From the black sea to the Atlantic: Finnish merchant shipping in the late nineteenth century

Abstract

Abstract Finnish navigation in the nineteenth century experienced the trials of two wars: the 1808–1809 war and the Crimean War both caused serious damage to the Finnish mercantile marine. The latter had reduced the capacity of Finnish shipping to almost half its pre-war total of about 98,000 tons by 1853. But new ships were quickly built to make good the losses, for wooden ships were cheap and easy to replace. The new ships, moreover, were more modern and better able than the old to compete with foreign vessels. The Crimean War was therefore no death-blow to the Finnish fleet; on the contrary, it began to flourish better than ever before. As early as 1860 the capacity of Finnish merchant shipping registered with the municipalities totalled about 110,000 tons, almost exclusively sailing ships. Growth continued, and the merchant navy reached its peak in 1870 when it totalled 136,720 tons. There was then a decline to about 118,000 tons in the early 1890s, which was followed by a new period of growth, when t...