Cargo Liners

 

Revealing the hidden industry

The shipping industry functions largely unnoticed by the public, yet we all depend upon it for our daily goods and services. Except for glimpses of ships passing along the coast or into port we know little of their history or how the seafarers who man the ships live and work on the oceans. We know even less of the commercial nature of the vast industry that underpins shipping or the regulatory authorities that strive to bring order to its operation.

This series of articles “Shipping for dummies” will describe the different sectors of the industry and follow the historical development of shipping and its ancillary services.

We start with an examination of the birth of the general cargo liner and what brought about its demise. Throughout, I will use my experience in the industry to highlight some of the issues faced by seafarers in their daily life.

Whisky, Camels and Tanks

The general cargo liner

Today, the general cargo liner is no more but for more than 100 years it was the primary ship type carrying goods around the world from whisky and camels and heavy cargo such as tanks and all in the same ship!

The first registered cargo liner was the” S.S. Agamemnon” launched in 1865. She was 2,270 grt. and 94.3m in length. Although classed as a 3 masted barque she had a 300 hp compound steam engine giving a speed of 10 knots.[1]

She was owned by Alfred Holt, a pioneer of his time, who, in the start of the industrial revolution, recognised the value of steam for maritime propulsion. Experimenting with higher steam pressure than the fledgling steam locomotives he developed a compound steam engine that not only was compact enough to fit into a ship but effective in its use of coal.

The ship was the first in the company that later became the renowned cargo liner shipping line, Blue Funnel line.

As a result, S.S. Agamemnon could complete a passage around the Cape of Good Hope to China in 60 days in comparison to the competing “Tea clippers” under sail that averaged 123 days! When the Suez Canal opened four years later, in 1869, so the era of the sailing vessel was finished, and technological development in ship propulsion created a paradigm shift in the development of maritime transport that enabled steam ships to dominate international maritime trade.

The paradox, today, is that general cargo is still carried in ships but most often contained in containers in ships that are classified as “specialised” container ships because the unit of carriage is a container. So, what was it that made general cargo ships special?

The alternative term for general cargo is “break bulk” and this is helpful as it defines the breaking down of a large volume of goods into smaller, individual units fit for carriage. So, 1000 tons of rice in sacks that can be handled as individual sacks in an example of “break bulk cargo”.

Martin Stopford in his book “Maritime Economics” [2]supplies a further definition for the general cargo ship using a unit of cargo flexibility in the design of the ship.

This “lateral cargo mobility coefficient (LCM) ranks all ships based on their ability to carry different cargo units. Lines linking ship type to cargo unit indicate that the traditional cargo liner ranks highest where more specialised ship types rank lower on the index. Note that he refers to cargo liners not generic cargo ships. Therefore, we need to differentiate between to different types of general cargo ship, the “tramp ship” and the “cargo liner”. The tramp ship had no fixed routes or schedules but took cargo where it could be found and took ballast voyages between ports in the search for cargo. These ships often had a much simpler design structure for the carriage of general cargo.

The cargo liner was a scheduled service between a fixed range of ports offering the shipper both a schedule and a fixed cargo rate for his cargo.

We will focus on the cargo liner.

The classic cargo liner was designed to carry many different types of cargo. With 5 or 6 holds, each sub-divided with tween decks these ships were ideal to store various cargoes.

 The lower hold in hatch number one often was a tank that could carry small quantities of liquid such as 400 tons coconut oil.

Hatch number three and four could have lockers in the tween decks to store and secure valuable or perishable cargo such as whisky or fruit that needed cooling.

All hatches had tween decks that could support heavy lift cargo such as locomotives or wheeled cargo such as cars.

The lower holds stored everything from steel to bagged cargo to chests of tea, all separated from each other with dunnage.

Flexibility came with its challenges.

Stability calculations were a constant activity to ensure the ship was loaded in a way that did not undermine the stability of the ship. Also ensuring that the cargo was protected enough to arrive at its destination in pristine condition was another challenge.

Whilst loading crates of bottled whisky in Glasgow it was necessary to have security personnel in the lockers whilst loading, one from the shore and one from the ship. Guess who got the job, the most junior apprentice in his smart new uniform!!

