events-maritime transport

Speed records � See Appendix 1 below

Docks � See Appendix 4 below

Lighthouses� - See Appendix 5 below

Titanic � see section A below

British dockworkers

	Workers, 000s
1970	60
1945	80
1920	120

17/3/2022, The ferry company P&O sacked 800 staff by video call and replaced them with staff paid just �1.80 an hour.� Few days later after widespread outrage, P&O offered a compensation package to sacked workers.

13/1/2012, The Costa Concordia cruise liner was wrecked off the coast of Italy; 32 people died.

27/11/2008, The ocean liner QE2 was taken out of service, to become a floating hotel in the UAE.

15/11/2008, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil supertanker off the Somali coast.

2/2/2006, The oil tanker Seabulk Pride, carrying 100,000 barrels of oil, ran aground in the port of Nikiski, Alaska.

21/8/2005, Kenneth Swan, founder of the Swan Hellenic sea cruise company, died (born 3/4/1919)

25/6/1997, Jacques Cousteau, French underwater explorer, died.

28/9/1994, The car ferry Estonia sank in off Uto Island in the Baltic during a heavy storm on its way to Sweden. Waves 10 metres high had ripped off the bow doors used for loading vehicles; only 140 of the 1,047 passengers and crew survived, the worst ferry disaster in Europe since World War Two. There were similarities to the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster on 7/4/1987. Ferry operators had been slow to follow recommendations for watertight bulkhead doors on the car deck.

5/1/1993, The oil tanker MV Braer ran aground off Shetland after losing power in a storm, and began leaking all her cargo of 84,700 tons of crude oil. However fears that the Shetland Islands would be polluted for years to come were allayed as the storm waves dispersed the oil.

4/1/1993. P & O European Ferries announced the closure of its passenger services between Dover and Boulogne after 170 years.

3/12/1992. The oil tanker Aegean Sea ran aground near La Coruna, Spain, making an oil slick 20 kilometres long.

4/8/1991, The Greek luxury liner Oceanos sank off the coast of South Africa. The crew abandoned the passengers, however all 571� people on board were still rescued.

7/4/1990, Fire ripped through a ferry going from Oslo, Norway, to Frederikshavn, Denmark; serious safety breaches contributed to the loss of 150 lives.

1/3/1990. The Royal New Zealand Navy discontinued the daily rum ration.

27/2/1990, Exxon was indicted on 5 criminal counts following the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster.

22/6/1989, The captain of the Herald of Free Enterprise was charged with manslaughter.

6/4/1989, The UK Government announced it was to abolish the �job for life� guarantee to all dockworkers.

31/3/1989, The Master of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker was sacked for drunkenness.

25/3/1989. Oil from the 987 foot tanker Exxon Valdez was spilled on the Alaskan coast. She had run aground on 24/3/1989 and was holed in Prince William Sound. 35,000 tons of crude oil polluted 100 miles of coastline.

10/11/1988, The oil tanker Odyssey spilled 140,000 tons of crude oil off the coast of Canada.

7/4/1987, The Herald of Free Enterprise was righted (capsized 6/3/1987). On 8/4/1987 104 more bodies were found inside the ship.

6/3/1987. The ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized, after leaving Zeebrugge with her bow doors open. 193 people died, out of 650 on board. The bow doors of the 7,951 ton roll-on-roll-off vessel had been left open as she left Zeebrugge, and water had entered the car deck and destabilised her. She did not sink completely because of a shallow sandbank beneath. Sea temperature was just 3 C, which would kill a person in 15 minutes.

1983, German engineer Ortwin Fries developed a hinged ship that could bend into a V shape, to clean up oil spills into ints twin hulls.

1983, In the UK, Associated British Ports was privatised.

6/8/1983, The oil tanker Castillio de Bellver spilled 255,000 tons of crude oil off Cape Town, South Africa.

17/9/1981, Twelve divers began a successful operation to recover 431 gold ingots, valued at �48 million, from HMS Edinburgh, which was sunk in the Barents Sea off northern Norway in 1942.

19/7/1979, Two oil tankers, the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain collided off Trinidad, spilling 300,000 tons of crude oil, the world�s largest oil spill.

8/1/1979, The French oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded in Bantry Bay, west Ireland, killing 49 people.

17/3/1978. The Amoco Cadiz oil tanker ran aground on the Brittany coast.� She split in two on 24/3/1978; 220,000 tons of oil were spilled.

24/10/1977, The transatlantic liner France was sold to Saudi Arabia for use as a floating hotel.

24/1/1976. The oil tanker Olympic Bravery spilled 250,000 tons of oil off Brittany.

15/3/1975, Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate and Olympic Airways operator, second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy, died.

26/8/1972. Sir Francis Chichester, English round the world yachtsman, died in Plymouth, Devon.

22/4/1972. John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook arrived in Australia, having become the first people to row across the Pacific.

9/1/1972, The liner Queen Elizabeth, which had been moored at Hong Kong and served as a floating marine university, caught fire and sank. There were suspicions that the fire had been started deliberately, because the university project was failing. The Queen Elizabeth had been launched in 1938; she left the trans-Atlantic cruise business in 1969, when jet airliners had killed this business.

6/8/1971, British sailor Chay Blyth became the first person to sail single-handed east to west around the world.

14/6/1971, The UK Government said no public money would be provided to save Upper Clyde shipbuilders from liquidation. 4,000 jobs were at risk, and employees planned a �work-in�.

11/2/1971, The UK, USA, USSR and other nations signed the Seabed Treaty, outlawing the use of nuclear weapons in international waters.

31/7/1970,� The British Royal navy ended its 200-year-old tradition of a daily rum ration for the sailors (see 1687). After the British capture of Jamaica in 1655, rum had replaced beer because it remained sweeter for longer in hot climates. From the late 1700s it was mixed with lemon juice, to ward off scurvy. Later, lime juice (which contained less vitamin C) was substituted for the lemon, earning the British sailors the nickname �limeys�.

