The construction of the Erie Canal may truly be described as a major event in the growth of the young United States. At a time when the internal links among the states were scanty, the canal's planners boldly projected a system of transportation that would strike from the eastern seaboard, penetrate the frontier, and forge a bond between the East and the growing settlements of the West. In this comprehensive history, Ronald E. Shaw portrays the development of the canal as viewed by its contemporaries, who rightly saw it as an engineering marvel and an achievement of great economic and social significance not only for New York but also for the nation.

Lighthouses are increasingly endangered by modernization and abandonment. Simple steel skeletons are replacing the picturesque, conical towers, squat screwpiles and Cape Cod styles so much a part of America's maritime history. This traveler's guide to more than 300 of the nation's most significant lighthouses and lightships includes an introductory look at the evolution of lighthouse technology and how these obsolete but beloved structures can be rescued.

In response to many request, Jeff Toghill has now written a basic handbook for everybody who wishes to learn the principles of small boat coastal navigation. The aim of this book is simplicity - the author deals with the essentials of coastal navigation but avoids using vast quantities of figures and formulae. At the same time accuracy is maintained through the use of diagrams, line drawings and charts, as well as photographs.

Up and down the Great Lakes, wherever captains and seamen met, one of the chief topics of conversation is still the Great Storm--the worst disaster in Great Lakes history. By men of the Lakes, November 9, 1913 will always be remembered as Black Sunday, for it brought death to hundreds of their companions and destruction to scores of ships of the Lakes fleet. Each man who survived the Storm has a fascinating story to tell. Freshwater Fury is the first comprehensive history of the Great Storm. Author Frank Barcus, who has met and talked with many survivors during his trips on Lakes freighters over the past twenty years, presents here their vivid eye-witness accounts. The many drawings, maps, and diagrams executed by the author add pictorial interest to the story of this dramatic struggle between men and the elements.

The author's own sixty-five years of experience on the Erie Canal and Barge Canal System and interviews with other former boatmen make up a history of the old canal days of upper New York State.

A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.
Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington's presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation's largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation--in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.
In "The First Tycoon," Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore's personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fistfighter who came to command the respect of New York's social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.
"The First Tycoon" is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.

"From the Hardcover edition."

"The Docks" is an eye-opening journey into a giant madhouse of activity that few outsiders ever see: the Port of Los Angeles. In a book woven throughout with riveting novelist detail and illustrated with photographs that capture the frenetic energy of the place, Bill Sharpsteen tells the story of the people who have made this port, the largest in the country, one of the nation's most vital economic enterprises. Among others, we meet a pilot who parks ships, one of the first women longshoremen, union officials and employers at odds over almost everything, an environmental activist fighting air pollution in the 'diesel death zone,' and those with the nearly impossible job of enforcing security. Together these stories paint a compelling picture of a critical entryway for goods coming into the country - the Port of Los Angeles is part of a complex that brings in 40 per cent of all our waterborne cargo and 70 per cent of all Asian imports - yet one that is also extremely vulnerable. "The Docks" is a rare look at a world within our world in which we find a microcosm of the labor, environmental, and security issues we collectively face.

Chapter 1 examines the state of the U.S. flag Maritime Industry including the U.S. Merchant Marine. It includes testimony from the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard or Service), the Maritime Administration (MARAD), and representatives of the maritime industry. The U.S. government relies on U.S.-flag vessels that trade internationally to transport cargo and to provide a pool of U.S. mariners who could be called upon in times of crisis for DODs reserve fleet. Chapter 2 discusses: (1) the effect the U.S. governments support for the U.S.-flag fleet has had on national defense needs and other government programs; (2) the challenges identified by stakeholders in sustaining the U.S.-flag fleet for defense needs; and (3) the status of the mandated national strategies related to the U.S.-flag fleet The U.S. economy is dependent on the expeditious flow of millions of tons of cargo each day through the global supply chainthe flow of goods from manufacturers to retailers. Chapter 3 discusses the progress and challenges associated with CBPs implementation of initiatives and programs responsible for enhancing the security of the global supply chain. Chapter 4 examines emerging maritime technologies. It will explore how such technologies could improve U.S. Coast Guard mission performance and enhance the safety and efficiency of maritime transportation.

