Abstract This paper addresses the complex relationship between natural forces and human attempts to control them in the nineteenth century with reference to a failed harbour development project undertaken in Wick in Caithness, Scotland between 1863 and 1877 by the British Fishery Society and the engineering firm D. & T. Stevenson. The paper highlights how modernist ideas that engineering could and should control nature for human ends were challenged and reshaped by geographically and historically specific discourses, including public duty and responsibility; adversarial nature and the danger of the sea; notions of failure, its meanings and its role in engineering; and the contested epistemological, reputational and experiential nature of expertise. Rather than see an historical geography of marine engineering as about successfully directing nature for human ends – shaping a new geography through technical progress – the paper calls for attention to the implications of failure. This emphasis complicates geographical narratives of progress, technological dominance and human control of the sea.

中文翻译：

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迈向海洋工程的历史地理学：D. & T. Stevenson，威克港和自然管理

摘要 本文参考了 1863 年至 1877 年英国渔业协会和工程公司 D. & T. 史蒂文森。这篇论文强调了现代主义的思想，即工程可以并且应该控制自然以达到人类目的是如何受到地理和历史特定话语的挑战和重塑，包括公共责任和责任；对抗性和海洋的危险；失败的概念、它的意义和它在工程中的作用；以及专业知识的有争议的认识论、声誉和经验性质。与其将海洋工程的历史地理学视为成功地为人类目的引导自然——通过技术进步塑造一个新的地理——这篇论文呼吁关注失败的影响。这种强调使关于进步、技术优势和人类对海洋控制的地理叙述变得复杂。