Thor Heyerdahl�s voyages

18/4/2002, Thor Heyerdahl died.

12/7/1970. Thor Heyerdal and a crew of 7 crossed the Atlantic, from Morocco to Bridgetown, Barbados, on a papyrus raft called Ra-2.� Thor Heyerdal had crossed from Peru to the Pacific island of Argutu, 4,300 miles, in 101 days in a balsawood craft of ancient South American design. He wanted to prove that the Polynesian islands could have been settled by prehistoric South American people.� In 1970 he built a papyrus boat to cross the Atlantic but it broke up and sank after 2,000 miles. His second boat made the Atlantic crossing from Safi in Morocco to Mogador in Barbados in 57 days. This was to show that ancient Egyptians could have introduced pyramid building to pre-Columbian Americans.

25/5/1969, The Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl set sail with seven crew from the Moroccan port of Safi in a reed boat in order to prove that The ancient Egyptians could have reached America, accounting for the Pyramids in central America. He used 12 tons of papyrus reeds, and traditional boat builders from Chad made the vessel. The boat did not sink, and Heyerdahl completed the voyage; in 1948 he successfully completed a voyage from Polynesia to Peru to prove that Pacific Islanders could have settled South America.

7/8/1947, After a voyage of 101 days and 7,000km, Thor Heyerdahl smashed his balsawood raft Kon Tiki onto a reef at Raroia, provoing that the peoples of South America could have settled the Polynesian Islands.

27/4/1947, Thor Heyerdahl set sail on a balsa wood raft from Callao in Peru to Raroia in Polynesia in order to prove that Peruvians could have settled in Polynesia.

6/10/1914, Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian adventurer, leader of the Kon Tiki expedition, was born in Larvik.

23/6/1970, Brunel�s 320 foot ship, Great Britain, the first all-metal ocean liner, returned to Britain from the Falkland Islands where it had lain rusting since 1886.

4/2/1970, The Liberian oil tanker Arrow ran aground off Nova Scotia, with 16,000 tons of oil on board. Eight days later she broke in half in a storm, causing oil pollution up to 160 km away.

11/11/1969, The owners of the Torrey Canyon agreed to pay �1.5 million compensation to Britain and France.

2/5/1969. The Queen Elizabeth II sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage.

15/11/1968. Cunard�s flagship liner the Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton for the last time. Launched in September 1938, she was used during the War as a troopship based in Sydney, Australia. Her first commercial voyage was from Southampton in 1946. She was replaced by the Queen Elizabeth II.

1/8/1968. The Princess Margaret inaugurated the hovercraft service between Dover and Boulogne.

4/2/1968. The world�s largest hovercraft, 165 tonnes, was launched at Cowes.

27/9/1967, The liner Queen Mary arrived at Southampton, at the end of her last transatlantic voyage.

20/9/1967. The Queen launched the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth II, at Clydebank, Scotland.

7/7/1967. Using Sir Francis Drake�s sword, the Queen knighted Sir Francis Chichester, who had sailed solo around the world in Gypsy Moth IV.

28/5/1967. (+8,055) Sir Francis Chichester arrived in Plymouth after a solo voyage around the world in his yacht, Gypsy Moth IV.� See 27/8/1966.

16/9/1966, Britain�s first Polaris nuclear submarine, the Resolution, was launched by the Queen Mother.

3/9/1966, Captain Ridgeway and Sergeant Blyth became the first Britons to row across the Atlantic.� The journey, in English Rose III, took 91 days.

27/8/1966, Francis Chichester left Plymouth on his solo round the world voyage in the yacht Gypsy Moth IV.� He arrived back in Plymouth on 28/5/1967.

30/4/1966. A regular hovercraft service began across the English Channel between Calais and Ramsgate.

31/1/1965, The Yugoslavian cargo ship SS Rascisce sank in the Ionian Sea, but all 30 crew were rescued

23/12/1964, The Greek liner Lakonia caught fire whilst cruising 300 miles off Madeira with 1,020 people on board. She was taken in tow by two tugs, but then keeled over and sank. 132 lives were lost.

17/4/1963, The Royal Navy�s first nuclear powered submarine, Dreadnought, was commissioned.

10/4/1963, The nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher sank in the Atlantic with the loss of all 129 men on board.

21/8/1962, Savannah, the world�s first nuclear-powered merchant ship, began her maiden voyage.

20/7/1962, The world�s first regular hovercraft service began, on the Dee estuary between Wallasey and Rhyl.

20/9/1961. Argentinean Antonio Albertondo completed the first non-stop swim across the English Channel and back. He completed the feat on 21/9 after 43 hours 5 minutes in the water.

21/10/1960. Britain�s first nuclear-powered submarine, Dreadnought, was launched at Barrow in Furness.

24/9/1960. The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was launched at Newport, Virginia. She cost US$ 445 million, carried 100 aircraft, had a complement of 440 officers and 4,160 enlisted men, and a flight deck the size of four football pitches.

16/2/1960, USS Triton nuclear submarine began her round the world voyage, the first such vessel to undertake this journey.

23/1/1960, The US Navy submarine Trieste, manned by Dr Piccard and Lieutenant Walsh, reached a record depth of 35,820 feet in the Challenger Deep section of the Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean.

20/12/1959, The first atomic ice-breaker, The Lenin, started operating.

25/7/1959. The hovercraft, SRN 1, made its first crossing of the English Channel from Dover to Calais in a little over 2 hours.

21/7/1959. The first nuclear merchant ship, USS Savannah, was launched at Camden, New Jersey, in the USA.� She was launched by Mrs Mamie Eisenhower.

26/6/1959, Queen Elizabeth II and US President Eisenhower opened the St Lawrence Seaway, 300 km, linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.

