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From Packet Ships to Ocean Liners
How scheduled passenger shipping grew from sailing packets on fixed dates to the great steam liners, and why aircraft eventually ended the liner's dominance.
Working and Powered Boats
Liners and Cargo Ships
Passenger and freight shipping of the steam age.
Clipper Ships and the Tea Races
How fast, sharp-hulled clipper ships were built for the China tea trade, how the famous races to London unfolded, and why steam and Suez ended their reign.
Container Ships and the Box Revolution
How standard steel boxes, first shipped at scale in 1956, transformed cargo handling, cut port labour, reshaped harbours and made global supply chains possible.
Emigrant Ships and Steerage Voyages
What the Atlantic crossing was like for millions of 19th-century emigrants in steerage, from crowded sailing ships and fever to steam, regulation and Ellis Island.
Oil Tankers and the Growth of the Oil Trade
How tanker design developed from barrels and oil barges to the Glückauf of 1886, the wartime T2 and the supertankers that followed the closures of Suez.
The Blue Riband and the Race for Speed
The unofficial prize for the fastest Atlantic crossing: how it was measured, which liners held it from the 1830s to the United States of 1952, and why it faded.
The Panama Canal and the Ships That Use It
How the Panama Canal was built, from the failed French attempt to the 1914 opening, and how its lock sizes created the Panamax ship and later larger designs.
The Suez Canal and the Steamship Trade
How the Suez Canal, opened in 1869, shortened routes between Europe and Asia, favoured steamships over sail, and later shaped tanker size and global trade.
The Transatlantic Packet Lines
The Black Ball Line and its rivals began fixed-date sailings between New York and Liverpool in 1818, shaping Atlantic trade before steam took over.
Tramp Steamers and Bulk Carriers
The unscheduled cargo ships that carried coal, grain and ore: how tramp steamers worked on the charter market and how purpose-built bulk carriers replaced them.
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