:This article identifies the social and cultural history of the early modern tidal water ferry, its skippers and passengers, by way of evidence from a northern Scottish rural coast. Evidence from the region's ‘firthlands’ reveals an amphibious communications network which transformed gradually prior to the early nineteenth century. The article argues that the defining local topography of coastal adjacency both influenced, and was influenced by, the people who lived their lives within and around the littoral. A system of short range communications over and between the estuaries and firths is highlighted from a Coastal History perspective, leading to the examination of a ‘pluriactive’ microhistorical space, linking south-east Sutherland, the eastern edges of Easter Ross and the Black Isle and the Nairnshire seaboard. The article thereby opens up possibilities for comparison with other peoples, places and periods, in which being ‘alongshore’ was integral to rural community construction, coalescence, dynamism and friction.

中文翻译：

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峡湾的渡轮：苏格兰北部乡村海岸沿线的通讯、社会和文化，c。1600到c。1809

：本文通过苏格兰北部乡村海岸的证据，确定了早期现代潮水渡轮、船长和乘客的社会和文化历史。来自该地区“峡湾”的证据揭示了一个两栖通信网络，该网络在 19 世纪初之前逐渐转变。这篇文章认为，沿海邻接的当地地形既影响了，也受到了在沿海地区和周边地区生活的人们的影响。从海岸历史的角度突出了河口和峡湾之间的短程通信系统，从而研究了一个“多元”的微观历史空间，该空间连接了萨瑟兰东南部、复活节罗斯和黑岛的东部边缘以及奈恩郡海岸。