11/6/1959, The first experimental hovercraft capable of carrying a man was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

30/5/1959. The first hovercraft flight took place at Cowes, Isle of Wight. The Suffolk boat builder, Christopher Cockerell, had announced its invention in 1958.

1958, The term containerised, for cargo packed in containers that could be transferred directly between ships and lorries without handling the cargo, came into use.

5/8/1958. The nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus completed its voyage beneath the ice of the North Pole.� William Anderson commanded it. Launched in January 1954, she left Pearl Harbour on 23/7/1958 and sailed through the Bering Strait, passing the North Pole on 3/8/1958, emerging near Greenland on 5/8/1958. The Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 to become a floating museum.

23/5/1958, Christopher Cockerell patented the hovercraft.

25/7/1956, Italian ocean liner SS Andrea sank off Massachusetts after colliding in fog with Swedish liner MS Stockholm; 50 were killed.

For Suez Crisis see Egypt

12/12/1955, Christopher Cockerell patented his prototype of the hovercraft.

30/7/1948, The world�s first radar station designed to assist shipping was opened at Liverpool, UK.

16/10/1946. The liner Queen Elizabeth made her first commercial voyage, after serving as a troopship during the War.

21/10/1941, The hull of Britain�s last, and largest ever, battleship HMS Vanguard, was laid at Clydebank.� She was launched on 30/11/1944.

30/6/1939, The Mersey Ferry, between Liverpool and Rock ferry, was discontinued.

27/9/1938. The 80,000 ton liner Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger vessel ever built, was launched at John Brown�s yard at Clydebank, Glasgow.

3/6/1935, The new French Line passenger liner Normandie arrived in New York, having crossed the Atlantic oin her maiden voyage in four days 11 hours. She was 340 metres long, and weighed 79,000 tons.

26/9/1934. The liner Queen Mary was launched at John Brown�s yard in Clydebank, Glasgow.

22/7/1930, The large German battle cruiser Hindenburg was salvaged from Scapa Flow, 12 years after German sailors had scuttled here there on 21/6/1919.

16/9/1928,� In Glasgow the P&O liner Viceroy of India was launched; she was the first to have oil-fired electric turbines.

28/7/1922, Jacques Picard, undersea explorer, was born.

30/5/1922, The P&O liner Egypt sank off Ushant after a collision.

1921, First use of the term supertanker, referring to the 18,000 ton San Florentino. In 2000, a �supertanker� denoted a vessel of 275,000 tonne capacity.

3/4/1919, Kenneth Swan, founder of the Swan Hellenic sea cruise company, was born (died 21/8/2005)

10/11/1918, The Cunard liner Campania sank in the Firth of Forth during a gale.

7/5/1915. The Lusitania, captained by William Thomas Turner, was torpedoed. 1,400 people drowned 8 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, near Cork. 128 Americans were among the 1,208 casualties, including friends of President Woodrow Wilson and the millionaire yachtsman Alfred Vanderbilt, as the ship made its way back to Liverpool on a voyage from New York. America condemned the torpedoing of the ship by a German submarine as an act of piracy and this brought the USA into the War.

The 30,000 tonne Lusitania had sailed from New York on 1/5/1915. She carried 1,257 passengers, including 128 Americans; 702 crew; and an estimated 3 stowaways. Her cargo list, later a source of controversy, included small arms cartridges, uncharged shrapnel shells, cheese, furs, and, oddly, 205 barrels of oysters. The Germans later claimed the �oysters� were actually heavy munitions whose explosion had doomed the ship. However there was no second explosion after the torpedo hit; there were no heavy munitions and rifle rounds burned harmlessly, like firecrackers, and did not explode.

Cunard had shut down the Lusitania�s fourth boiler room to save on coal but even at the reduced maximum speed of 21 knots it was reckoned she could outrun any German U-boat. Passengers ignored warnings from the German Embassy published in the New York Press not to cross the Atlantic under a belligerent flag, and the lifeboat drills on board were palpably inadequate. The Lusitania had plenty of lifeboats but most were unlaunchable because the ship listed heavily as water poured through lower deck portholes, opened for air despite orders to close them.� She sank within 18 minutes of being hit.

The sinking of the Lusitania deepened American hostility towards Germany but President Woodrow Wilson�s administration was split between the hawks and doves, and it was another 2 years before America entered the war.

18/2/1915. Shackleton�s ship Endurance became stuck in pack ice.

29/5/1914, The Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland was wrecked in the St Lawrence River, drowning over 1,000.

15/12/1913, The world�s biggest battlecruiser, HMS Tiger, was launched in Glasgow.

14/10/1913, The world�s first oil-powered battleship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was launched.

4/10/1912, 14 died on board the British submarine B2, after it collided with the German liner Amerika.

13/12/1911, The P & O liner Delhi foundered with the Princess Royal on board, but she and most of the other passengers on board were rescued.

21/6/1911, The ship RMS Olympic completed its first transatlantic trip, arriving in New York after a voyage of 5 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes.

1/2/1911, HMS Thunderer, the last battleship to be built on the Thames, was launched from the old Thames Ironworks at Silvertown.

5/12/1910, A convoy of barges on the River Volga sank, killing 350 workmen.

17/6/1910, The United States Lighthouse Service was created as federal agency to regulate lighthouses throughout the nation. The office of the Commissioner was transferred to the United States Coast Guard in 1935.

11/6/1910, Jacques Cousteau, French underwater explorer who invented the aqualung, was born in Saint Andre, Gironde, France.

1909, The term �bulk carrier� was first used for a ship carrying large amounts of cargo. In 1900 the term �tanker� was in use for ships carrying large amounts of liquid cargo, and the term �oil tanker� appeared by 1920.

13/12/1909, Sir Alfred Jones, British ship owner, died (born 1845).

1908, The gyroscope compass was invented by German scientist Herman Anschutz-Kaempfe. Once set to true north, it remained stable despite any ship�s movement in a storm.

10/7/1908, The British announced the deployment of a new torpedo, with a four mile range and a speed of four knots.

