Thursday 29th March 2007 - "TRADING UNDER SAIL AND STEAM"

Bob Malster ~ summarised by Steve Marginson

Appeared in Journal 508

The Society welcomed back the well known historian Bob Malster for the March meeting to give us a lecture entitled “ Trading Under Sail and Steam” The period dealt with was the late seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century before the advent of the railways and the road system. During this period most commodities travelled by sea. The lecture dealt in particular with the coastal trade which moved the majority of tonnage between various areas of the Britain. Thousands of brigantines and other vessels were involved in this trade most of them family owned and up to about 100 tonnes gross. This gave a cargo carrying capacity of about 40 tonnes per vessel. Commodities included everything from farm equipment, coal and oil and associated products to household goods for individuals. They were carried from many small ports to small havens in Suffolk With cargoes being taken up the Suffolk river systems to small wharves at places like Iken, Butley and Melton. From there they would be taken on by horse and cart to the final destination. Several well-known Suffolk families were involved in the trade, owning ships and trading them throughout the UK. The number of ships Involved in the trade was considerable and there were the inevitable losses at sea due to weather. Weather delays were also common with hundreds of ships seeking shelter and river mouths in times of storm

The fascination of this lecture was the amazing detail gone in to of the vessels, the families and the commodities carried. There must have been many hours of detailed and rigorous research gone into this lecture on a subject that most transport people were probably not aware of and had not thought about. I hope the lecture notes Bob had will be preserved somewhere as a detailed work on the era of Sail and Steam. We are most grateful for Bob coming to join us again and those present all enjoyed this lecture on an unusual and fascinating part of transport history.<

Front Cover. The 'Anglian Way' Ro-Ro on Ferryway's 09.30 Ipswich - Ostend sailing on 20th March 2007. Photo by Graham Hardinge

Rear Cover Top.> Ipswich Buses continue to use demonstrators. East Lancs Kinetic bodied Man 18.240 saloon CU56 AVP arrived on the 17th April and has been regularly used on services 12 and 13 since. This photo was taken on Crown Street on the 26th April 2007. Photo by Fred Ward.

Rear Cover Bottom. First Essex revised local Harwich services late last year and introduced two new Plaxton bodied midi-buses. 57001 (YN56 NHE) is seen in Dovercourt on the 4th December 2006. Photo by Richard Mortimer.