SeaLiT: Mediterranean Ships and Trade in the Long Nineteenth Century

SeaLiT the game is the fruit of a research project in Maritime History, the ERC STG 2016 project entitled ‘Seafaring Lives in Transition, Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping, 1850s-1920s’(SeaLiT). The game is an entertaining and educational journey into the world of maritime history of the Mediterranean and Black Sea during the long nineteenth century, namely from the French Revolution to the World War I as defined by the historian Eric Hobsbawm.

In the game players take on the role of shipowners and must develop their business, upgrade their ships, and adapt their strategies to the changing circumstances caused by external factors. While playing the game, players will explore the universe of maritime trade, they will get a feel for its mechanisms and its historical evolution and they will learn more about:

 The main types of sailing ships and steam ships used in maritime trade.
 The important ports of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the nineteenth century.
 The important commodities traded during this period.
 The navigation rules that dictated the way ships sailed back in time. 
 The mechanisms of shipping industry like demand, freight rates, insurance, ship repairing etc.
 The external factors that affected shipping industry like wars, epidemics, strikes etc.

Players acting like shipowners seek to overcome their opponents financially. Due to the long number of rounds (120) which coincides with each year from 1790 to 1910, players may choose to start the game at any year and they also may decide to finish it after any number of rounds. An average number of 30 to 40 rounds coincides with approximately two and a half to three hours of play. Thus, the game offers indirectly different scenarios corresponding at different periods (age of sail, 1790-1830, age of early steamships 1840 to 1860 and so on). The winner is determined by the player who possesses more value after counting money, value of ships and value of cargo, minus any loans he/she might owe to the bank.

The players move in the map through the navigation cards, which determine the speed of the ships/pawns, and various events that occur (gales, pirates, shipwrecks, fire). Players seek to sell the carrying cargo, to buy bigger and technologically more advanced vessels and to capture most of the Mediterranean market. In the age of sail period, 1790-1830, they also can buy one or more privateers to capture and convert other players' ships. They have to roll the dice only when they have to determine the demand (high or low) of the ten commodities of the game every five rounds, and when they have to face pirates or privateers.