Transportation by sea—Today and tomorrow

Abstract

When oceanborne transportation is mentioned, one reaction is to think of the decline of the merchant fleet and outmoded ships. Such opinions may be partially correct if applied to a few segments of the world's merchant fleet, but nothing could be further from the truth than to apply such geaeralizations to the total world picture. Oceanborne transportation was and still is for all practical purposes the key to world trade and in spite of the rapid development of air transportation, in the foreseeable future it will carry the vast majority of goods in world trade both in terms of value of cargo and cargo tonnage. Oceanborne trade is expanding very rapidly and with its growth the efficiency of operations in meeting increasing demands becomes of ever-increasing importance. It is obvious that operations research and systems analysis have to be applied to oceanborne transportation becanse it is but one leg of a larger transportation system. As a result of this application, we see a revolution in oceanborne transportation which will bring with it many changes in traditional patterns. Some ships are becoming much larger and others are becoming both larger and faster; shipboard automation is being introduced; but the most important changes of all are taking place in methods for cargo handling. Not only has this led to specialized ships such as container ships, but it has revolutionized port operation concepts: transportation by sea is at last becoming a truly integrated part of a world-wide cargo distribution system.