The first thing the dockers did was to build a wall of crates between their work area and where we stood. The result was we could not see the crates been loaded but we could hear breaking glass. Enquiries were responded with a smile. “We dropped the crate”. I found it good sense not to argue with dockers with their wicked cargo hooks!

Four hundred tons of valuable coconut oil loaded in India and destined for the East coast of the USA arrived as a solid mass because the heating coils failed!!

One of the tasks of apprentices was to check each hatch after departure from a discharge port to ensure that all cargo had been unloaded for that port. Surprise, surprise, I said to the chief officer responsible for load and discharge of cargo, there is a large steam locomotive marked Calcutta (now called Kolkata), the port we have just left.! You are joking? No, what do we do now? It will have to come off at Visakhapatnam, our next port. There will be a real stink about that.

Flexibility had another dimension, the ability to load and discharge with ships equipment. All dry goods whether light or heavy could be handled without shore cranes, a necessary requirement in many river or surf ports.

General cargo liners were geared vessel having derricks at each hatch that could be rigged to load or discharge cargo. Generally, there were two or four derrick per hatch. In this photo of the Mahseer from a private collection, you can see the derricks at each hatch. In addition, there was normally a “jumbo” or heavy lift derrick capable of lifting 50-60 tons. You can see it on the foremast of the Mahseer.

Most cargo was handled by two derricks at each hatch configured as a “union purchase”. One derrick was boomed over the hatch and the other positioned over the quay or barge alongside the ship. The lifting wire from each derrick was joined together in a cargo hook. The operation required two winches, one for each derrick lifting wire. By alternatively hauling on one winch and slacking on the other cargo could be transferred from hatch to dockside or barge and vice versa. This was a very easy method to use and flexible enough to handle a variety of cargo units.

The jumbo derrick was different, being a swinging derrick that was controlled in both lift ,swing and topping by individual winches. Locomotives, tanks and landing craft were loaded and discharged in thius way. Note that with only one jumbo derrick, heavy lift cargo was limited to hatch number 2 or on deck over the hatch. So Centurion tanks for Jordan were discharged with the jumbo derrick at Aqaba watched over by no less a person than King Hussein!

Flexibility also allowed animals to be carrried, mostly on deck, either being lifted singly with lifting strops or walking on board. A deck load of camels from Port Sudan to Djibouti was chaotic with local herders shouting, camels braying and a stench that did not leave the ship until long after we had discharged the camels!

However, flexibility had a price. Cargo operations were very labour intensive with gangs of dockers in the hatches and other gangs on the quay or in the barges. It would not be unusual to have over fifty dockers involved in a load or discharge operation. In addition, it took days and weeks to load and discharge cargo in a port and if you add delays due to port congestion it was not unusual for 50% of the voyage time to be spent in port!

So it is not surprising that the decline in the general cargo liner was inevitable to be replaced by the container ship. In 2006 general cargo liners numbered less than 10% of the world fleet with an average age of 29 years![3]

The golden age of general cargo liners has passed.

---

[1] Wikipedia

[2] Stopford, Martin; Maritime Economics, 3^rd. edition, p 580

[3] Martin Stopford; Maritime Economics; table 14.8; page 585

Fitting out a new apprentice

 

Apprentice uniform: Humber Maritime College

Only 2 weeks to get all the necessary clothes and equipment together. Good job Grandpa went to sea and can now help me as Dad is back on his ship.

What gear do I need Grandpa?

Well, the company will send us a list of clothing for both northern climates and tropical areas plus a cap badge.

So, you will need a uniform, jacket, trousers, white shirts, tie, shoes and a uniform cap with the company badge on it. It should have a replaceable white cover to be used in summer. You will have the apprentice fletches on the lapels.

The best uniform is made of doeskin but this is very expensive so I guess we will go for Barathea. What is Barathea, Gramps. It is a wool based weave giving a material that is hard worthy, good for apprentices!

You’ll need a battledress, said Grandpa through a cloud of tobacco smoke. This is your working uniform.

Battledress

A battle dress, isn’t that something soldiers wear? Yes, remember Montgomery in the 2^nd. World War? No! Well he had one. It is a very practical uniform when you are working on deck or with cargo. Of course, yours will be black not khaki.

Then you will need oilskins.

