Cargo Liners: An Illustrated History

Well worth it just for the photos,the rest of the information being the cream.photos reproduced brilliantly on the tablet,excellent all round

If you are fascinated by maritime things like I am, then this is a book for you! It describes cargo liners for the past 140 years with pictures and text that discusses the technological advances incorporated into the many ships and also a little history of the companies that operated them. It includes cargo ships as well as more specialized ones such as refrigerator ships. It discusses advances such as welding, development of cranes and derricks, coal and oil fueling, VTE engines, diesel, and steam turbine propulsion.

Excellent book. It's hard to realize how ships and carrying cargoes have changed since the 1950's to the twentieth century.

Nice to see pictures of ships that I met when sailing at sea in the sixties and seventies. Many of them pictured in this excelent book were still around then.

This book is in fact primarily an illustrated history. The figure captions are very well written. The black and white images are excellent, large format and of good quality. As a ship modeler, I found it to be very interesting as a source of visual information about a form of merchant shipping that is rapidly disappearing from the seas.

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Earlier this year, I was introduced to "Tramp Ships: An Illustrated History" and "Coasters: An Illustrated History" both of which are by Roy Fenton and Seaforth Publishing. To complete a trio of extraordinary books, this work in the same series, albeit by another author (Ambrose Greenaway) is a further example of sheer excellence in print.As I frequently mention, I am a shipwreck historian (it's what I do) and, in order to completely understand any ship which was lost at sea, I find myself studying almost anything and everything associated with the subject. Most vessels fall easily into an appropriate category such as; passenger-liner, passenger-ferry, vehicle-ferry, bulk-carrier, tanker, aircraft carrier or whatever. The cargo-liner, however, is often regarded as something of a crossbreed - being neither a freighter nor a passenger-liner but still possessing something of both.Instead of ignoring the `awkwardness' of such hybrids, Ambrose Greenaway has produced a remarkable document which traces the origins and the history of the cargo-liner from the earliest years right through to the latest designs and innovations and, of course, the decline of the type in favour of containerisation. How sad that `Travel by Cargo Ship' is no longer as easy or as cheap (and, therefore as much fun!) as it used to be - but I digress!By repeating the `Contents Page' of this richly illustrated work, the reader will gain an appreciation of what to expect: Origins & Early Years, Consolidation, Innovations in Machinery & German competition, World War 1, Difficult Trading and the Rise of the Motorship, Depression & Renaissance, US Maritime Commissions Shipbuilding Programme & WW2 Construction, Postwar Reconstruction, New Design and Innovation and, fin ally, Apogee & Decline as Containerisation Spreads. The work then concludes with a Bibliography and Index. Having started at the very beginning, each subsequent chapter skilfully adds the next relevant segments of information so that the complete story of the cargo-liner is fully explained. In addition that `explanation' is both well-researched and well-written.The book itself measures 10¼ x 9½ in (260 x 241 mm) and contains 184 pages. There are 1-3 first class historic photographs of ships on every page and those, coupled with an informative, well-researched and easy to read text, makes this book outstanding by any standards.Whereas the history, development and evolution of, for example, big passenger ships and warships (of all types) are well documented, the same is not so for the many different types of less glamorous commercial vessels. Of these it might (only might!) be argued that the cargo-liner is possibly the most overlooked of all. Now that gap is filled by a work which is unlikely to disappoint anyone at all.NM

Bought as a gift for my father in law, as he requested. He loves his books on this type of topic. He's very happy with it.

Good selection of photos. Very detailed for the enthusiast. Quality as expected for a hard cover.

An excellant book, with information in it that would be hard to find elsewhere. The introductory section alone has some excellant information, such as the differences between between tramp and cargo-liners. Throughout, the fantastic black and white photos. The authour should be congratulated on his knowledge, and willingness to share it with the world. The only very small gripe is that the cover is not as illustrated. Having said that it is probably a better picture so it isn't really a gripe!