16/5/1908. The UK launched its first diesel submarine, called D-1, from Barrow in Furness.

2/4/1908, The destroyer HMS Tiger collided with the cruiser HMS Berwick near the Isle of Wight, killing 35 sailors.

7/3/1908, Germany launched its first Dreadnought battleship.

13/12/1907, The liner Mauretania ran aground at Liverpool.

13/9/1907, The British ocean liner Lusitania arrived in New York on her maiden voyage, having crossed the Atlantic in a record 5 days, at average speed 23 knots.

24/12/1906, The first radio programme aimed at seamen was broadcast from the US coast.

14/12/1906. The German Navy acquired its first submarine, the U1.

SOS established as distress call

10/6/1909, The SOS distress signal was used for the first time, when the Cunard liner Slavonia was wrecked off the Azores.

3/10/1906. SOS was established as an international distress signal, at the Berlin Radio Conference, replacing the earlier CDQ call sign, sometimes wrongly explained as Come Damn Quick. See 7/1/1904.

7/1/1904, Marconi International Marine Communications Company introduced a distress signal, CDQ, based on the general call code CQ. See 3/10/1906.

20/9/1906, The Mauretania, Atlantic passenger liner, was launched.

4/8/1906, The Italian liner Silvio was wrecked off Spain; 200 drowned.

7/6/1906. The Lusitania, the world's biggest liner, was launched in Glasgow.

20/1/1906, Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping tycoon, was born in Smyrna, Turkey.

19/11/1905, The British steamer Hilda was wrecked off St Malo killing 128.

14/11/1905, Robert Whitehead, who invented the naval torpedo in 1866, died in Berkshire.

1904, Ships began to use radio signals to navigate.

17/11/1904, First UK underwater voyage of a submarine was made, under the Solent, Southampton to the Isle of Wight.

12/10/1903, The shipbuilders Cammel and Laird agreed to merge.

11/7/1903, The world�s first power boat race was staged by the Cork Yacht Club in Ireland.

1902, The cost of shipping a quarter (ton) of wheat from Chicago to Liverpool stood at 2s 10 � d, This rate had fallen from 11 shillings in the 1870s and 4s 4d in 1892. Every rail line completed in the USA increased the competition facing UK farmers.

2/10/1901. Vickers launched the British Navy�s first submarine. HMS Holland I, 105 tons, was designed for coastal duties. Earlier submarine designs had been tried, but the idea did not work until metal could be used for ships hulls, Now all major world powers had submarines, setting the scene for future underwater warfare. The idea was dismissed as �underhand, underwater, and damned un-English� by Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. The petrol engine was dangerous; later submarines used diesel engines. Mice were kept on board, to give warning of dangerous levels of petrol fumes. The crew breathed compressed air, and stayed under for 4 hours. The Royal Navy concentrated on using submarines for inshore patrols whereas other navies, especially Germany, developed longer-distance craft. This disparity was a severe handicap to Britain during the First World War; only the development of sophisticated counter measures saved Britain from starvation as German U-boats sunk supply ships.

16/6/1901, The liner Lucania was used for trials of wireless telegraphy at sea.

9/11/1900, The world�s biggest battleship to date, the 15,150 ton Mikasa, was launched from Barrow in Furness, for the Japanese Navy.

11/4/1900, The US Navy purchased its first submarine. The USS Holland, built by John Holland for US$ 150,000, was 54 feet long and carried three torpedoes.

3/1/1900, The new British Royal Yacht, Victoria and Albert, keeled over whilst leaving Pembroke Dock, blocking the entrance.

27/10/1899, Edward Berthon, English naval inventor, died (born in London 20/2/1813).

17/3/1899, A merchant ship ran aground in the English Channel and sent the first radio distress call.

27/6/1898, Joshua Slocum became the first man to sail solo around the world. He set out from Boston, USA, in his yacht Spray, in 1895, aged 51, and raised funds by giving lectures at the various ports he called at around the globe. He could not swim. In 1909, aged 65, he set out on a similar voyage from Rhode Island on the same boat, and was never heard of again.

3/6/1898, Samuel Plimsoll, who devised the Plimsoll Line for the safe loading of ships, died in Folkestone, Kent.

4/11/1894. First turbine ship launched.

28/10/1893, The British Royal Navy�s first destroyer, HMS Havoc, underwent sea trials.

17/3/1891, The British battleship Amson collided with the passenger ship Utopia in the Bay of Gibraltar during a storm. The Utopia was taking Italian migrants to the USA, and 576 of her passengers and crew drowned.

2/6/1890, Sir George Burns, operator of the Cunard Line from 1838, died (born 10/12/1795).

1/11/1884. Lloyds Register of Shipping was first published.

28/7/1883, A water bicycle with paddlewheels was pedalled across the English Channel in less than eight hours.

29/7/1877, William Beebe, marine engineer, was born

1/1/1876, The Plimsoll Line became compulsory on all British-registered ships after this date. Its purpose was to prevent ships being dangerously overloaded. The modern Plimsoll Line was first proposed by James Hall of Tynemouth in a report of 7/12/.1869. However the Crusader ships employed a cross marked at the waterline for the same purpose, and the 12^th century Republic of Venice also made it illegal to operate its ships without a form of the Plimsoll line. Hanseatic ships used the same load line but when the Hanseatic League ceased to exist in the 15^th century this safety practice was lost.

19/8/1867, James Gordon became the first person to cross the English Channel by canoe, taking 11 hours to travel from Boulogne to Dover.

28/4/1865, Samuel Cunard, Canadian ship owner and founder of the British steamship company, Cunard Line, died.

See Egypt for events relating to Suez Canal

2/12/1861, Danube Navigation Commission formed.

29/12/1860, Britain�s first seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior, was launched. Built of iron throughout, her construction was a response to the launch of the French warship La Gloire, which had iron cladding from her top deck down to 6 feet below the waterline.

