Dutch Merchant Navy

1930 - 1939

Omschrijving

Dutch Merchant Navy 1930-1939 is the third volume in a series that shed a light on the merchant shipping per decade. With these books we go back in time to the start of the twentieth century and we follow ships and shipowners right into the twenty-first century.

The 1930s were tough years for the shipping industry. A worldwide crisis had broken out and many ships were laid up. Furthermore, there was the threat of a new world war. And yet the shipping companies were optimistic and they ordered beautiful new, magnificently decorated passenger ships for their routes to the Dutch East Indies and America.
This was still the era of steam ships, large plumes of smoke, rattling cranes and much hustle and bustle in ports that were still located within or on the outskirts of cities.
Every day, crowds of dockworkers headed for the ships to empty their cargo holds of their precious cargoes or to (re)load them for that matter. Crates, baskets, sacks, boxes, cow skins, cane, cacao and many more goods. Forget containers and departing after only a couple of hours, everything was manual work and extremely heavy. And the work always continued, no matter how bad the weather.

However, the 1930s were also remarkable because of the changes taking place in the shipping industry. Next to steam shipping and even sailing ships, the motor vessel increasingly made her appearance. This would totally change the shipping world.
The ships and the shipowners have disappeared but this volume keeps the memory of them and this era fully alive.       

€18.95