Ian Collard

The history of the great shipping groups of the nineteenth century is about family dynasties, business acumen, investment, risk taking and entrepreneurial skills. It is about everything that epitomises the Victorian age. Men of vision identified market trends and gaps in the provision of shipping services throughout the world. They were responsible for initiating routes that were that were to develop and blossom providing them with excellent returns on their original investment. The main British shipping lines in this book, including among others Brocklebank, Cunard, Blue Funnel, Booth, Elder Dempster, Ellerman, Hall Lines, Lamport Holt and Cayzer, Irvine had their origins in Liverpool, once the premier port in the United Kingdom. Head offices were located in Merseyside as were many ancillary departments. Over the past four decades the shape of British Shipping has changed and some of the established shipping lines that had been in business since Victorian times did not survive and many of the names in this book are now a memory of a different age. Others have been taken over by larger groups and their names have gradually vanished from the shipping records as their ships have been replaced or renamed. It was difficult to imagine in the 1960s that the shipping scene would change so dramatically in such a relatively period. Liverpool's Shipping Groups is a celebration of a period that will not be forgotten by anyone with an interest in ships and the sea.

The busy River Mersey and its two ports, Liverpool and Birkenhead, have seen great changes in recent years. In Mersey Ports - Liverpool and Birkenhead, Ian Collard charts the developments that have taken place in maritime life on the Mersey, from the 1950s and 1960s through to the present day. Ships of all shapes and sizes have been found on the Mersey, from the old Mersey ferries and the motor ferries that replaced them, to huge passenger liners and container ships. as well as tall ships, tugs and seacats. All of them feature in this detailed photographic history. A host of international shipping companies are represented, including Blue Funnel, ellerman, Harrison and Elder Dempster lines. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. wintered its fleet in Morpeth Dock at Birkenhead, and Princes Landing Stage was once the focal point of activity at the docks, as passenger liners queued to berth.

Coastal shipping, the twilight years

This is a book about life in a great maritime port of the 1960s. The photographs from the period show a busy, vibrant scene of commercial and industrial activity. However, this was a point when shipping was about to change drastically, as the emphasis switched to the shipping of goods and general cargoes in containers. The large shipping lines restructured into new container consortiums and the big fleets of conventional ships vanished almost overnight. Along with them went the tugs, barges and ancillary industries that provided employment to thousands in the region. Today, many of Liverpool's docks and warehouses lie empty as most goods are shipped through the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal. The twilight years of the 1960s were the last heyday of Liverpool's long maritime history and are captured in Ian Collard's striking period pictures. From the glories of Cunard to the everyday to-ing and fro-ing of coastal ferries, the busy scenes of a port at work are bought to life. Sadly, it is a scene that has gone forever, but as Liverpool's dock buildings take on new roles and the city moves into the twenty-first century, we can at least look and remember the sea-going commerce that made Liverpool great.

A history of Isle of Man shipping