17/6/1860, The ocean liner Great Eastern, 692 feet long, designed by Brunel and Russell, began her first transatlantic voyage.

3/5/1860, John Scott Haldane was born in England. In 1907 he developed a method for deep sea divers to return to the surface safely.

31/1/1858, The liner Great Eastern, 692 feet long, with five funnels, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell, was launched at Millwall Docks, London, three months behind schedule.

1854, A steamboat commuter service began between Greenwich and the City of London.

4/8/1852, The first steamship arrived in Australia, from England.

14/5/1847, HMS Driver arrived at Spithead, England, having become the first steamship to complete a round the world voyage.

17/2/1846, The coal ship Rocket was wrecked off St Helena.

1845, The British Navy staged a tug of war between two 800-ton frigates, HMS Alecto, propelled by paddle wheels, and HMS Rattler, which had propellers. The two ships were secured stren to stern; Rattler won easily.

25/7/1845. Brunel�s 320 foot iron ship, the Great Britain, left Liverpool on her maiden voyage, to New York.

26/7/1844. The first ocean cruise left Southampton for a four month steamship tour of the Mediterranean.

19/7/1843, Brunel�s ship Great Britain, the first all-metal liner, was launched from London�s Wapping Dock, by Prince Albert. At 98 metres long, she was the world�s largest ship.

20/10/1842, Grace Darling died today, aged 27. The daughter of a lighthouse keeper, four years earlier she had made a heroic rescue of the victims of a shipwreck.

16/11/1841, Napoleon Guerin, of New York, patented the first life-jacket; it was filled with cork.

28/2/1840, John Philip Holland, American inventor who pioneered the modern submarine, was born in County Clare, Ireland.

7/9/1838, The celebrated rescue by William and Grace Darling, lighthouse keepers of the Farne islands Lighthouse, of the crew of the Forfarshire.

22/4/1838. The British packet steamer Sirius became the first ship to cross the Atlantic on steam power only. She had left Queenstown (now Cobh) on 4/4/1838.

19/7/1837, Brunel�s 236-foot Great Western was launched at Patterson�s Yard, Bristol.

7/1/1837, Thomas Ismay, British shipowner, was born (died 23/11/1899).

1836, The screw propeller was invented independently by Francis Pettit Smith of England and John Ericsson, a Swded living in the USA.

26/2/1836, The ship Thetis was driven ashore and wrecked in Pemssylvania.

20/2/1836, The ship Nimble was driven ashore at Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

Lifeboat invented

16/2/1834, Lionel Lukin, British inventor of the lifeboat, died.

30/1/1790. The world�s first purpose-built lifeboat was successfully tested at South Shields, Tyneside, England. The boat, �The Original�, went on to give 40 years service.

2/11/1785, The first unsinkable lifeboat was patented by Lionel Lukin, a London coachbuilder.

9/5/1828, Charles Cramp, US shipbuilder, was born.

1827, The Cape Wrath Lighthouse, northern Scotland, began operating.

1827, A ship sailed from New Orleans, USA, to Liverpool, UK, in the record time of 26 days.

17/9/1825, Sir Donald Currie, English shipowner, was born (died 13/4/1909).

4/3/1824. In Britain, Sir William Hillary founded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

10/2/1824, Samuel Plimsoll, naval inventor, was born at Bristol.

Development of steampower

8/4/1838. Brunel�s 236 foot wooden steamship Great Western left Bristol for her maiden voyage to New York, under Captain James Hosken. The first ship to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam power was the Sirius, which left Queenstown, Ireland, on 4/4/1838 and arrived at Sandy Hook, New York on 22/4/1838.

30/4/1822, At Rotherhithe, London, the world�s first iron steamship, the Aaron Manby, was launched. It became a cross-Channel cargo ship.

20/6/1819. The steamship Savannah arrived in Liverpool, under the command of Captain Moses Rogers, after crossing the Atlantic in just 27 days after leaving Savannah, Georgia on 24/5/1819. She was the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power.

17/3/1816, The 38-ton Elise left Newhaven for a stormy 17-hour crossing to Le Havre, becoming the first steamboat to cross The Channel.

29/10/1814, The US navy launched the Demilogos at New York; the first steam powered warship, designed by Robert Fulton.

17/8/1807, Robert Fulton made the first practical steamboat trip, 150 miles in the Clermont from New York City to Albany.

1/2/1788, Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.

1783, The first paddle-driven steamboat was invented by Marquis Jouffroy D�Abbans of France.

5/1/1818. The first regular scheduled service across the Atlantic began, between New York and Liverpool.

24/11/1815, Grace Darling, heroine of the shipwreck rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire on 7/9/1838, was born (died 20/10/1842).

24/2/1815, Robert Fulton, American engineer and ship and submarine designer, died.

20/2/1813, Edward Berthon, English naval inventor, was born in London (died 27/10/1899).

31/7/1803, John Ericsson, Swedish naval engineer, was born (died 8/3/1889).

8/3/1803, The Duke of Bridgewater, who pioneered Britain�s canal network, died.

4/11/1797, US Congress agreed to pay an annual �anti-piracy� tribute to Tripoli.

Cunard Line

1849, Cunard ships could cross the Atlantic in 9 � to 10 days, averaging some 13 knots, using steam but also sail when the wind was right.

4/7/1840, The Cunard Line began operations, with services to Halifax and Boston; services to New York began in 1848.� Cunard�s reputation for safety and reliability helped it survive against strong competition, despite early complaints about Cunard�s food. Eventually the airlines were to take business from the ocean liners. Scheduled Atlantic crossing times were 11 days 4 hours Liverpool to Halifax Nova Sscotia, and 14 days 8 hours to Boston Massachusetts.

4/5/1839. The Cunard shipping line was founded by the Canadian Sir Samuel Cunard. In 1934 it merged with the White Star Line.

