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Shipping strategies in times of change
Rederistrategi i endringstid.Sørlandsk skipsfart fra seil
til damp og motor, fra tre til jern og stål. 1875-1925 av Berit
Eide Johnsen. Published by Høyskoleforlaget, Nordic Academic Press,
N-4661 Kristiansand. ISBN82-7634-180-2
The South coast of Norway was an area which above any other came to prosper
from the liberalization of trade and shipping and saw a collossal industrial
mobilization from 1850 to 1875. Timber trading, abundance of materials
and a skilled maritime population were the main domestic factors, where
self-sustained local communities were able to finance, build, crew and
manage thousands of sailing vessels.
In the 25 years which followed the abolition of the Navigation Act in
1850, Norway rose from the 8th to the third amongst maritime nations,
with the South coast and the town of Arendal as the commercial centre.
The
South coast - Sørlandet - prospered with the wooden sailing ships,
but was increasingly affected by competition from iron ships and steamers
from the 1880s. The wooden sailing vessels met their doom in the 1890s
when the fortunes of the South coast owners largely vanished. Some survived
with secondhand iron sailers, but it was a mere shadow of a mighty past
that was revived with tankers in the 1930s.
Why
did the South coast shipping meet such a dramatic decline from the end
of the 19th century? And why did most owners continue to operate sailing
ships and only invest in steamers at a later date? These questions are
raised by Berit Eide Johnsen Ph.D. in her recent book, an adaptation of
her doctoral thesis.
In
568 pages Eide Johnsen paints a broad picture of Norwegian shipping from
the Napoleonic wars to 1925 against an international background and highlights
the South coast community. She seeks to characterize this community and
goes on to detail four companies: a merchant house and a wooden shipbuilder
which remained true to the wooden sailers, a shipowner who managed to
finance steamers and finally S O Stray & Co of Kristiansand. This
company emerged as the world’s largest owner of sailing ships during
the the First World War and also progressed with motor vessels and liner
services, only to be wound up in 1925.
Although
this is an academic book is has an admirable prose, exciting in dealing
with entrepreneurship and dramatic incidents. Eide Johnsen gives a rich
and nuanced analysis of a complex issue and points to economic, cultural
and psychological factors.
Of all the books written on the South coast shipping venture, the author
is to be congratulated for penetrating a distinct maritime culture and
pencilling the careers of entepreneurs in a catching and convincing way.
//Dag Bakka Jr
Back to SSG 1, 25 January
Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49
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2002