Steam Navigation Company Research Articles

Ruling the Wages: The Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company and seafarers’ incomes in the Habsburg Empire, 1885–1914

One of the primary outcomes of the transition from sail to steam shipping was the profound change affecting maritime labour. The rise of new shipping companies played a pivotal role in reshaping the work onboard and the socio-economic position of maritime workers. In the Mediterranean, the case of the Austrian merchant marine, dominated by the powerful Austrian Lloyd steam navigation company, has long been neglected by historians. This article examines the dominant role of Austrian Lloyd in shaping maritime wages and depicts the main remunerative dynamics affecting maritime labour on steamers between the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth century, when Austrian crews successfully joined for the first time in collective labour protests and managed to unionise. It frames seamen’s wage conditions in the socio-economic context of the Austrian littoral by relating maritime incomes to the cost of living and the remunerations of other socially comparable groups of workers in the port city of Trieste. By identifying the structural factors making up crews’ overall earnings, the article contributes to the broader understanding of Mediterranean maritime workers’ incomes in an age of profound technological and economic transformation of shipping.

Russian steam navigation and trading company and passenger traffic between Russia and Turkey in 1857 - 1876

Russian steam navigation and trading company and passenger traffic between Russia and Turkey in 1857 - 1876

A pioneering cruising enterprise: The North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Company, 1886–1908

Commercial cruising began around 1880. Underlying factors were the iron steamship that enabled scheduled sailings and larger, more comfortable vessels and growing incomes in industrialising countries that increased the potential market for tourism. Britain took the lead in cruising development. This article examines a pioneering enterprise, The North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Steamship Navigation Company – the name reflects its sphere of operation. In 1886, the company began providing cruise voyages out of Aberdeen and Leith. It offered a new product, cheap and short cruises to the Norwegian fjords. The success of the first season led to the ordering of a new vessel, the St Sunniva, specifically designed for cruising and arguably the first cruise ship. The Company operated cruises chiefly to the fjords, but also to the Baltic and the Mediterranean, completing a total of 224 cruises between 1886 and 1908. Such sustained participation was due to imaginative and efficient organisation. Press advertising, the employment of travel agents, block bookings and private charters were used to gain business. The Company's vessels employed local pilots and from early on carried ‘conductors’, who were forerunners of the ‘cruise director’. The Company's success and innovations encouraged other firms to enter the cruising market, notably large liner companies such as P&O, Union Castle and Royal Mail after 1900. These used much larger vessels with better, more luxurious facilities. The North of Scotland Company, with its smaller and older vessels, could not compete and it withdrew from cruising in 1908.

“Altogether Unproductive of Profit”: A History of the First Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company

La Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company a été créée afin d’assurer des communications fiables et en temps opportun entre les colonies du détroit de Northumberland, dans le sud du golfe du Saint-Laurent. Fondée en 1842, la société bénéficiait d’un vaste soutien communautaire de la part des constructeurs de navires et des marchands et, plus important encore, de la participation du gouvernement de la colonie en tant que propriétaire. Bien que la participation directe du gouvernement colonial ait fourni le capital nécessaire à l’entreprise, les attentes en matière de service aux ports non rentables ont entravé la capacité de la société de gérer ses opérations et ont contribué à son échec après cinq ans. Malgré son quasi-monopole sur le service de navigationà vapeur dans la région, la société était vouée à l’échec en raison de la capacité excédentaire et des coûts d’exploitation élevés.

Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company and Orthodox Pilgrimage: Shipping Operations in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1860-1864

Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company and Orthodox Pilgrimage: Shipping Operations in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1860-1864

청일전쟁 이후 ‘청국차관’(淸國借款) 상환 안건 연구

This paper examines the issue of repayment of Chinese loans to Chosun Dynasty and its meaning.<BR> Firstly, I review at three loans provided by Qing Dynasty to Chosun Dynasty: The loan of China Merchants Steam Navigation Company(CMC), The loan of Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration (ITA), The loan of Tong Shun Tai.<BR> Secondly, I analyse the process of solving the issue of Ma Ting-liang, Consul General of Late Qing Dynasty in Korea. Even after the Sino-Japanese war, this issue could not be solved, but came to a new phase when he was dispatched to Korea. At that time, the Japanese Resident-General was promoting the Korean government