10/12/1795, Sir George Burns, operator of the Cunard Line from 1838, was born (died 2/6/1890).

21/11/1787. Sir Samuel Cunard, Canadian ship owner, was born in Nova Scotia. He came to Britain in 1838 and, with two partners, established what came to be known as the Cunard Line.

Mutiny on the Bounty

7/12/1817, Captain Bligh, captain of The Bounty, died in London.

23/1/1790, Fletcher Christian and other mutineers burned The Bounty and settled on Pitcairn Island.

14/6/1789, Captain Bligh, cast adrift from The Bounty with 18 men, arrived at Timor, near Java, having sailed his small boat for 3,618 miles.

28/4/1789. The Mutiny on The Bounty. The ship�s captain, Captain Bligh, and 17 others were set adrift in an open boat near The Friendly Isles; they eventually reached Timor, Java, on 14/6/1789. Captain Bligh, born 1754, died on 7/12/1817 in London . His severe discipline on board had provoked the mutiny. The mutineers settled on Pitcairn Island.

17/12/1787, HMS Bounty, commended by William Bligh, set sail from for the South Seas.

21/11/1791. French navigator, Eteinne Marchand, set a new record for crossing the Pacific Ocean, completing the voyage in 60 days.

29/8/1782, At Spithead, a prime ship of the British Navy, the Royal George, sank with the loss of 900 lives. Launched in 1756, she was one of only 3 100-gun ships in the navy. An enquiry began as to whether she sank due to rotten timbers or due to her being heeled over so far that water entered her lower gunports.

20/5/1777. The world�s first iron boat was launched into the River Foss near York. She was a 12� long pleasure craft capable of carrying 15 persons.

6/9/1776, The US pioneered the use of the submarine for military purposes. David Bushnell�s Connecticut Turtle, a pear-shaped 2 metre long wooden vessel dived under British ships in New York Harbour in an attempt to bore holes with an augur and plant explosives, However the British ships had copper bottoms and the attempt was futile.

14/11/1765, Robert Fulton, US engineer who invented the first commercially successful steamboat, was born to Irish parents in Pennsylvania.

1761, The British naval frigate Alarm became the fist ship to have a copper coat on its hull, to prevent marine growth.

1760, Lloyds Register of Shipping was started.

9/9/1754, William Bligh, captain of The Bounty, at the time of the mutiny, was born in Plymouth.

24/5/1744, The Baltic Exchange in London was founded, as the marketplace where marine cargo rates were fixed. On this day the Daily Post announced that a coffee house in Threadneedle Street was changing its name from the Maryland Coffee House to the Virginia and Baltick Coffee House, and would act as an exchange point for news and post for sea captains engaged in North Atlantic cargo.

21/1/1743, John Fitch, US pioneer of steam navigation, was born (died 2/7/1798).

1736, The Longitude Prize (see 1714) was won by John Harrison. His device, accurate to 0.1 seconds a day, or 1.3 miles of longitude,� was an accurate clock which sailors could use to compare time of local sunrise or sunset with Greenwich times. His device was delicate and weighed 60 pounds (26 kg), and was vulnerable to heavy weather; improved versions were soon made.

17/2/1723, Johann Tobias Mayer was born in Marbach, Germany. In 1752 he published tables of the Moon�s motion relative to the stars, which was accurate enough to enable ships at sea to determine their longitude.

22/11/1718, Edward Teach, English pirate known as �blackbeard�, was killed off the coast of North Carolina.

1714, The British Government established a Board of Longitude, and offered a �20,000 prize to anyone who could devise a means of determining a ship�s longitude to within 30 miles after a 6 weeks voyage. A ship�s latitude could easily be established by determining the elevation of the Sun, but longitude was far harder. See 1736.

1702, The three-mile territorial offshore rule was esatablished by Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek.

9/7/1701, William Kidd, pirate, was hanged� he had been seized at Boston, USA, in 1699.

1687, The British Royal Navy introduced the daily rum ration for sailors (see 31/7/1970). Rum was longer-lasting than beer, which tended to go stale after a few weeks.

22/12/1662. The first catamaran was built at Dublin for Sir William Petty, a founder member of the Royal Society. The vessel weighed 30 tons and carried 5 guns; it had a crew of 30 men. In January 1663 it won the first open yacht race and in July 1663 beat the Dublin Packet in a sea going race. King Charles II, a keen yachtsman, considered the catamaran a joke but declined a racing challenge from Sir Petty.

24/2/1636, King Christian of Denmark ordered that all beggars able to work must be sent to Brinholmen Island, to work at building ships or work as galley rowers.

1620, The Dutch engineer Cornelius Drebbel tested a submarine in the Thames, London. However the water pressure caused the hull, made of wood covered in greased leather, to leak badly.

1573, Humphry Cole had invented the ships log, for keeping track of a ship�s movement with respect to the water.

6/9/1522, Ferdinand Magellan�s ship, the Vittoria, under the command of Juan Sebastian Del Cano, arrived in San Lucar, Spain, after completing the first circumnavigation of the world.� Magellan himself was killed on the Philippine island of Mactan.

27/4/1521. Natives on the island of Mactan, Philippines, killed the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. He was on a voyage around the world.

7/4/1521, Ferdinand Magellan arrived at Cebu.

28/11/1520, After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).

20/9/1519. The Portuguese-born navigator Ferdinand Magellan started on a voyage to cross the Pacific Ocean and circumnavigate the world. He had a fleet of five small ships; Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Vittoria, and Santiago. On 28/11/1520 Magellan discovered a strait at the southern tip of South America and entered the Pacific. Magellan was killed on 27/4/1521 by natives of the Philippines. Magellan�s ship, the Vittoria, arrived alone in San Lucar, Spain, on 6/9/1522 under the command of Del Cano, to become the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1481, The Portuguese had adapted the astrolabe (see Islam, 800 AD) for use in maritime navigation.

1241, Hanseatic League ships now employed rudders, an improvement on using oars for steering.