Sehr schön und stimmungsvoll sind die Umschlagphotos in diesem Buch. Nach einer knappen Einführung in die Linienfrachtschiffahrt werden von ca. 1870 -1960 die Linienschiffstypen der verschiedenen Reedereien vorgestellt, mit knapper technischer Beschreibung, Nennung aller Namen, die die Schiffe getragen haben, Bauwerft, Verkäufe, Verschrottungsort und Zeit. Der Schwerpunkt liegt naturgemäss auf britischen Schiffen, aber auch Schiffe anderer Nationen werden vorgestellt. Die Photos insgesamt sind teilweise etwas klein, so dass man kaum Details erkennt. Die Beschreibung der einzelnen Schiffsklassen ist etwas ermüdend nach dem immer gleichen Schema. Hier würde man sich oft einen etwas lebendigeren Text wünschen. Sehr gut ist im Vergleich dazu das im selben Verlag 2013 erschienene Buch "Tramp Ships" von Roy Fenton. Lebendig geschrieben, packende und abwechslungsreiche Bilder, eine gute Darstellung der Trampschiffahrt !

This is a beautifully produced and profusely illustrated book, although it's a pity that the cover is not that depicted in the image on this site.As the dust jacket states, cargo liners were "some of the most handsome and elegant ships ever built" and this book is indeed a "feast for ship enthusiasts and for all those who mourn the passing of the golden age of the steamship".Well over 2,000 different ships are listed in the index and over 300 excellent photographs cover the century of the classic cargo liner - "the backbone of empire" - until it was eclipsed by the container ship in the 1970s.As a teenager in the 1960s I watched some of these cargo liners sail past Tilbury. I was privileged to see the classic lines of these majestic vessels close up and, later, when at sea in HM Ships, I saw some of the last of these fine ships at sea. This book is a lovely trip down memory lane and many other readers who lived near a major port, or went to sea themselves, or who just love ships, will feel so, too. For who cannot look at the photograph of the Ellerman liner "City of Coventry", in Singapore, and see something of beauty, the smell of the sea, the mystery of the Orient and the tale of an ancient mariner? Who cannot look at the silhouette of the unnamed ship on the back cover and wonder who she is and where she goes, and what does she carry - a cargo of ivory or diamonds, of cedarwood or cinnamon, or just iron-ware and cheap tin trays? Who will not feel a wanderlust on seeing the photographs of the Port Line's "Port Huon" at Cape Town, the Brocklebank Line's "Mangla" at Aden, the Blue Star liner "New York Star" passing under the Golden Gate, the New Zealand Shipping Company's "Otaio" passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or even the Danish East Asiatic Company's curious early diesel ship "Tongking" at buoys off Fowey in the years between the wars? And remember, even today, 90% of international trade goes by sea, albeit much of it in containers on ships that often are more reminiscent of floating buildings than the handsome cargo liners in this volume.But, for all this eulogy, author Lord Greenway, I wanted more! I wanted to see some photographs like that on the cover that was not used on the published edition, cargo ships at sea in rough weather, aerial photos of cargo liners so that one might better get an idea of their deck layout, which you describe in words in the introduction (and, perhaps, a large photograph of one ship, with a key for the layman to the visible superstructure and a glossary of the terms used). I wanted to see some photographs of ships in wartime guise and of cargo liners in distress; there is nothing here of the famous story of the American Export-Isbrandtsen Liner "Flying Enterprise" following her SOS in the last days of 1951. One could get the impression from these, admittedly, excellent photographs that the sea is always calm and the cargo liners always ship-shape and Bristol fashion. These ships were working ships although many of the shipping lines did indeed look after them very well; and it is mostly in their "Sunday best" that Ambrose Greenway has photographed these fine ships.I also wanted to see a few - at least one! - representative deck plan drawings and at least one page of scale line drawings would have been helpful. Something more about the ship's complement (noting that the "City of Brisbane" was 97 officers and ratings), the passenger accommodation (for generally ten or a dozen lucky voyagers) and an example of a year in the life of a cargo liner would have been interesting, too. A full register of cargo ships would, perhaps, be too much?Also, I'd have liked to have learned more about the cargo trade. A few illustrative examples of the shipping lines' advertisements for their cargo services, and literature used to attract passengers, would have added value to the book. A map of the main cargo routes would have been good as would a list of the shipping lines, their scheduled routes and their main cargoes. It's a pity that the index lists only ship names as it would be useful to have the shipping lines and main ports indexed too.Had the book run to a few colour plates, then of course the house flags, funnels, hull and boot topping of the shipping lines and cargo liners would have been the icing on the cake.These quibbles seek completeness, and merit perhaps a sister volume? But let them not detract from this excellent book. It is a treat for anyone interested in ships and the golden age of the steamship.