Steam Navigation and Trading Company and Orthodox Pilgrimage in Palestine in 1865-1881

Steam Navigation and Trading Company and Orthodox Pilgrimage in Palestine in 1865-1881

Reviving the William Liddell Damask Design Collection

The William Liddell archive is a collection of over 1600 glass photographic plates recovered from the premises of the abandoned Ewart–Liddell weaving factory in Donaghcloney, County Down, Northern Ireland. The salvaged collection was donated to the Belfast School of Art in 2007; however, the condition was so fragile that they have not been able to be accessed or used. Heritage Lottery Funding was secured in 2017 to make this unique archive accessible to the public and to support a series of local road shows culminating in an exhibition in Autumn 2018 in the Linen Centre, Lisburn Museum. This paper reports on preliminary findings after the careful digitization and cataloguing of each plate.The plates appear to have been kept as a record of the working methods of designers and technical draughtsmen and draughtswomen in the company dating from the early twentieth century to 1970s. The sketches, designs, and technical drawings recorded were used for the production of Jacquard Damask linen for tableware, bed linen and furnishings. The collection evidences a tantalizing clientele that was worldwide. William Liddell produced high quality Damask linen products for clients across the globe, top hotels such as the Hilton, Savoy, Raffles and the Ritz; shipping lines such as Cunard, White Star, and the Union Steam Navigation Company of New Zealand; organizations such as the U.S. Navy, the Bohemian Club San Francisco, Canadian Coastguards and Claridges.The photographs document design specifications from Liddell’s clients, early sketches, painted drawings, accurately hand-drafted designs and typography, point paper layouts, and proof cloths. It is extraordinary that this form of unique photographic record was kept and perhaps more astonishing that the observation of everyday affairs of a textile manufacturing design office were the subjects of such an extensive and persistent documentary endeavor. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of the study, the approaches used to classify and cross-reference the archive’s content and outlines the present categories being used in terms of client markets, design influences, and stages of the Damask design process.

London’s Steamships: Their Functions and Their Owners in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

In the new technology of the steamship, London was by far the most dominant port in the UK. The Thames was where the steamship was more visible, and more visible in all its forms, than in any other location. Using a parliamentary return of 1851 this article analyses the characteristics and the ownership of the London steam fleet. Owners ranged from giants like General Steam Navigation Company and Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to humble owners of single small vessels and steamship services embraced river ferries, tugboats and coastal, continental and oceanic routes. All contributed to change dramatically the nature of the capital’s commerce and city transport.

A sea view: perceptions of maritime space and landscape in accounts of nineteenth-century colonial steamship travel

This article explores the introduction of steam propulsion into the sea route to India in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The entry of steam into shipping marked a radical development in the nature of sea travel, not least, I argue, in the imaginative geographies of the voyage. There were significant alterations in the way that maritime space came to be expressed and represented, changes which were articulated at the level of the visual, in responses to the maritime landscape. These historical geographies of colonial shipping are considered through the examination of voyage narratives by passengers who travelled aboard the steamships of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, on the distinct geography of transit that became known as the 'overland route'. Through an analysis of historical change as it was articulated at the level of experience, I argue that technological means of propulsion played a key role in shaping colonial responses to space and landscape.

