This study is bookended by two major events in New Zealand’s maritime history. The first is the 1951 waterfront dispute that led to the dissolution of the Waterside Workers’ Union (WWU) and the creation of twenty-six port unions in its place. The second is a mirror event occuring in 2001, where a reconsitituted WWU and two other unions competed for members, leading to widespread protest. Though historians have treated the events leading up to 1951 with interest, little attention has been given to the fifty-year period between events, a history which this journal attempts to fill. Author James Reveley considers the following questions in his history of union-management interactions. Firstly, why employer prerogative did not increase after the 1951 dissolution of the WWU; second, how the unions regained power so quickly; and third, why the WWU’s substantial industrial power was so friable during the 1990s. The conclusion assesses the relationship between government and unions, and believes that union response when facing globalisation within maritime industries, which alliances they will form, for example, will have a significant impact on the future direction of maritime activity in New Zealand.

This book is an in-depth case study of the Furness Withy and Co Shipping Group, which operated both tramp and liner services and was one of the five major British shipping groups of the early twentieth century. It demonstrates how British shipowners of this period generated success by exploring Christopher Furness' career in relation to the social, political, and cultural currents during a time of tremendous shipping growth in Britain and the establishment of some of the largest shipping firms in the world. It approaches the study from three angles. The first analyses how the Furness Group expanded its shipping activities and became involved with the industrial sector. The second illustrates the organisational and financial structure of the enterprise. Finally, the Group's leadership and entrepreneurship is scrutinised and placed within the wider context of twentieth century British business. The case study begins in 1870, with an introduction explaining how Christopher Furness came to join the family company, Thomas Furness and Co. in order develop services, expand, and instigate the changes and mergers that brought the Furness Group into existence. There are thirteen chronologically presented chapters, a bibliography, and seven appendices of data including an ownership timeline, tonnage statistics, acquisitions, a list of maritime associates, and a timeline of Christopher Furness' life. The book concludes in 1919 with the de-merging of the Furness Group's shipping and industrial holdings, the resignation of the Furness family from the company's board, the sale of their shares, and the move into managing the firm's industrial interests.

This book approaches the well-documented study of European mass migration to the United States of America from the viewpoint of mass migration as a business venture. The overall purpose is to demonstrate that maritime and migration histories are interlinked and dependent on a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and political factors at work in the nineteenth century Atlantic community. It centres on both the evolution of the port of Rotterdam as a migration gateway, and the crucial role of the Holland-America line as a regulator of the North American passenger trade. The first part of the book explores the simultaneous rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping between 1830 to 1870. The second part, divided into five chapters, explores how mass migration became a big business between 1870 and 1914, and scrutinises how steamship companies organised and provided initiatives for transoceanic migration, plus the role of shipping agents and agent-networks, and how passenger services were constructed within transatlantic networks. Over the course of the text it becomes increasingly clear that by approaching mass migration as a trade issue, the role of steamship companies in the facilitation of transatlantic migration is rendered both intrinsic and pivotal. It consists of an introduction containing contextual information, two sections providing historical overviews, five chapters exploring different aspects of the shipping industry's response to mass migration, conclusion, bibliography, and six appendices of passenger, destination, agent, and advertising statistics.

This book presents an in-depth study of the impact of the steamship on Britain during its first forty years, roughly between 1810 and 1850. It relates the early steamship to several industrial themes including diffusion; construction; modernisation; the role of government - particularly the difficult attempt to align laissez-faire politics with the greater need for public safety measures due to technological advance; business and finance; plus public reaction and tourism. The aim is to establish the significance of the steamship as a conduit of modernisation and societal change. It consists of a foreword, introduction, and fourteen chapters devoted to specific themes, structured to ensure each chapters build on the preceding chapter's progress. Collectively, they demonstrate that the development of both experience and enterprise with steam power both gained and refined during this period made the mid-century expansion of steamship technology across Britain possible. Ultimately, it establishes that steamship services began to adapt to oceanic routes, steam began to integrate into the world economy, and the age of sail began to draw to a close.

This study aims to provide new insights into the connections between maritime history and global history. It demonstrates the significance of maritime activity as a conduit of global exchange by examining local, national, and international interdependencies and trade networks, and a broad range of time periods, geographical areas, and various sub-divisions of maritime historical research. It is composed of ten essays, with an introductory chapter and concluding chapter. The first five essays discuss the effects globalisation on shipping in the early modern period; the following three discuss maritime transportation and the economics of industrialisation from the nineteenth century to the present day; the next discusses the impact of global entrepreneurialism on maritime history; the penultimate discusses the connections and variables between maritime and global history; and the concluding chapter examines the theoretical assumptions surrounding the two disciplines, using the globalisation of Early Modern Spain as a case study to do so. The study demonstrates that the core strength of maritime history is its essential place in global history, and that the process of globalisation began at sea.

John Holt (1841–1915) was a successful British merchant who made several voyages to West Africa during his lifetime to establish business and trade in the era of British Imperialism. His diaries are presented in two accounts; the first, from 1862–1872, documents his life as a merchant on the West African island of Fernando Po, initially working for James Lynslager and eventually purchasing the trade company and expanding it significantly. Holt’s own vessel, Maria, and his affiliation with the African Steam Ship Company, made his maritime trade activities particularly successful. The second account records his voyage in the Maria from Liverpool to Fernando Po in 1869–1872, and documents his trade relationships across West Africa. The volume is rounded out by diary entries from the ten-day voyage of the Peep o’Day along the Krou coast, and concludes with John Holt’s family tree. This volume presents a comprehensive account of Holt’s life as a means of preserving history and adding to the field of study of mercantile livelihoods and shipping trade industries under British imperialism. It also seeks to celebrate the individual accomplishments made in John Holt’s career.

This guide covers the following major collections hosted at the Merseyside Maritime Museum:- records deposited or presented under the 1958 Public Records Act; official organisations, including the Merseyside Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), antecedents, and successors; shipping and trade associations; and shipowners. Other, smaller categories are published in the accompanying Part II (Vol 17 of Research in Maritime History, ISBN: -0-9681288-7-4) and together they form a comprehensive catalogue of contents. The guide summarises each collections as follows:- a brief historical introduction; a list of main items; an archival code; a datespan; a quantity of records; and a reference to any key printed sources held in the museum’s Reading Room. The museum archives are made up of crucial maritime documentation and are an invaluable resource for maritime historians. The museum focuses primarily on Liverpool due to its previous status as the second major port of the United Kingdom, it also houses a great deal of national and international records in a vast variety of media.