The Golden Age Of Shipping

Between the introduction of the marine turbine and the post-war challenges of air travel and revolutionary cargo-handling procedures, the period covered by this book witnesses a culmination in the development of the merchant ship.

Portolan charts, so called from the Italian adjective portolano, meaning 'related to ports or harbours', were born during the 12th century in the maritime community. These charts, drawn on parchment and crisscrossed with lines referring to the compass directions, indicated the succession of ports and anchorages along the shores, and were used by European sailors exploring the world up until the 18th century. Not only used as navigational instruments on boats, they were also produced for wealthy sponsors in the form of illuminated images of the world, to illustrate the economic and political interests of the major European sea powers. This book takes stock of the state of knowledge on these maps, bringing together contributions from a dozen European specialists, who trace the history and diversity of styles and places of production of these charts. This type of mapping is approached from three angles. The first part, 'The Mediterranean', refers to the manufacture and use of the first charts, centred on the Mediterranean, and the persistence of this tradition in the Mediterranean basin until the 18th century. The second part, 'The Open Sea', shows how these regional charts have evolved from a technical and iconographical point of view at the time of the great European voyages, in order to include the oceans and new worlds. The third part, 'The Indian Ocean', shows how these charts, in a maritime area where ancient civilizations coexisted, were dependent on other cartographic traditions (ancient, Arab, Asian) before joining the information reported by Portuguese sailors and European trading companies in the modern era. AUTHORS: Catherine Hofmann, a palaeographic archivist, is chief curator in the Department of Maps and Plans of the National Library of France. She is a board member of the journal Imago Mundi, and has published fifteen articles on the history of cartography in the modern era. Helene Richard, a palaeographic archivist, is a former director of the Department of Maps and Plans at the National Library of France. In addition to her research on the history of books and libraries, she has published works on the history of maritime exploration in the 18th and 19th centuries and the associated nautical science. Emmanuelle Vagnon holds a PhD in history, specialising in maps of the Middle Ages. She is senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Paris. ILLUSTRATIONS: 300 colour illustrations

This “handsome volume” offers a “lavishly illustrated” journey back to the golden age of steam travel through first-hand accounts and images of the passengers (Bruce Peter, author of Ship Style). A Century of Sea Travel is an eye-opening voyage through the golden years of the passenger steamship, a voyage described by the very travelers who sailed on these magnificent engineering marvels. In memoirs and letters home, diaries and the backs of postcards, the recorded experiences of every aspect of steamship travel are here relived: from details of the ships, the crew, and fellow passengers; to the food and entertainment on board; to tales of romance, accidents, and disasters; and of being dreadfully sick during storms at sea. The writers were emigrants or colonial rulers, men of letters, young men seeking their fortune, wives on their way to new homes abroad; some were rich, many were poor and escaping the hardship of downtrodden lives. All had in common the experience of voyaging at sea. Vividly brought to life by full-color and black-and-white postcards, travel posters, promotional brochures, fine art, photographs, maps, luggage labels, health inspection certificates, and itineraries, the authors have woven together word and image into a page-turning narrative that evocatively describes an age (1840–1950) now lost to time.

This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND 4.0 license. This open access book discusses how Norwegian shipping companies played a crucial role in global shipping markets in the 20th century, at times transporting more than ten per cent of world seaborne trade. Chapters explore how Norway managed to remain competitive, despite being a high labour-cost country in an industry with global competition. Among the features that are emphasised are market developments, business strategies and political decisions The Norwegian experience was shaped by the main breaking points in 20th century world history, such as the two world wars, and by long-term trends, such as globalization and liberalization. The shipping companies introduced technological and organizational innovations to build or maintain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing world. The growing importance of offshore petroleum exploration in the North Sea from the 1970s was both a threat and an opportunity to the shipping companies. By adapting both business strategies and the political regime to the new circumstances, the Norwegian shipping sector managed to maintain a leading position internationally.

In 1671, Dutch diplomat and scientist Nicolaes Witsen published a book that served, among other things, as an encyclopedia for the “shell-first” method of ship construction. In the centuries since, Witsen’s rather convoluted text has also become a valuable source for insights into historical shipbuilding methods and philosophies during the “Golden Age” of Dutch maritime trade. However, as André Wegener Sleeswyk’s foreword notes, Witsen’s work is difficult to access not only for its seventeenth-century Dutch language but also for the vagaries of its author’s presentation. Fortunately for scholars and students of nautical archaeology and shipbuilding, this important but chaotic work has now been reorganized and elucidated by A. J. Hoving and translated into English by Alan Lemmers. In Nicolaes Witsen and Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age, Hoving, master model builder for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, sorts out the steps in Witsen’s method for building a seventeenth-century pinas by following them and building a model of the vessel. Experimenting with techniques and materials, conducting research in other publications of the time, and rewriting as needed to clarify and correct some vital omissions in the sequence, Hoving makes Witsen’s work easier to use and understand. Nicolaes Witsen and Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age is an indispensable guide to Witsen’s work and the world of his topic: the almost forgotten basics of a craftsmanship that has been credited with the flourishing of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century. To view a sample of Ab Hoving’s ship model drawings, please visit: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/AbHoving.htm

Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes is the most thorough and factual study of the Great Lakes shipping industry written this century. Author Mark L. Thompson tells the fascinating story of the world's most efficient bulk transportation system, describing the Great Lakes freighters, the cargoes of the great ships, and the men and women who have served as crew. He documents the dramatic changes that have taken place in the industry and looks at the critical role that Great Lakes shipping plays in the economic well-being of the U.S. and Canada, despite the fact that the size of the fleet and the amount of cargo carried have declined dramatically in recent years.