Talk:Cargo liner

Definition

A description which may serve as a definition:

The second category of coastal and short-sea steamship was the cargo liner which often combined the carriage of freight with passengers. Such shipping was deployed in more or less regular services, offering merchants and traders a schedule of rates, and accepting highly heterogeneous cargoes ranging fron the common domestic necessaries to raw materials, semi-manufactures and finished products.

Craig, Robin (1980), "Steam Tramps and Cargo Liners 1850-1950", The Ship, vol. 5, Ipswich: National Maritime Museum/W.S.Cowell Ltd. for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, p. 47, ISBN 0-1129-0315-0 {{citation}}: More than one of |location= and |place= specified (help). A few points:

• Cargo liners include vessels in short-sea and coastwise trades.
• While the quote above is from a chapter entitled The coasting and short-sea trades, the book in general and other sources make it clear that cargo liners include seagoing vessels that traded all over the world.
• It appears that passenger capacity was common but not necessarily present in all cargo liners.
• Colliers are not included in the category; it seems more applicable to general merchandise as well as raw materials.
• Tramp steamers are differentiated from cargo liners.
• Ocean liners, primarily designed for the transport of passengers, do not fit within the category even though virtually all carried some freight.

Kablammo (talk) 17:45, 29 October 2009 (UTC)