Oil skins, what are they?

Oilskin: Militaria zone

It is a waterproof coat to stop your uniform becoming wet. It comes with a sou’wester for your head. Be careful it is sticky as it is canvas soaked in linseed oil and wax to make it waterproof. You will need rubber boots or wellington boots for those days when it is wet underfoot.

White shirts and a black tie complete your uniform for normal temperatures.

For tropical areas you will need “whites”. That is short sleeve shirts that can take your epaulets on the shoulder and short white trousers accompanied by long white socks and white suede shoes.

That is your “dress” uniform. For working you will have “khakis”, same outfit but in khaki colour.

Grandpa, how much more gear do I need?

Well, we are doing well but there are some small but vital pieces of kit yet.

You will need a ditty box to hold your personal mending gear. Normally it is a small wooden box. In it you will need needle and thread as you won’t have mother to sew on your buttons when lost or darn your socks. You will have to do it. OK, not really looking forward to that!

sewing palm:sailmakers supply

You will also be expected to sew canvas so you will need sail needles that are much stronger than ordinary needles and a palm. What’s a palm? It is often called a sewing palm as it is used to push yarn through tough canvas or rope. This you will learn at sea. You will need a left-handed palm as you are a “leftie”

Green river knife:Walmart

Then you will need a sheath knife. All seamen need a sheath knife and the Green river knife is best. Although of American origin it is a good all-round seamen’s knife.

  

Finally, you need a duffle coat for those cold winter days across the North Atlantic and a duffle bag to carry all your clothes.

OK so where do we go to buy all this stuff?

Duffle coat:London tradition

We will  need to find a marine outfitter, a sort of tailors shop for both the Royal and Merchant Navy. I think there is one in Newcastle so we will have a trip up by train to get all you need.

 That sounds like a plan Gramps.

 

Outings with Gramps

 

Let’s be clear he was no saint, more of a pipe-smoking ancient mariner with a penchant for a drink or two that got him into trouble more than once.

It was not unusual for Grandpa to be delivered home by taxi and more than once it was not clear he was in the taxi until you opened the door and this body fell out! He was a heavy man and it took both mother and a neighbour using a blanket as a stretcher to get him in the house. Life was never dull with Grandpa!

Nevertheless he was kind and very supportive of mother bringing up 4 young children alone and helped me in my quest to be a seafarer.

I remember that sometimes my brother and I were allowed to accompany him on his Saturday trips to the local fishing port of Whitby to meet his cronies! I suspect it might also have been mother’s strategy to ensure her father got home safely.

The steam train stopped at the West Cliff station first at the top of the hill overlooking Whitby before reversing down the hill to Whitby town station. Out of the train with Gramps in the lead we walked down Baxtergate past the swing bridge over the harbour entrance to the inner harbour and onto the fish quay. There were a number of pubs at the back of the quay and Gramps had his favourite and made a beeline for it. “See you in two hours, he shouted as he left us. Not sure what mother would have thought of her father abandoning two young teenagers to their own devices whilst he went off drinking with his cronies.

What to do? Well it was not too hard to figure out what to do with this 2 hours of freedom. At the harbour entrance end of the fish quay was an amusement arcade as we called it. It was a large building open to the street out of which one could hear loud music.

Inside there was everything from slot machines to dodgem cars and many other ways to spend your time. I am not sure if Gramps gave us money to help us pass the time but I remember we had money!

Slot machine really did not interest us, more a waste of money, but dodgem cars, well that was another matter. Driven by overhead electrical poles somewhat like a tram they were small single seat cars that could be driven in an enclosure. With only a steering wheel and accelerator they were ideal for us. Usually there was a single direction around the circular enclosure dictated by the operator and the game was to drive safely around and around avoiding all other cars, hence the name dodgem. Well, of course that was not good enough for us, it was much more fun to chase and hit other cars, especially your brothers, even going in the wrong direction to do that. This was fun usually until the operator told us to “cut it out or you are finished”. What a spoil sport he was. Anyway after 15 minutes the session was over and 5 pence had been used. Another attraction for us was those where you paid a penny and could operate a small crane in an attempt to pick up small prizes and dump them down a chute where you could retrieve them. Not a very successful thing. Another was to operate a slide that pushed coins towards a chute so you got back some of the money you had used. The only winner seemed to be the amusement arcade. But it filled the time until we must meet up with Gramps outside the pub.

