Overview

The book is the first to detail the 170-year evolution of the powered bulk carriers which continue to have a major role in the world’s trades and economies. Their design and technological development is traced from the screw colliers of the 1850s which revolutionised the British coastal coal trade. The same engineering principles were applied to produce ocean-going steam and later motor tramps. By the end of the 19th century, the capabilities and economies of these ‘black freighters’ had captured from the sailing ship much of the world’s trade in bulk commodities. In the second half of the 20th century, the tramps in turn evolved into multi-purpose, dry bulk carriers. These workhorses of the sea transport commodities including metallic ores, grain, coal, timber and other minerals. Quantities of up to 400,000 tons are carried in the largest, specialised ore carriers. In a parallel development, applying the same technical principles produced smaller yet efficient steam and later motor coasters which came to dominate short sea shipping. The book concludes with a discussion of how the economies of transportation provided by bulk carriers have had profound effects on industrialisation, globalisation and the world’s economy, and discusses the environmental impact of these ships.

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9781802078596

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Reviews

'One of the best and most thorough expositions of a complicated subject that I have ever read, a book that fills a huge gap in our maritime history during one of its most crucial periods. Britain 'ruled the waves' in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but there is a tendency to think that this was due to naval warships or huge ocean liners! This book shows that without the humble 'black freighters', Britain’s maritime pre-eminence would have been inconceivable.' Dr David Jenkins, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

'One of the best and most thorough expositions of a complicated subject that I have ever read, a book that fills a huge gap in our maritime history during one of its most crucial periods. Britain 'ruled the waves' in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but there is a tendency to think that this was due to naval warships or huge ocean liners! This book shows that without the humble 'black freighters', Britain's maritime pre-eminence would have been inconceivable.' Dr David Jenkins, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

Author Information

Roy Fenton is an independent researcher, Fellow and Honorary Treasure of the British Commission for Maritime History Trustee, Council Member of the World Ship Society Ltd, editor of the e-journal Marine News Supplement and on the editorial committee of the Northern Mariner.

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