Chronography of Sea Transport, Docks and Lighthouses
Page
last modified 6/6/2022
For inland river and canal transport click here
See Egypt for events relating to Suez Canal
Real time, marine traffic, https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-25.8/centery:34.0/zoom:4
also http://www.shipais.co.uk/
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.
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 12th 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 15th 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 2nd
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 4th
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.
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�.