History 4111: The North Atlantic in an Age of War and Revolution, 1900-1923.

Thesis Examined:
David Clarke, “Liverpool Shipowners: 1820-1914,” Ph.D. diss., Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE:
Post-secondary Education Branch, Department of Education, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL, Canada. Program and Policy Development Specialist (29 June 2009-Present). Policy analysis and executive support related to university-level education. Representative on provincial, regional and national post-secondary education committees.

PEER-REVIEWED BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS:
A Society of Gentlemen: Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1845-1861, Naval Institute Press, 2010.
Extending my peer-reviewed essay in the Journal of Military History (2006), about professionalization in the antebellum US Navy, this book-length study of officer education at the US Naval Academy from 1845 to 1861 reveals that the navy exhibited many elements of a professional organization, through the US Naval Academy, before the Civil War. Annapolis recruited potential officers selectively, instilled in them the ethos of the profession, and weeded out those it deemed unsuitable through examination and discipline. In this way, the US Navy established officers with the specific skills and ethos required to serve the needs of their client, the state.

To Employ and Uplift Them: The Newfoundland Naval Reserve, 1899-1926, ISER Books, 2009.
This social history of the Royal Naval Reserve in Newfoundland reveals that rural fishers incorporated reserve service into their ‘occupational pluralism,’ working different jobs throughout the year. Consequently, the Royal Navy had to consider colonial economic, political and social conditions when it formulated recruiting, training and retention strategies. When successful, the program transferred income to Newfoundland. But the British terminated the Newfoundland reserve because of financial restraints in Britain and the changing nature of the North Atlantic world after the Great War.

Policing the Seas: Anglo-American Relations and the Equatorial Atlantic, 1819 to 1865, International Maritime Economic History Association, 2008. The rights to this publication have now been acquired by Liverpool University Press.
This study reveals that Washington and London used their maritime and naval policies to further economic goals in the Atlantic while suppressing piracy and the slave trade. When their national interests clashed, they rearranged their naval forces to appease the offended party, and resumed their objectives until tensions again accumulated. Consequently, naval relations acted as a safety valve in wider Anglo-American relations until the outbreak of the Civil War.

“Piraten im Golf von Mexiko im frühen 19. Jahrhundert,” in Hartmut Roder (ed.), Piraten –  Abenteuer oder Bedrohung? (Bremen, Germany: Edition Temmen, 2002), 52-65.
This book chapter discusses the shape of the market for pirate goods in the Gulf of Mexico during the nineteenth century. The analysis shows that, initially, pirates operated organized and formal trade networks between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula. But as British and American naval forces put increasing pressure on pirates in the 1820s, these networks collapsed and pirate activities became sporadic and opportunistic.

PEER-REVIEWED ESSAYS:
“Patriots and a Menace: American Values and the Pirate Paradox, 1776-1827,” The Journal for Maritime Research 12, no. 1 (December 2010): 1-26.
This essay published by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, analyzes American society’s interpretations of piracy during various wars from 1776 to 1827 (e.g., the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American and Greek wars of independence). Using American political and literary writing, as well as court records, it reveals how competing views of the American ideology shaped people’s understanding of piracy, other societies and “the Other” during war.

“The US Naval Academy and its Summer Cruises: Professionalization in the Antebellum US Navy, 1845 to 1861,” The Journal of Military History 70, no. 4 (October 2006): 963-994.
This paper supports the argument that professionalization arose in the US armed forces before the Civil War. At the US Naval Academy, the navy recruited, assessed, and instilled students with a professional ethos. This strategy was particularly evident during summer training cruises as students sailed the North Atlantic and visited major ports.

“The Hero Packs a Punch: Sir Charles Hotham, Liberalism, and West Africa, 1846-50,” Mariner’s Mirror 92, no. 3 (August 2006): 282-299.
This paper argues that Sir Charles Hotham represented the forces of liberalism and ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ as Britain sought to implement economic policy and informal empire along the West African coast. Hotham was sensitive to London’s policy objectives and tried to appease rival powers – like France and the United States – while maintaining a check on their economic and strategic advances along the coast.

“HMS Calypso: Locating the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve Drill Ship, 1900-22,” Great Circle 28, no. 1 (2006): 36-60.
This study shows that economic, environmental, and political forces outweighed upper-class concerns over the moral welfare of rural Newfoundland fishermen when the Royal Navy decided where to station the Newfoundland naval reserve’s drill ship. Initially fearing the corrupting influence of a stereotypical port, authorities acquiesced to the political and economic need to place HMS Calypso in St. John’s rather than in remote Placentia where the men would have been isolated from the sexual promiscuity that the elite felt haunted the St. John’s dockside.