Always good in timekeeping he would meet us outside the pub with a heavily loaded suitcase and we would wend our way back to the train station. Of course, in those days it was a steam train with closed passenger compartments, no corridors. So who you started the journey with were also the people you finished the journey with.

So into the carriage, Grandpa breathing heavily. Once seated, out came the pipe, a clasp knife with a large plug of tobacco. Then he whittled off enough tobacco to fill his pipe, took out his matches and in no time at all the compartment was full of tobacco smoke.

One such journey we had 2 nuns in our carriage. We said hello and Grandpa proceeded to take out a ball of string from his jacket pocket. Then he took this brown suitcase down from the overhead racks, placed it on the seat and opened it to reveal a seething mass of seafood! Picking up a lobster he would tie each claw and then return it to the suitcase. Crabs also were dealt with in the same manner whilst he lifted the salmon and cod to show them off. By this time the 2 nuns were huddled the farthest corner from us next to the window. They kept exchanging glances towards Grandpa as he continued to produce as much smoke as the train engine, it seemed. They cracked open the window by releasing the leather strap that held it closed over the door in an attempt to get some fresh Yorkshire air.

Grandfather was completely oblivious of their predicament and once all the seafood had been examined and returned to the suitcase he shut the lid, knocked his pipe out through the open window and fell asleep snoring heavily for the rest of the journey. Once we arrived at Middlesbrough and the train jerked to a stop the nuns fled the train even before Grandpa had gathered all his belongings!

Grandpa

 Report on board S.S. Mahout 1400 GMT Birkenhead Friday latest

 Wow that was quick, only 2 weeks to get all the necessary clothes and equipment together. Good job Grandpa went to sea and can now help me as Dad is back on his ship.

What gear do I need Grandpa?

Grandpa had always been a part of the family. We lived in his big red brick house that was built in the 1920’s most probably from the proceeds of many successful voyages as Captain. As his wife died our young mother decided to look after him and it was therefore natural that we all lived together once he had retired.

Grandpa or Gramps as we called him was my mother’s father. Born in Lincolnshire in 1879, his father was a coastguard based in Sutton Bridge, he grew up around the sea. He went to sea in 1894 at the age of 15 and spent the whole of his life at sea working for a shipping company out of Whitby, Yorkshire and settling in the fishing village of Robin Hoods Bay. He retired as Captain and it as a pensioned seafarer that I knew him until I went to sea at the age of 16 in 1957.

Throughout his seafaring career he saw 2 World Wars with many adventures and incidents. For instance in the 1^st. World War he told me a tale of being bombed. He was on a small sailing ship leaving the Thames in ballast with the hatches open for cleaning. He heard a strange noise, a sort of buzzing in the sky. Looking up he saw a small aeroplane circling the ship and then finally diving down towards the ship. Then a small object fell from the plane and went straight down an open hatch to be followed by a loud explosion. The ship immediately started to take in water and it is not clear what the outcome was but he had a small newspaper clipping of the incident, now lost. However this was one of the first incidents of aerial bombing in that war.

Later in the 2^nd. World War he had his moment of glory when his ship was stopped and sunk in mid Atlantic by a German pocket battleship and he was captured to be released under caution some 2 weeks later. He spent the rest of that war in the Royal Navy Reserve.

In 1951 he moved with us to a new house in Middlesbrough for the remaining years he had.

He was a portly, some would say stout person, short in height and broad in the shoulders. A sort of roly-poly figure, his face was ruddy and dominated by a large red veined nose that was more than once the first body part to be injured in his various adventures.

He wore glasses that sometimes were held together with sticking plaster as they also suffered from either a hard contact with an object or from falling off his head.

His monk like hairstyle was most often topped off with a trilby hat on his outings whilst firmly clamped between his teeth was a pipe.

He was inseparable from his pipe. It was an essential part of who he was. Always at an angle in his mouth it was an essential accessory indoors, outdoors, everywhere.

Smoking his pipe involved many different actions before he was satisfied and clouds of smoke issued forth.