5, Earliest depiction of a ship�s rudder, in use in China.

595 BCE, Anarchis of Scythia is believed to have invented the anchor.

2500 BCE, Use of sails in the Aegean.

3250 BCE, Sails in use in Egypt.

4500 BCE, First use of sails, in Mesopotamia.

Appendix One �Speed records

6/3/1983, Australian Christopher Massey set a world water skiing speed record of 143.08 mph.

8/10/1978, Australia�s Ken Warby set a new world water speed record of 317.627 mph in The Spirit of Australia at Blowering� Dam, Australia.

4/1/1967. Donald Campbell died attempting to break his own water speed record of 276.33 mph on Coniston Water in the Lake District. He had made one run, then turned for another run too soon, and his boat hit its own wake and catapulted out of the water. His boat was called Bluebird K 7.

31/12/1964, Donald Campbell set a new water speed record of 276.33 mph (444.71 kph) in his speedboat Bluebird in Perth, Western Australia.

21/7/1960. Francis Chichester, 58, arrived in New York on his yacht, Gypsy Moth, having set a record of 40 days for a solo Atlantic crossing.

23/7/1959. Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater when he� reached 202.32mph in Bluebird.

7/7/1952, The American liner, United States, on her maiden voyage, made the fastest ever Atlantic crossing.� She covered the 2,949 nautical miles from Ambrose Light Vessel to Bishop Rock Light in 3 days, 10 hours 40 minutes.

18/7/1932, At Loch Lomond, Scotland, Kaye Don reclaimed the world boat speed record with a new mark of 119.81 mph in the Miss England III.

13/6/1930, Sir Henry Segrave was killed on Lake Windermere, along with his mechanic, Vic Halliwell, when his speedboat crashed after he set a new world speed record of 158.93 km/hr (98.76 mph) in his boat, Miss England II.

11/10/1907. The British luxury liner Lusitania broke the record for crossing the Atlantic by 11 hours 46 minutes, making the crossing to New York in just 4 days, 19 hours, and 52 minutes. With 1,200 passengers and 650 crew, she averaged 24 knots.

1900, The voyage from Britain to Australia now averaged 42 days, down from 83 in 1850.

11/3/1885, Sir Malcolm Campbell, British holder of the world land and sea speed records, was born.

1860, The steamship route from Britain to India via the Cape of Good Hope took 94 days. A quicker, but considerably more expensive, option was the �overland� route; London, Dover, Calais, Paris, Turin, Venice; then ship to Alexandria (Egypt), a total of 12 days travel, only 5 days sailing. From Alexandria, rail overland to Suez, from whence, steamship via the Red Sea to India, total travel time from London, to Mumbai 25 days, Madras 36 days, Kolkata 41 days.

1854, The US clipper James Baines sailed from London to Melbourne, Australia, in a record 63 days.

1853, The clipper ship Northern Light made a voyage from San Francisco via Cape Horn to Boston in the record time of 67 days 6 hours.

1852, The 2,856 ton SS Pacific became the first ship to cross the Atlantic, from New York to Liverpool, in less than 10 days.

1640, The average crossing time over the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to North America was 3 months.

Appendix Four � Docks (London Docks) (South Wales Docks)

1993, The last Cammell-Laird shipbuilding yard at Liverpool closed.

17/9/1981, Plans to close the Royal Docks, London, were finalised.

1978, Plans for a container dock at Portbury were rejected by the UK Government. However a smaller scale dock was completed this year by the Port Authority.

1933, King George V opened, in Southampton, what was then the world�s largest dry dock.

10/7/1931, The King George V Dock, Glasgow, opened.

1929, New Tilbury Dock, London, opened.

8/7/1921, King George V opened the King George V Dock in east London.

11/7/1913, Liverpool�s Gladstone Dock was opened by King George V.

11/7/1912, Immingham Docks, Lincolnshire, were opened by King George V. Construction,� by the Great Central Railway Company, had begun in 1906.

23/11/1909, The New Kings Dock at Swansea opened.

9/7/1908, The Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth, Bristol opened.

1907, Cardiff�s South Bute Dock, 50.5 acres, opened; it was capable of handling the largest vessels then built.

1904, Heysham Docks Lancashire were opened by the Midland Railway Company, offering a daily ferry service to Ireland. There was also a major agricultural trade from Ireland.

20/7/1904, The new Kings Dock at Swansea was inaugurated.

1892, The Albert Edward Dock, Preston, Lancashire, 40 acres, opened.

18/7/1889, Barry Docks, S Wales, opened. Construction had begun in 11/1884, as colliery owners in the South Wales Vallesy sought an alternative export route for their coal to Cardiff Docks.

1887, Roath Dock, Cardiff, 33 acres, opened. Felixtowe tidal dock opened.

1886, Extensive docks construction at Tilbury between 1882 and 1886 had been undertaken by the East India Docks Company.

1883, Dock facilities at Parkeston Quay, Harwich, were expanded as trade with Holland grew.

1882, The East and West India Docks Company (London) secured permission to purchase 450 acres of Thames marshland a Tilbury and build a 75 acre dock there. They were secretly in co-operation with the London Tilbury and Southend Railway, which was to build a line to serve these docks. The Tilbury Docks opened in 1886.

1880, London�s Royal Albert Dock opened.

1879, Portishead Docks, Bristol, opened.

1877, Fleetwood Docks (Lancashire) opened in 1877, with capital provided by the railways. The fish trade was significant from here, and the railways were credited with reducing the price of fish in Manchester by almost 90%.

24/2/1877, Avonmouth Docks, Bristol, opened.

1874, Roath Basin Docks, Cardiff, opened, 12 acres.

9/1873, Holyhead Harbour of Refuge, Anglesey, Wales, opened (construction began 1847).

14/3/1868, London�s Milwall Docks opened.

1867, The Devonshire Dock at Barrow in Furness opened. This was the first of four docks there. The second was the Buccleuch Dock, opened 1873.