U. S. energy needs rest heavily on ship-based imports. Tankers bring 55 percent of the nation's crude oil supply, as well as liquefied gases and refined products like jet fuel. This supply chain is potentially vulnerable in many places here and abroad, as borne out by several successful overseas attacks on ships and facilities. This book addresses (1) the types of threats to tankers and the potential consequences of a successful attack, (2) measures taken to protect tankers and challenges federal agencies face in making these actions effective, and (3) plans in place for responding to a successful attack and potential challenges stakeholders face in responding. The review spans several foreign and domestic ports, and multiple steps to analyze data and gather opinions from agencies and stakeholders. This is an excerpted and edited version of a GAO Report.

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air, Rachel Slade's Into the Raging Sea is a nail-biting account of the sinking of the container ship El Faro, the crew of thirty-three who perished onboard, and the destructive forces of globalisation that put the ship in harm's way. On October 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda Triangle and swallowed the container ship El Faro whole, resulting in one of the worst shipping disasters in decades. No one could fathom how a vessel equipped with satellite communications, a sophisticated navigation system, and cutting-edge weather forecasting could suddenly vanish - until now. Relying on hundreds of exclusive interviews with family members and maritime experts, as well as the words of the crew members themselves - whose conversations were captured by the ship's data recorder - journalist Rachel Slade unravels the mystery of the sinking of El Faro. As she recounts the final twenty-four hours onboard, Slade vividly depicts the officers' anguish and fear as they struggled to carry out Captain Michael Davidson's increasingly bizarre commands, which, they knew, would steer them straight into the eye of the storm. Taking a hard look at America's aging merchant marine fleet, Slade also reveals the truth about modern shipping - a cutthroat industry plagued by razor-thin profits and ever more violent hurricanes fueled by global warming. A richly reported account of a singular tragedy, Into the Raging Sea takes us into the heart of an age-old American industry, casting new light on the hardworking crew of El Faro who paid the ultimate price in the name of profit.

Now in its fourth edition, and containing over 500 pages of fully revised and updated material, Shipping Finance includes an analysis of ship mortgage terms and conditions, and mortgagee rights across the main maritime jurisdictions. In addition, Shipping Finance provides an extensive discussion of the procedure and documentation for registering ships on a country-by-country basis, with detailed advice from local experts. Chapters include: shipping finance from a banker's perspective; the financing of secondhand ships; the financing of new buildings; assignments of insurances and earnings, guarantees, indemnities, charges, debentures and other security relied upon by financiers; the sale and purchase of secondhand ships; the role of insurance in shipping; Islamic finance; Chinese leasing; and restructuring. Shipping Finance is an essential reference tool for anyone involved in shipping finance including bankers, lawyers and shipowners.

In Getting the Goods, Edna Bonacich and Jake B. Wilson focus on the Southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach which together receive 40 percent of the nearly $2 trillion worth of goods imported annually to the United States to examine the impact of the logistics revolution on workers in transportation and distribution. Built around the invention of shipping containers and communications technology, the logistics revolution has enabled giant retailers like Walmart and Target to sell cheap consumer products made using low-wage labor in developing countries. The goods are shipped through an efficient, low-cost, intermodal freight system, in which containers are moved from factories in Asia to distribution centers across the United States without ever being opened.

Bonacich and Wilson follow the flow of imports from Asian factories, exploring the roles of importers, container shipping companies, the ports, railroad and trucking companies, and warehouses. At each stage, Getting the Goods raises important questions about how the logistics revolution affects logistics workers. Drawing extensively on interviews with workers and managers at all levels of the supply chain, on industry reports, and on economic data, Bonacich and Wilson find that, in general, conditions have deteriorated for workers. But they also discover that changes in the system of production and distribution provide new strategic opportunities for labor to gain power. A much-needed corrective to both uncritical celebrations of containerization and the global economy and pessimistic predictions about the future of the U.S. labor movement, Getting the Goods will become required reading for scholars and students in sociology, political economy, and labor studies."

