SS Traveller, Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe (1922) which could be annoying to those in a hurry. Another factor limiting numbers was the requirement that a ship with more th an twelve passengers carry a doctor. Nonetheless, berths were cheap and passage by tramp steamer was a grand way to see the wo rld. Ships such as SS Traveller were to be seen in ports all over the wo rld , even the most insignificant ones. The first d efi niti o n of the word "tramp" in the diction ary is "th e act of stamping; a heavy and forceful tread," but a common usage was for a "p e rso n on the tramp; one who travels from place to place on foot in search of employment, as a vagrant." Tramp steamers pli ed wherever
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there was cargo for shipm ent: th ey were not co mmitted to follow schedul ed routes. During the 1870s, shipping agents were linked by the new worldwid e telegraph and submarine cable system, and shipowners would direct captains to respond to th e pattern of supply and demand. A tramp steamer crisscrossed the oceans following opportunities for trade, rather than shuttling regularly to-and-fro, as did liners. In 191 4 there were 9,000 ships in the British registry, 43% of the wo rld's merchantmen, and the greater number of these were tramps. They underpinned the prosperity deri ved from a prolonged period of steady ex pansion in worldwide trade.
The river C lyde at Glasgow was the birthplace of the tramp. The type evolved in late nineteenth-century Britain ; the shipbuilders of C lydeside, Tyne, Wear, Tees, and Mersey built the great m ajority of the ships, and G lasgow shipowners were the leading operators. Rudyard Kip lin g gives us this succinct characterization: "every inch of a cargo boat must be built for cheapness, great hold-capacity, and a certain steady speed." A shipowner would also be looking for longevity and seawo rthin ess. Such considerations led to co nserva ti ve design practice, and for many yea rs the type persisted with very little change in appearance.
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