1855, London�s Royal Victoria Docks opened, on the Plaistow marshes. It was specifically designed to cope with the new generation of steamships.

1854, The Great Central Railway completed its land relamation and docks construction at Grimsby (works began 1849).

1852, Swansea Docks opened. Victoria Dock, Leith, opened.

1850, Victoria Docks, Hull, opened.

1846, Albert Docks, Liverpool opened.

1847, Wallasey Pool Docks, Birkenhead,opened.

1844, Newport, Wales, Docks opened.

1842, Ipswich wet dock opened.

1839, Cardiff West Bute Dock opened (19.5 acres, constructed by the 2^nd Marquess of Bute). East Bute Dock, 46.25 acres, opened in 1855. Increasing coal traffic from the Valleys was necessitating rapid expansion of the port facilities.

1829, West India South Docks, London, opened.

1828, Llanelli Docks opened.

25/10/1828, London�s St Katharine Docks opened. 1,250 houses, 11,300 people,and the old St Katharine Hospital had been cleared (foundation stone laid on 3/5/1827) to make way for the Docks. Designed by Thomas Telford, it made the best use of limited space by having warehouses close to the water for cargo transfer.

3/5/1827, The foundation stone for St Katharine Dock, London, was laid, see 25/10.1828.

15/7/1818, Work began on the construction of Berkeley Docks, Gloucestershire.

1809, Bristol Docks opened.

1807, Surrey Docks, London, opened.

4/8/1806, London�s East India Docks opened.

4/3/1805, The foundation stone of London�s East India Docks was laid.

20/1/1805, London docks opened.

1802, London�s West India Docks opened.

1798, Cardiff�s first dock was constructed (12 acres) at the terminus of the Glamorgan Canal.

1778, In Hull the Queens Dock, or Old Dock, opened. The site is now occupied by Queens Gardens.

1160, The estuary of the River Hull, where it enters the Humber, was being used as a port.

Appendix Five � Lighthouses

1902, The Bass Rock lighthouse began operating.

1886, The Ailsa Craig lighthouse, near Girvan, Scotland, began operating.

18/5/1882, The present Eddystone Lighthouse, the 4^th on the site, built by Sir James Douglas (1826-98) was opened.

1821, Sumburgh Lighthouse, Shetlands, was built.

1/2/1811, The Inchcape Lighthouse was first lit.

28/10/1792, John Smeaton, English civil engineer who designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse, died.

16/10/1759, The Eddystone Lighthouse, designed by Smeaton, was officially opened.

8/10/1759. The third Eddystone Lighthouse was completed (see 1708). This was made of dovetailed stone blocks, and became the bstandard of construction. It lasted for over a centiury, until the rocks below it began to crumble.

1708, The second Eddystone Lighthouse, made of wood and iron, was completed (see 1699). This burnt down in 1755. See 8/10/1759.

1699, The first Eddystone Lighthouse, made of wood, was completed (begun 1696). It was destroyed in a storm in 1703 and its crew drowned., see 1708.

1514, Trinity House, the principal lighthouse and pilotage authority on Britain, was granted a Charter by King Henry VIII; Trinity House was already an important body by then.

250, The Chinese developed fore and aft sails, enabling ships to sell far into windward. This was then impossible for the square-sailed Europesn ships.

50 BCE, The Chinese developed the stern post rudder, which was not used in Europe until 1180.

283 BCE, The Pharos (lighthouse) at Alexandria was built. Its fire at the top of a 600-foot tower burned for 1,500 years, and could be seen over thirty miles out at sea.

Section A � Titanic

11/6/1992, The last survivor of the Titanic disaster, Marjorie Robb, died in Boston, USA, aged 103.

4/9/1985, The wreck of The Titanic was photographed by a remote-controlled submarine on the seabed off Newfoundland.

1/9/1985, A joint US-French expedition found the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland.

3/7/1912, The Board of Trade Inquiry into the Titanic disaster found Captain Smith (who went down with his ship) guilty of negligence.

28/5/1912, The Titanic enquiry in the US gave a verdict of negligence.

19/4/1912, The U.S. Hydrographic Office and representatives of the steamship lines agreed that the winter time course of ships would be 270 miles south of the course taken by the Titanic, adding between 9 and 14 hours to the trip. The new route would be 3,080 miles rather than 2,858 miles.

18/4/1912, The liner Carpathia arrived in New York, carrying survivors of the Titanic disaster.

15/4/1912. The Titanic, steaming too fast through a sea full of icebergs, sank on her maiden voyage. Of the 2,340 passengers and crew, 1,513 perished in the icy seas; only 732 survived. The first lifeboat to get away was almost empty, occupied only by the director of the line and their friends. Many first class passengers got priority over cheaper �steerage� passengers. However there was also heroism; John Jacob Astor stayed behind after ensuring his bride was on a lifeboat, and the band, who played hymns as the ship sank beneath it.

With 16 watertight compartments the Titanic, 270 metres long, was considered �unsinkable� and so only had enough lifeboat places for 1,178. Before she sailed from Southampton on 10/4/1912, an engineer stated �God himself could not sink this ship�. Off Newfoundland, a lookout reported an iceberg, the First Officer ordered a turn to port, and the Titanic missed the berg, but an underwater projection of ice struck her below the waterline, ripping open� five of the sixteen watertight compartments. With this many compartments flooded, the ship began to sink, flooding further compartments. Many passengers could not accept that the ship was sinking, and only 800 only got aboard the lifeboats, and one lifeboat was sucked under as the Titanic sank. However later theories suggest that the real cause was poor rivets, that popped, causing a seam along the ship to split open.

31/5/1911. The Titanic was launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

20/10/1910, The Titanic�s sister ship, RMS Olympic, was launched from the Harland and Wolf shipyard in Belfast. She didn�t sink, earning the nickname �Old Reliable�.

Back to top