“Changing the Flag: The Cloak of Newfoundland Registry for American Rum-Running, 1924-1934,” Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 41-69.
During the North Atlantic’s prohibition era, Newfoundland was a safe-haven for rum-runners. The colony had a poorly organized customs force, weak enforcement, and was unable to police the seas far beyond the capital, St. John’s. Thus, as Canada and the United States placed greater pressure on rum-runners, analysis of intelligence reports and data from the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project reveal that suspected Newfoundland-based rum-runners became increasingly Canadian owned. The situation only changed when London took direct control of the island’s political system in the 1930s and reformed the customs service.

“Anglo-American Political and Naval Response to West Indian Piracy,” International Journal of Maritime History 13, no. 1 (June 2001): 63-93.
This paper reveals that Americans deployed naval forces to the Gulf of Mexico to police pirates after the Napoleonic wars quicker than Britain because the US lacked international commitments and the threat was close to home. In contrast, London, seeking access to Latin American markets, was wary of taking forceful action against the pirates – many of whom were rebels – until Latin American independence was secured. London feared that quick and forceful action would drag European powers into the region as competitors. The study reveals that wider political and economic concerns shaped naval and diplomatic responses to the crisis.

“Youth, Law, and Discipline at the US Naval Academy, 1845-1861,” The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord 10, no. 2 (April 2000): 23-39.
The concept of adolescence in the West has evolved to reveal a separate stage of life. This study concludes that middle-class America, during the nineteenth century, shared this opinion and wanted their children educated in a safe environment for a future career. The US Naval Academy was an institution that shared this belief as it professionalized its officer corps. Consequently, adolescents were attracted to the Academy and the facility disciplined its pupils in a manner that accounted for the students’ age and inexperience.

REVIEW ESSAYS:
“Review of Donald L. Canney, Africa Squadron: The U.S. Navy and the Slave Trade, 1842-1861,” Mariner’s Mirror 93, no. 4 (November 2007): 521-522.

“Review of Frederick Leiner, The End of Barbary Terror: America’s 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa,” Mariner’s Mirror 93, no. 1 (February 2007): 109-111.

“Review of William C. Davis, The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf, ” The Journal of Southern History 72, no. 4 (November 2006): 921-922.

“Review of Jerry Bannister, The Rule of the Admirals: Law, Custom, and Naval Government in Newfoundland, 1699-1832,” Mariner’s Mirror 90, no. 2 (May 2004): 247-248.

“Review of Jan Rogozinski, Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean,” International Journal of Maritime History 14, no. 2 (December 2002): 408-409.

“Review of Lindley S. Butler, Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast,” International Journal of Maritime History 13, no. 1 (June 2001): 274-276.

“Review of Donald A. Petrie, The Prize Game: Lawful Looting on the High Seas in the Days of Fighting Sail,” Mariner’s Mirror 86, no. 2 (May 2000): 232-233.

“Review of Anne Marie Drew (ed.), Letters from Annapolis: Midshipmen Write Home 1848-1969,” The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord 9, no. 4 (October 1999): 97.

OTHER ESSAYS:
“COVID and Creativity,” WORD: Writers Alliance NL (October 2020): 24.
This essay recounted creative activities done in collaboration with E.B. Reid, and challenges during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada. Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Social and Economic Research (2004-2006).

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Finance, Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency, St. John’s, NL, Canada (23 February 2004 – 16 July 2004). Compiled briefs and finding aides related to methodological and contextual data for censuses of Newfoundland, 1891-1945.

Smallwood Foundation Grant Recipient (2003-2004). Smuggling in Newfoundland.

Doctoral Candidate, University of Hull, United Kingdom. (1999-2004).

Graduate Student, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada. (1997-1999).

Graduate Assistant, Dr. Daniel F. Vickers (July-August 1998). Responsible for a research assignment to Washington, DC, for Daniel Vickers and Vince Walsh, Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005). 

Graduate Assistant, Newfoundland & Labrador Heritage Web Project (January to April 1998). Compiled research briefs on Newfoundland history for project group.

Maritime Studies Research Unit (MSRU), Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada. (May to August 1997). Research Intern. Provided assistance to members of the MSRU and university community.