A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to container ships and other more specialized carriers in the latter half of the 20th century.
A cargo liner has been defined as:
A vessel which operated a regular scheduled service on a fixed route between designated ports and carries many consignments of different commodities. [1]
Cargo liners transported general freight, from raw materials to manufactures to merchandise. Many had cargo holds adapted to particular services, with refrigerator space for frozen meats or chilled fruit, tanks for liquid cargos such as plant oils, and lockers for valuables. [2] Cargo liners typically carried passengers as well, usually in a single class. [3] They differed from ocean liners which focussed on the passenger trade, and from tramp steamers which did not operate on regular schedules. [3] Cargo liners sailed from port to port along routes and on schedules published in advance. [4]
The steam-powered cargo liner developed in the mid-19th century with the advancement of technology allowing bigger steamships to be built. [5] As cargo liners were generally faster than tramp cargo ships, they were used for the transport of perishable and high-value goods, as well as providing a passenger service. At first, they were mostly used in Europe and America as well as across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America. Longer routes, such as that to Oceania, mainly remained in the hands of sailing ships a little bit longer, due to the inefficiency of the steamship of the time, until the late-1860s when the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal put sailships to disadvantage. [6]
The use and increased reliability of the compound steam engine gave greater fuel efficiency and opened these routes up to steamships. Alfred Holt pioneered the use of these engines in his steamships. By the last third of the 19th century it was possible for a steamship to carry enough coal to travel 6,000 miles (9,700 km) before needing to refuel. [6] The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the Panama Canal in 1914 also made the use of cargo liners more profitable, [6] and made possible regular scheduled overseas services. [1] Cargo liners soon comprised "the great portion of the British merchant fleet", [3] the largest in the world.
With a focus on high-value freight, most cargo liners carried a limited number of passengers, most commonly 12, as British regulations required a doctor for ships with over 12 passengers.
The decline of the cargo liner came in the 1970s with the introduction of container ships. [6] A surviving example is the Claymore II.
A number of large container vessels still offer a small number of berths to paying passengers. Typically a maximum of 12 passengers are carried as the ship would be legally required to carry a doctor if a greater number were on board. The recreational facilities are those used by the crew and may be limited to a lounge, a gym with exercise equipment and a small swimming pool. Such journeys are of interest to people seeking an unusual travel experience. [7]
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A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for paddle steamer or "SS" for screw steamer. As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is incorrectly assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for motor vessel, so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels.
A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S or PS ; however, these designations are most often used for steamships.
A container ship is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo.
An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. The Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner still in service to this day.
The Panama Canal Railway is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa. Because of the difficult physical conditions of the route and state of technology, the construction was renowned as an international engineering achievement, one that cost US$8 million and the lives of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers. Opened in 1855, the railway preceded the Panama Canal by half a century; the railway was vital in assisting the construction of the canal in the early 1900s. With the opening of the canal, the railroad's route was changed as a result of the creation of Gatun Lake, which flooded part of the original route. Following World War II, the railroad's importance declined and much of it fell into a state of neglect until 1998, when a project to rebuild the railroad to haul intermodal traffic began; the new railroad opened in 2001.
American President Lines, LLC, is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including nine U.S. flagged container vessels.
The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval artillery, and ultimately reached its highest extent at the advent of the analogue Age of Steam. Enabled by the advances of the related Age of Navigation, it is identified as a distinctive element of the early modern period and the Age of Discovery.
A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.
A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are used for military purposes.
A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule, itinerary nor published ports of call, and trades on the spot market as opposed to freight liners. A steamship engaged in the tramp trade is sometimes called a tramp steamer; similar terms, such as tramp freighter and tramper, are also used. Chartering is done chiefly on London, New York, and Singapore shipbroking exchanges. The Baltic Exchange serves as a type of stock market index for the trade.
DFDS is a Danish international shipping and logistics company. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab. DFDS was founded in 1866, when C.F. Tietgen merged the three biggest Danish steamship companies of that day.
Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by boat or ship. The boats or ships are called "packet boats or packet ships" as their original function was to carry mail.
CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. In 1914 the sinking of the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of Ireland just before World War I became largest maritime disaster in Canadian history. The company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to enemy action in World War II, including the RMS Empress of Britain, which was the largest ship ever sunk by a German U-boat.
Ellerman Lines was a UK cargo and passenger shipping company that operated from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. It was founded in the late 19th century, and continued to expand by acquiring smaller shipping lines until it became one of the largest shipping firms in the World. Setbacks occurred through heavy losses to its merchant fleet in the First and Second World Wars but were overcome in each case.
A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships.
Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland or SMN, also known as the Netherland Line or Nederland Line, was a Dutch shipping line that operated from 1870 until 1970, when it merged with several other companies to form what would become Royal Nedlloyd.
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th centuries and featured regularly scheduled service. Steam driven packets were used extensively in the United States in the 19th century on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, supplying and bringing personnel to forts and trading posts.
A liner service in merchant shipping is a shipping service that operates to a timed schedule visiting a fixed loop of ports and operated by one or more ships.
The Bank Line was a British commercial shipping line that was established in 1905 by Andrew Weir. The company was sold to the Swire Group in 2003, eventually ceasing operations in 2009. Initially a tramp operator of sailing vessels, it developed into a major company operating shipping lines all over the world.
The Far Eastern Freight Conference was a co-operative agreement between a group of steamship owners and shipbrokers involved in scheduled cargo liner services principally between China and Japan, and European ports. It was established in 1879 as the China and Japan Conference through the efforts of John Swire. They co-operated in order to overcome excess capacity of steamers in that trade. Described by some as a cartel, the conference rewarded shippers that gave all their business to ships owned by conference members through a system of deferred rebates to the freight rates charged. These discounts were deferred for, typically, six months and were not payable if the shipper used a ship outside the conference in that time. Capacity was controlled by limiting each member to an agreed number of sailings during the year. The conference survived a legal challenge in 1885, which went to the High Court in 1887, then through the Court of Appeal and ultimately to the House of Lords: the conference won at every level. There were later challenges and enquiries, which the conference survived. Ultimately, changes to the European Union exemption of shipping conferences from their competition regulations brought the conference to an end in October 2008.
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