Matthew Arnold and the SSLusitania

On the first page of the January 1879 edition of The Nineteenth Century , Matthew Arnold printed one of his relatively few late poems. It was as follows: This poem has, to my knowledge, only been edited once (in Kenneth Allott, and then Kenneth Allott and Miriam Allott’s Longman editions, 1965 and 1979). It has attracted almost no criticism. 2 But, set in context, it seems to me more interesting than it appears. The key to this sonnet is in the fact that Matthew Arnold does not call it, say, ‘Fears for My Son’s Safety’ or ‘A Passage to Australia’, or ‘Dante and the Voyage Out’. The title refers to a ship. And the identity and commercial history of SS Lusitania —unnoted by the Allotts—is important. The personal context of the poem is that Richard (Dick) Penrose Arnold, Arnold’s only surviving son, travelled from Plymouth to Australia to take up a bank job in Melbourne late in 1878 (I will discuss the exact dates presently). He was on board the first steamship of the new Orient Line (which was indeed long and black, like her two sister steamers, Chimborazo and Cuzco3 ). Lusitania was registered in the port of Liverpool and launched in April 1870 after being built at a cost of £91,852 at Birkenhead. She had been purchased by the new Pacific Steam Navigation Company the year before Dick booked his ticket and that company now managed the Line. 4 Her monthly route out was from London to Melbourne and Sydney via Plymouth and round the Cape of Good Hope. She stopped only for coaling at what was then called St Vincent. It is now São Vicente, one of the Barlavento islands of Cape Verde about 435 miles off the coast of Mauritania in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Trading on Chinese shores: The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company and change in the China coastal shipping market, 1880–1900

Using the records of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company (ICSN) from the Jardine Matheson archive, this article shows that the performance of foreign steamships on the China coast at the end of the nineteenth century was characterised by instability and weakness. Poor market performance is then placed in the context of regionalisation using Imperial Maritime Customs data and the price and market information produced by contemporary British brokering houses and statistics institutions. This article argues that the nature of developments in international shipping meant that the regionalisation of China’s trade did not prevent its incorporation into the global shipping market. Further, market weakness is linked to the failure of ICSN and other Western firms to adapt to a changing paradigm in shipping practice in East Asia. This paradigm is discussed in terms of a development towards a modern and open shipping market on the China coast.

Witnessing Power: John Elder and the Making of the Marine Compound Engine, 1850–1858

Shipowners' seemingly slow adoption of marine compound engines is often attributed to not appreciating the new technology's superior economy. This article argues that this slow adoption needs to be understood alongside the challenges faced by engine builders in persuading skeptical shipowners and practical engineers that their designs were trustworthy. It explores the rich cultural contexts within which Glasgow master engineer John Elder and his associates rendered their marine compound engines credible for Liverpool's Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the first line to deploy the new engine. Elder operated within a culture whose hallmarks were useful work, economy, and the power of direct witnessing. The article also explores the role of William McNaught, an independent consultant with a strong track record as both a practical engineer and the inventor of a steam-engine indicator. His indicator, deployed to evaluate the performance of Elder's compound engines, stood at the center of the controversy over their economy.

Ideology and Action Programme of the Swadeshi Movement in Tamil Nadu

Nationalism in India, though universally affecting the whole of the subcontinent, was an uneven development, originating indifferent parts of India at different points of time. The uniqueness of the Nationalist Movement in Tamil Nadu was due to the Swadeshi and boycott ideology and political activities of V.O. Chidambaram pillai and accompanied with other nationalist. Swadeshi meant not only use of one’s own goods but also more significantly the revival of the glorious Seafaring tradition of the Thenpandi of Tirunelvelly district and boycott was both an economic and emotional weapon to free India of the unwanted presence of the foreigner. VOC’s ideology ofSwadeshi and boycott led to the birth of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company against the British Indian Steam Navigation Company and mobilising the workers of Coral Mills in Tirunelvelly. This brought him in to increasing conflict with the British Raj and proves that the British were not needed in India. In addition this paper express briefly about SubramaniaBharathi and Subramania Siva a wellknownSwadeshi activists and supporter of VOC. Key words, Swadeshi and boycott ideology of VOCRevivalist and Nativist sentiments of VOCBirth of Swadeshi Steam Navigation CompanyLabour unrest and SwadeshiVOC with SubramaniyaBharathi and Subramaniya Siva

A Companhia Brasileira de Paquetes a Vapor e a centralidade do poder monárquico

O Estado brasileiro recém-criado teve que ser construído. As grandes distâncias do País favoreciam o surto de sentimentos regionalistas. A centralidade do poder só era possível com o desenvolvimento das comunicações. A Companhia Brasileira de Paquetes a Vapor, ligando todas as capitais marítimas, foi responsável pela distribuição da correspondência postal e transformou-se numa peça fundamental da implementação das decisões políticas da Monarquia, garantindo sua territorialidade e sua efetiva capacidade de penetrar a sociedade civil. Mas, ao se deixar cooptar pelo Estado, em troca de privilégios e subvenções, ela se acomodou e não se modernizou. Ao perder o direito ao monopólio, não suportou a concorrência estrangeira e acabou sucumbindo.

