The tramp ship was the taxi of the seas. With no regular schedules, it voyaged anywhere and everywhere, picking up and dropping off cargoes, mainly bulk cargoes such as coal, grain, timber, china clay and oil. It was the older and slower vessels that tended to find their way into this trade, hence the tag 'tramp', though new tramps were built, often with the owner's eye on chartering to the liner companies. In this new book by the well-known author Roy Fenton, their evolution is described over the course of more than 100 years, from the 1860s, when the steam tramp developed from the screw collier, until it was largely replaced by the specialist bulk carrier in the 1980s. ??An introduction looks at the design and building of tramps before going on to describe the machinery, from simple triple-expansion turbines to diesel engines. Their operation and management and the life of the officers and crews is also covered. The meat of the book is to be found in the 300 wonderfully evocative photographs of individual ships which illustrate the development of the tramp and its trades through the last years of the 19th century, the two world wars, and the postwar years. Each caption gives the dimensions, the owners and the builder, and outlines the career, with notes on trades and how they changed over a ship's lifetime. Design features are highlighted and notes on machinery included. This will become a classic work, to inspire all merchant ship enthusiasts and historians.

The book is the first to detail the 170-year evolution of the powered bulk carriers which continue to have a major role in the world’s trades and economies. Their design and technological development is traced from the screw colliers of the 1850s which revolutionised the British coastal coal trade. The same engineering principles were applied to produce ocean-going steam and later motor tramps. By the end of the 19th century, the capabilities and economies of these ‘black freighters’ had captured from the sailing ship much of the world’s trade in bulk commodities. In the second half of the 20th century, the tramps in turn evolved into multi-purpose, dry bulk carriers. These workhorses of the sea transport commodities including metallic ores, grain, coal, timber and other minerals. Quantities of up to 400,000 tons are carried in the largest, specialised ore carriers. In a parallel development, applying the same technical principles produced smaller yet efficient steam and later motor coasters which came to dominate short sea shipping. The book concludes with a discussion of how the economies of transportation provided by bulk carriers have had profound effects on industrialisation, globalisation and the world’s economy, and discusses the environmental impact of these ships.

This book covers the subjects of break bulk cargo, general cargo and project cargo, and how these cargoes are shipped. It deals with the cargoes themselves, the vessels used for their carriage, and how the carriage is managed using the process of vessel chartering. Alongside these, it also covers offshore vessel management and how offshore supply vessels are used to carry cargoes to offshore oil and gas installations. Break bulk cargo covers a wide variety of cargoes, from project cargo to more varied cargoes carried on an ad hoc basis, often between ports that are not equipped for container traffic. It also covers the carriage of specific cargoes that cannot fit inside or are unsuitable for containers. This includes the carriage of cargoes for major projects, and cargoes for the offshore sector, which is an area covered in a specific section in the book concerning the use of offshore supply vessels. To date, only minor elements of shipping books cover this kind of trade, hence the need for a new book that specifically covers this subject. The focus of this book is providing expert insights and detailed explanations of the practical issues related to all aspects of break bulk and general cargo management. The book is written for legal practitioners, shipping managers, managers of project cargo, oil and gas companies, shipping professionals, charterers, shipbrokers, shippers and anybody else involved in ad hoc vessel chartering for the carriage of break bulk, general and project cargoes. It will also serve as a valuable resource for students of shipping.