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the engines were ordered full astern to pull .¡ ,\ her off the beach. Good reason for building ~ ships with Aat bo ttoms! ~~ ~ The term "tramp" was a descriptio n of '"'<>.. ' the role, rather than of the design of a ship: ., . the sam e vessel might be put to different uses durin g the course of its working life. A di gression is necessary to explain usage of the wo rd liner. Ships operatin g regula r, scheduled services on specified routes (lin es) were called liners. Arising from this, we h ave the terms shipping lines, and in modern ,. times, airlines. It required steam powe r to keep to a timetable, bur early steam ships were extravagant in coal consumption and costly to run , consequently they were limited to carrying passengers, mail, and other such valuable cargoes as bullion. In later years, even grand transAtlantic passenger liners made space to carry some important cargo. (There was really no point, after all, in going to Europe for a motor tour if you could n o t take the Pierce-Arrow.) W h en steam power becam e m o re economi cal, cargo steamers entered the shipping trade. Some of them were placed in service o n regular routes; such vessels attracted passenger traffic, and the cargo line r became a familiar type. Tramp steam ers, which fo llowed no predetermined routine, evenrnally gave way to ships th at operated on familiar routes but did not adhere to a timetable. It was common to see newspaper advertisem ents advising that a parti cular ship would be sailing on an anticipated date, seeking cargo for shipm ent to various ports. The term "liner" was confined to large, fast ships primarily devoted to passe ngers, sailing between designated ports, and they sail ed on time. Tramps were devoted to general cargo. Bulk carriers tended to be purpose-built to suit particular trades, such as ore-carriers o n the Great Lakes, oil tankers, or bulk grain carriers, all of which foll owed routes o n which they could find a steady dem and. Specialized ships were built to co nvey natural asphalt from Trinidad in heated tanks, and refrigerated ships to carry Caribbean bananas or New Zealand butter and lamb to m arkets
(top) Cape Town Docks (middle) SS Egypt, coaling, Karachi (1898)
(bottom) SS City of Norwich (1927)
SEAHISTORY 129, WINTER2009-10
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