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| | | General Cargoes and Bulk Carriers |
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| | Dry Cargo Ships | | |  In 1950, the world economy was still recovering from the effects of World War II and this was reflected in the composition of the world merchant fleet. The most common dry cargo ship of the period was the Liberty ship. These ships, based on a British design of 1940, were built in the United States to enable the wartime Allies to meet the huge demand for war materials. The standardised demand meant that the ships could be built in shipyards all over the country. They were welded rather than riveted, which made them easier to construct and enabled them to built in sections. Between 1941 and 1945 a total of 2,751 Liberty ships were built, the first of them being the SS Patrick Henry, which was launched on 27 September 1941. The 250,000 parts were pre-fabricated throughout the country in 250-ton sections and welded together in about 70 days. One Liberty ship, the SS Robert E. Peary was built in four and a half days. A Liberty cost under $2,000,000.
See More... | | | | Bulk Carriers | | |  The bulk carrier was first developed to carry dry cargoes, which are shipped in large quantities and do not need to be carried in packaged form. The principal bulk cargoes are coal, iron ore, bauxite, phosphate, nitrate and grains such as wheat. The advantage of carrying such cargoes in bulk is that packaging costs can be greatly reduced and loading and unloading operations can be speeded up. Before the Second World War, however, there was no real demand for special bulk carriers. Seaborne trade of all mineral ores only amounted to 25 million tons in 1937 and this could be carried in conventional tramp ships (freight vessels). By the 1950s, however, movements of bulk cargoes were increasing. Very often ores and other commodities were found far away from where they were needed and the most convenient and cheapest way of shifting them was by sea. Companies in the United States, Europe and increasingly in Japan began to build ships designed exclusively for the carriage of cargoes in bulk.
See More... | | | | Roll-on/roll-off ships | | |  The modern roll-on/roll-off ship can trace its origins back more than one hundred years to the early days of the steam train. Ships were specially designed to take trains across rivers which were too wide for bridges: the ships were equipped with rails, and the trains simply rolled straight on to the ship, which sailed across the river to another rail berth where the train would roll off again. An example is the Firth of Forth ferry in Scotland, which began operations in 1851. It was not until the Second World War, however, that the idea of applying the ro-ro principle of road transport became practicable - and was used in constructing the tank landing craft used at D-Day and in other battles. The principle was applied to merchant ships in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It proved to be extremely popular, especially on short-sea ferry routes, encouraged by technical developments on land as well as sea, notably the increase in road transport.
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 | | | | | Websites  Useful Website The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) has published ...
Useful Websites The Library of IMO has prepared an extensive bibliography of Internet links and...
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