The story of Liverpool is, in many ways, the story of its docks. Before the docks, trade was limited by the tides and at the mercy of the Mersey's currents. After dock construction began, the city became a hub of Britain's worldwide trading network. Cheshire Salt, Lancashire coal and textiles, Staffordshire pottery and Birmingham metal goods were all export staples and played an important part - until the 1807 abolition - in the infamous African slave trade. At the same time, sugar, rum, cotton and timber were exported in huge quantities. Through the expansion of the empire and the opportunities presented by steam power, the docks continued to grow and prosper. Even after the setbacks and bombing of the Second World War, trade rapidly recovered. However, the pace of change increased in the late 1950s and not to Liverpool's benefit. Passenger liners lost out to airliners (Cunard ships last called here in 1964) and changes in cargo handling led to the displacement of six traditional cargo liners for every new container vessel. There was competition from new container ports like Felixstowe as well as a range of local difficulties. With many contemporary illustrations of people, ships, buildings and machinery, Michael Stammers chronicles not just the rise and fall of Mersey shipping but also the way the docks have bounced back. Redevelopment, restoration and new modes of commerce have put Liverpool's docks back in the black and the docks continue to be a significant part of the Liverpool of today, albeit a very different-looking docks to the port of over sixty years ago.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1952.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1952.

The sea and its relation to human life has always been a subject of fascination for historians. For the first time, this book looks at the field of Maritime History through the prism of identity, looking at how the sea has influenced the formation of identity at a national, local and individual level from the early modern age to the present. It looks at a variety of people who interacted with the sea in different ways, from merchant sailors to naval officers and on land, from dockworkers to the civilians who participated in the sea-based festivals in the Mediterranean port city of Messina. This volume has a cultural focus, with chapters exploring the cultural construction of the 'naval hero' in literature, poetry, music and art, and an appraisal of the Japanese author and journalist Masanori, whose works had such a profound influence on Japanese national identity after the Second World War. A key focus is on the ways the Royal Navy influenced British identity at a national and regional level, but this volume also explores other countries with a strong naval tradition, such as Japan, Italy and Germany. By bringing together a variety of themes related to identity, this book provides the first attempt to thoroughly analyse the ways in which maritime historians have engaged with the question of identity in recent years. In doing so, it provides an important and unique addition to the historiography, which will be essential reading for all scholars of maritime and naval history and those concerned with the question of identity.

The immense, global transportation and logistics sector is vital to businesses of all types. This carefully-researched book covers exciting trends in supply chain and logistics management, transportation, just in time delivery, warehousing, distribution, intermodal shipment systems, airlines, trains, marine transport, courier services, logistics services, purchasing and advanced technologies such as RFID. This reference tool includes thorough market analysis as well as our highly respected trends analysis. It contains thousands of contacts for business and industry leaders, industry associations, Internet sites and other resources. This book also includes statistical tables, an industry glossary and thorough indexes. The corporate profiles section of the book includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of the 500 leading companies, worldwide, in all facets of the transportation and logistics industry, including private and public firms. Here you'll find complete profiles of the hot companies that are making news today, the largest, most successful corporations in the business. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package.

Debattista on Bills of Lading in Commodity Trade provides not so much a linear road-map as a GPS system, allowing the reader to locate which aspect of the bill of lading is central to the dispute they are dealing with and evaluating that aspect from the perspective of each of: (1) the contract of sale; (2) carriage contract and (3) letter of credit. The title examines questions such as: How can a buyer ensure in their sale contract that the bill of lading the buyer receives from the seller gives them secure title to sue the carrier? What impact does the choice of a particular Incoterms rule have on whom the carrier can sue under the contract of carriage? Where there is a claim by a buyer/cargo-claimant for loss, damage or delay to goods, must they factor any gains or benefits made under the sale contract claim/settlement into the quantum claimed in the cargo-claim against the carrier? What is a 'charterparty bill of lading' - and can it be tendered under a letter of credit? When and why might a seller need to "switch" bills of lading for its buyer or its bank - and does the seller have a right to demand the switching of bills under the Hague-Visby Rules? All of these questions - and many others like them - cut across areas of law normally siloed in academic and practitioner texts. The purpose of this title is to make links and draw out connections, with a view to assisting lawyers when a dispute arises - and others drafting different contracts seeking to avoid problems arising in the first place. The fourth edition of this work, now bearing a new title and benefitting from the arrival of a co-author, has been fully revised to take account of case-law and regulatory developments in the twelve years since the last edition.