The Development of a Pioneering Steamship Line: William Wheelwright and the Origins of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company

The Development of a Pioneering Steamship Line: William Wheelwright and the Origins of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company

OregonScape

OREGONSCAPE RECORDED HISTORYMEETS geologic history in theColumbia RiverGorge. Millions of years ago, flowsof volcanic basalt covered the landscape, then IceAge floods carved a channel through the rock,allowing theriverto reach thesea.The cliffsalong theedge of theGorge provide evidence of those geologic forcesatwork. Explorers and pioneers named twobasalt landmarks in theGorge Cape Horn. Lower Cape Horn ison the Washington side of the river,opposite Bridal Veil, and Upper Cape Horn? shown inthis1867photograph byCarleton E.Watkins? was on theOregon side of the riverbetween Tenmile Rapids and Celilo Falls. Those fallsand narrows comprised a twelve-mile obstruction tonavigating theColumbia. As steamboats could not get through the rapids except during extremehighwater, theOregon SteamNavigation Company (OSN) built a portage railroad in theearly 1860s to transportfreight and passengers past therapids.The Oregon company transported Watkins, his camera and equip ment, and his travelingparty along the river when he visited in 1867. By the twentiethcentury,hydropower had became a priority forboosters and developers, and many of the landmarks familiar to pioneers disappeared as dams changed the character of the river fromwild and rocky towide and navigable.When thegates atThe Dalles Dam were closed in 1957,thewater began a rise of eighty-fivefeet,creating Lake Celilo and submerging Upper Cape Horn and Celilo Falls. Today, theonly Cape Horn leftalong theColumbia River Gorge is in Washington. ?Mikki Tint, Special Collections Librarian, OHS Research Library ...

Reconstructing the City, Constructing the State: Government in Valparaíso after the Earthquake of 1906

Reconstructing the City, Constructing the State: Government in Valparaíso after the Earthquake of 1906

William Hasledine Pepys FRS: A Life in Scientific Research, Learned Societies and Technical Enterprise

In a long and many-sided career, William Hasledine Pepys (1775-1856) contributed significantly to the advancement of the chemical and physical sciences during the first half of the nineteenth century. As an original investigator he determined, in collaboration with William Allen, the composition of carbon dioxide, and the density of ammonia, and elucidated the chemical phenomena of respiration in man, animals, and plants. The success of these researches was largely due to the use of ingenious apparatus of his own invention and design. In the field of experimental physics, he investigated several aspects of the recently discovered Voltaic electricity: his 'Voltaic coil', consisting of only two plates, but of very large dimensions, was particularly suited for investigating electromagnetic phenomena and was so used in Davy's researches. Pepys was one of the co-founders of the Mineralogical and Geological Societies, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1808. As a prominent member of both the Royal and London Institutions, he held honorary office as Manager and Vice-President, contributing materially to the direction of the affairs of these bodies. Pepys was a friend of Humphry Davy and was acquainted with nearly all the leading scientists and medical men of the day. At the same time, he superintended a notable manufacture of surgical instruments in the City, and promoted by his active directorship the affairs of two public companies, both pioneers in their technological fields, namely the Imperial Continental Gas Association, which was active in introducing the new gas illumination to cities and towns across Europe, and the General Steam Navigation Company, which first maintained a regular passenger and cargo service to Continental ports by the exclusive use of steam-propelled vessels. Pepys' advice in scientific and technical matters was widely sought and freely given; he retained his mental powers to the end of his long life, fulfilling his professional commitments until a few days before his death.

China's First Modern Corporation and the State: Officials, Merchants, and Resource Allocation in the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, 1872–1902

China's First Modern Corporation and the State: Officials, Merchants, and Resource Allocation in the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, 1872–1902