Britain: An official handbook > 1966

358
Modernisation,
Age and Size
Propulsion
Employment
of Shipping
SHIPOWNERS
BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
As a result of replacements built in recent years, 60 per cent of the total
gross tonnage in 1964 was less than ten years old. The corresponding figure
for tankers was 75 per cent. There has been a tendency for replacements to be
larger because big ships are more economical to run.
In 1965 there were four liners from British shipyards of 30,000 gross tons
and over operating on transatlantic passenger services: namely, the Queen
Elizabeth (83,673 g.t.), the Queen Mary (81,237 g.t.), the Mauretania (35,673
g.t.), and the Caronia (34,173 g.t.). The two largest liners to be built in Britain
in recent years, the Oriana (42,000 g.t.) and the Canberra (45,000 g.t.), came
into service in i960 and 1961 respectively on the services from Britain to
Australia and across the Pacific to North America. A new liner, of about
58,000 g.t., is to be built for the Cunard Company with financial aid from the
Government. In June 1964, 22 tankers of 50,000 d.w.t. and over were owned
and registered in Britain and of these, 4 were of 80,000 to 90,000 d.w.t.;
there were a further 29 tankers under construction, totalling 702,630 gross
tons, for registration in Britain.
The first British-built tanker of 100,000 d.w.t., the British Admiral, was
launched in March 1965.
Steam has continued to give place to the diesel engine, 51 per cent of all
tonnage being diesel-driven in 1964. The virtual disappearance of coal-fired
tonnage from the foreign-going fleet has been accompanied by a continued
fall in the amount of coal-fired tonnage in the coasting and home trade tramp
fleet.
In June 1964, 16-9 million gross tons of trading vessels of 100 gross tons
and over were both owned and registered in Britain.1 The usual employment
of this fleet has been analysed by the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping
as follows: 7-4 million gross tons were employed as ocean-going passenger
and cargo liners; 2-9 million gross tons as ocean-going tramps; 5-7 million
gross tons as ocean-going tankers; and 0-9 million gross tons in coasting and
trade with ports between the Elbe and Brest (home trades).
About half of British-owned shipping registered in the United Kingdom
consists of ocean-going passenger-cargo and cargo liners, mostly the latter.
Practically all these ships are owned by large liner companies or groups of
liner companies. Many of them operate wide networks of scheduled freight
and passenger services which, between them, cover every ocean. The 3 million
gross tons of ocean-going tramp ships are operated by a large number of
private owners, some of them having only a small number of ships and some
only one ship.
According to a survey published in 1959, the British shipping industry was
composed of some 270 companies, over half the tonnage being owned by
nine or ten main groups controlling about 50 companies. The many world-
famous British shipping lines operating services on international routes
include: the Cunard, to North America; the Royal Mail, to South America;
the Blue Funnel, to Australia and the Far East; the Peninsular and Oriental
(P. and 0.)-0rient and the British India lines, to India, Australia and the
Far East; the Union Castle, to South and East Africa; Elder Dempster, to
1 The remaining tonnage included fishing vessels, tugs, river and estuary craft,
Admiralty vessels (mostly tankers) not usually engaged in the commercial carriage of
cargo, and shipping registered in Britain but owned in other Commonwealth countries
(including over 1 million gross tons of tankers).