Before there was a U.S. Navy, several Colonial navies were all-volunteer--both the crews and the vessels. From its beginnings through World War II, the Navy has relied on civilian sailors and their fast vessels to fill out its ranks of small combatants. Beginning with the birth of the yacht in 17th century Netherlands, this illustrated history traces the development of yacht racing, the advent of combustion-engine power and the contribution privately owned vessels have made to national defense. Vessels conscripted during the Civil War served both the Union and Confederacy--sometimes changing sides after capture. The first USS Wanderer saw the slave trade from both sides of the law. Aboard the USS Sylph, Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine fought the Third Reich's U-boats under sail. USS Sea Cloud made history as the first racially integrated ship in the Navy, three years before President Truman desegregated the military.

The immense, global transportation and logistics sector is vital to businesses of all types. This carefully-researched book covers exciting trends in supply chain and logistics management, transportation, just in time delivery, warehousing, distribution, intermodal shipment systems, airlines, trains, marine transport, courier services, logistics services, purchasing and advanced technologies such as RFID. This reference tool includes thorough market analysis as well as our highly respected trends analysis. It contains thousands of contacts for business and industry leaders, industry associations, Internet sites and other resources. This book also includes statistical tables, an industry glossary and thorough indexes. The corporate profiles section of the book includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of the 500 leading companies, worldwide, in all facets of the transportation and logistics industry, including private and public firms. Here you'll find complete profiles of the hot companies that are making news today, the largest, most successful corporations in the business. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package.

An Azimuthing Stern Drive (ASD) tug or towboat is a high-performance vessel that is responsive, quick to maneuver and extremely powerful. In the hands of a skilled operator maneuvering these vessels looks effortless and seamless-smoothly spinning around, nimbly shifting position, having pinpoint control, all while the operator's hands move the control handles instinctively and naturally. This book takes the reader through an efficient learning sequence leading to that level of proficiency. Text, illustrations and practice drills create a clear understanding of ASD maneuvering principles and assist the reader in acquiring the intuitive hands-on feel required to operate these vessels. Each chapter covers a basic maneuvering element-steering, managing speed, stopping, hovering, lateral movement-and their application to light boat, barge and ship handling. This book is the first step for a professional mariner adding a new competency to his or her art of towing-driving a Z-drive.

Global trade will increase over the coming years asking for solutions to cope with growing amounts of transported goods. Dryports can optimise the distribution of goods by accelerating transport flows, optimising logistics chains and improving the coordination of traffic infrastructures. The study presented in this book describes how and under what conditions dryports work efficiently as a complementary partner for seaports and as an option for future-oriented and sustainable logistics. The authors identify similarities and differences across four cases at: Bremen/Bremerhaven-Germany, Felixstowe-UK, Gothenburg/Falkoeping-Sweden, and Zeebrugge-Belgium and suggest under which conditions dryports have a good chance to succeed. The main conclusion is that spatial relief and environmental concerns in implementing and running a dryport do matter but, at the end of the day, competition and governance decide.

These two volumes present a unique resource on the history and development of merchant shipping from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the latter decades of the nineteenth. International in coverage - including Britain, the United States, France, Holland, India, and the Middle East - the volumes provide a rich compendium of facts and figures on all aspects of merchant shipping, international commerce and trade, seamanship and mercantile law. Among the topics covered are the repeal of the Navigation Laws, the education of merchant seamen, the progress of steam navigation in Europe, steamships of the United States, steam to India and overland routes, the ships and operations of major shipping companies, and the changes introduced by the opening of the Suez Canal. Lindsay was the leading authority on the history of merchant shipping and these volumes reveal both his wide practical and commercial experience and his impressive command of his subject. Definitive and comprehensive, it remains unchallenged. This two volume set includes a substantial introduction by leading naval historian Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History, King's College London.

BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Winner of a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship 2011 and a Mountbatten Maritime Award 2013 An award-winning investigation into the shady world of international shipping, the hidden industry upon which our world turns and our future depends There are 100,000 freighters on the seas. Between them they carry nearly everything we eat, wear and work with. In this unique investigation, Rose George joins the crew of a container ship to chart the murky waters of international shipping, with its powerful naval fleets, pirate gangs, and illegal floating factories, to reveal the hidden industry upon which our world turns and our future depends. "Arresting, sharply observed, deeply researched and compelling... Plenty of books promise to reveal the secrets of little-known worlds but few actually deliver. This is one that does" - Melanie McGrath, Sunday Telegraph