First the pipe must be cleaned. He knocked out the ashes and remaining tobacco into an ash tray and took out his clasp knife from the capacious trouser pockets he had to scrape the bowl clean of residue. Now and then he needed to ream out the pipe completely and for this he had a cylindrical file that fitted exactly the pipe bowl and after a few twisted the wooden pipe was renewed.

Then with a pipe cleaner, a wire wrapped in cotton, he would thread it through the mouthpiece to clear out the gunge that lay there in the channel to the bowl.

With a clean pipe he would turn his attention to the tobacco. He often blended different tobaccos to taste but his favourite was Walnut Flake that came in a hard rectangular block with, I remember, a diamond shaped yellow metal plate advertising the brand.

Out came the clasp knife again, this time to cut slivers of tobacco from the plug and set it into a leather pouch where often there was a slice of apple to “freshen it up” as he would say. Then he would roll the tobacco between his fingers until he had a satisfactory mix and texture tamping it down in the pipe. Ready for firing up , out came the Swan Vestas and soon streams of blue/white smoke surrounded Gramps.

As Captain at sea he got what he demanded and this followed him into civil life. No meek request or submission to others suggestions. No, he issued commands. “Dolly” as he called his daughter, my mother. “I am going out to meet some friends at the Bodega”. We all knew what that meant.

He maintained an extravagant lifestyle even as a pensioner wanting grouse and jugged hare from time to time. This was hard on the household budget as Dad had just returned to sea after an unsuccessful attempt to work ashore as a compass adjuster. So he and mother often had “discussions” on his extravagance.

So what clothes do I need Grandpa to go to sea?

So you want to go to sea son?

 

You are 16 years old and what is called a late developer.

This means you were hopeless at school and averaged out near the bottom of the three classes for your year in grammar school. However after 4 years of hard slog things started to improve. X’s and Y’s in maths started to have some meaning other than some sci-fi objects! However the cultural part of the curriculum did not go well. Thrown out of arts class for painting stick figures in a portrait class of a half clad lady and sent to woodwork class was the first hint that perhaps higher education might elude me. Worse our class managed to change a serious Thomas Eliot play into a comedy due to a series of mishaps on stage. Nevertheless the English literature teacher thought it was a worthy effort and awarded us the class year prize!

Good enough at rugby to get to the Yorkshire schoolboy trials but not good enough to get more than your younger brothers share of GCE examination results.

A future prospect of 2 more years in senior school with the possibility of university and three more years was not appealing in 1957, so what then?

With 2 generations of seafarers on both sides of the family perhaps a career at sea with its practical down to earth approach might suit.

After a failed attempt to enter the Royal Navy (that is another story) it came down to the Merchant Navy as it was called in those days.

Father got me into Thos. and Jno.  Brocklebanks of Liverpool, a part of the cargo branch of Cunard operating a liner service between Europe and India and the USA. Of course this was all gobbledygook to me at the time meaning I understood nothing at all.

In the 1950’s there were two main channels to a career at sea. Go to private cadet training boarding schools such as Pangbourne, HMS Worcester and HMS Conway. Yes they were very much modelled on the Royal Navy and expensive but provide knowledge and competence to start as an apprentice officer on a ship.

The alternative and less expensive approach for parents was to send their sons to sea as apprentice officers contracted to the ship company for a period of 4 years. Essentially you would learn on the job at sea.

The contract is called an indenture and has been around for centuries. It is a legal binding document primarily used to contract labour to an employer. In this case a 16 year old boy to a shipping company.

Historically they we often cut in two, the employee taking one part and the employer the other to safeguard the document. 

However that custom did not apply in later years but the document was written on parchment or heavy linen based “paper”. The wording also reflected the legal nature of the contract and there is little difference between the document of my grandfather in 1894 and mine from 1957.

 

Grandpa's indentures

 

 

 

My indentures

 

The wording is stern and clear guidelines as to what a young teenager should not do. You will not frequent taverns or alehouses and in return you will be trained in the major elements of seamanship for a yearly sum of £132 in the first year rising to £210 in the fourth and final year. Grandpa’s equivalent sums were £5 and £15 respectively.

So what was it like to go on your first voyage as an apprentice officer in the 1950’s. Well that is another story.