Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T14:22:15.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

“Seamen Ashore: Port Visits of Late Nineteenth-Century Finnish Sailors”

Get access

Summary

In Jack in Port, Judith Fingard painted a vivid description of what she called “the demise of sailortown.” Life in port cities, she claimed, underwent a profound change during the nineteenth century. The seamen of the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s still enjoyed “the unhurried pace of the pre-industrial age” which “meant that sailors’ visits to port were sufficiently lengthy to enable them to make a significant contribution to both the economy and the character of sailortown.” Yet the following generation, sailing in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s (when “the opportunities for seafaring grew by leaps and bounds”) experienced an increase in the tempo of shipping which, among other things, shortened stays in ports. But the greatest changes came at the end of the century: “The third generation sailor, active in the last quarter of the century, belonged to a dying occupation… [when] the short stopovers characteristic of the new pace of commerce allowed the sailor little time to go ashore…As a result the late 1890s saw the demise of sailortown.”

While this description is doubtless true for the principal seaports of Atlantic Canada, it is important to remember that international ports have continued to change rapidly even after “the demise of sailortown.” Indeed, present-day ports have little in common with even the most developed harbours of a century ago. Moreover, the scale and scope of the change have been different in various parts of the world as well as disparate types of ports. It is clear, however, that Fingard has underscored a fundamental change which has been equally important during this century: the shortening of time in port. While midnineteenth century sailing vessels spent weeks or even months in port, typical turnaround times for modern ships are now counted in hours. Accordingly, the presence of sailors has diminished even in traditional “steamer ports.”

While the general picture is clear enough, it is not easy to fmd relevant data on the actual speed and magnitude of the change. While there are some good local data on turnaround times, such as those published by the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project, systematic statistics covering longer spans of time are the exception. Moreover, quantitative data on time in ports are far from sufficient to understand how the profound transformation of shipping has affected ports and port cities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sail and Steam
Selected Maritime Writings of Yrjö Kaukiainen
, pp. 141 - 150
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×