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CARGO HANDLING
AND THE
MODERN PORT
R. B. ORAM
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD · LONDON · EDINBURGH · NEW YORK
PARIS · FRANKFURT
Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W.l
Pergamon Press (Scotland) Ltd., 2 & 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1
Pergamon Press Inc., 122 East 55th Street, New York 22, N.Y.
Gauthier-Villars, 55 Quai des Grands-Augustins, Paris 6
Pergamon Press G.m.b.H., Kaiserstrasse 75, Frankfurt-am-Main
Federal Publications Ltd., Times House, River Valley Rd., Singapore
Samcax Book Services Ltd., Queensway, P.O. Box 2720, Nairobi, Kenya
Copyright © 1965
Pergamon Press Ltd.
First edition 1965
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 64-66353
Set in 10 on 12 pt. Times
Printed in Great Britain by Cheltenham Press Ltd.,
Cheltenham and London
FOREWORD
IT gives me great pleasure to contribute a preface to Colonel Oram's
valuable and comprehensive treatise on "Cargo Handling and the
Modern Port". This is certainly a down-to-earth subject for a book,
even in a technical sense, but no one who has in recent years become
closely acquainted with the problems of international sea transport,
can deny that the Affluent Society, whatever its merits or demerits,
derives its affluence as much from the efficiency of its distributive
mechanism as from the carefully controlled production line.
The very word "export", on which so much emphasis is placed
today, both in the developing countries and in the great maritime
trading communities of Western Europe and North America, emphas-
izes the importance of the port. Its design, structure and capacity
impose basic limitations on economic ambitions. These have not
always been as well recognized as they deserve, but the publicity
which the imaginative enterprise of Europort in Holland and the
Rochdale Committee in Britain have given to this subject mark the
beginning of a significant change in our thinking. A country cannot
hope to wear seven-league economic boots if it possesses only one-
league ports. It is not sufficient to translate the targets of economic
growth into the output targets for industry, particularly in a country
such as Britain. Unless the capacity and efficiency of the port system
meet the rapidly changing criteria of adequacy in this field it will
matter little whether planners or entrepreneurs bear the main re-
sponsibility for development, for they will both find their efforts in
other fields frustrated if they neglect this one for the more fashionable
projects of national ambition.
IX
FOREWORD
The port industry is fortunate that a man of the calibre of Colonel
Oram should be prepared not only to devote a lifetime to acquiring
the knowledge and experience set out in this book but to take the
considerable effort which is required to record his knowledge and
keep it up to date. It will certainly be valuable to those who wish
to enlarge their knowledge of the industry, but I hope it will also
play its part in claiming the attention and interest of those gifted
members of the rising generation to whom, hitherto, the Foreign
Office, the Civil Service and the professions have described the limit
of their concept of a suitable combination of opportunity and service.
It is time that the best men that this country produces became aware
of where the need for their services is greatest — in the down-to-earth
activities which provide the foundations on which national greatness
is built. As this book shows so clearly, they often involve complexi-
ties and problems which have so far defied solution and which provide
a lively challenge to the best minds and the strongest characters.
The docker and the standardization of a pallet present, each in their
own way, features as intractable and complex as the nucleus of the
atom or the nuances of diplomatic negotiation.
But in their turn these industries must recognize the contributi on
which such people can make to their affairs.
I. S. LLOYD, M.P.
2 St. Mary Axe,
London, E.C.3.
x
INTRODUCTION
THIS book is an attempt firstly, to define the functions of a port and
secondly, to explain how these have been affected by the silent
revolution that, since 1945, has taken place in all the major ports
of the world.
No two ports are alike. Their physical lay-out has been determined
by geography, their size and importance by the requirements of the
hinterland they serve. Administratively ports differ within the same
country; even groups of docks within the same major port still adhere
to working methods that betray an earlier type of management. Even
on the all important point of "who is to do the work" there are as
many schools of thought as there are practical alternatives; owner-
ship of the means by which the work is done is vested in every
relevant interest.
Were it possible to write a book setting out in detail every variation
of management and practice it would be unreadable. The alternative,
which is the method adopted in the following pages, has been to set
out basic principles that apply in the main, to the majority of ports.
In doing this the author knows full well that he is laying himself open
to a contradiction from every port which can boast a variation from
the basic concepts of port operation and management. To render
his book readable he has taken this risk.
His work as a lecturer to the United Nations Ports and Shipping
Training Centre and his position as Technical Secretary to the
International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association has left no
doubt in his mind of the great need among the "nations with a
XI
INTRODUCTION
future" for a fuller understanding of the problems posed by the
modern port. National independence has brought responsibility.
The conduct of existing ports presents difficulties, but there are also
the major problems of port development schemes dictated by the
needs of "five year plans". The older maritime countries enjoy the
priceless asset of technical "know-how", built up over the centuries.
If some of this can, in regard to the functions and management of
ports, be passed on to the emergent economies the object of this book
will have been attained.
Xll
CHAPTER 1
THE PORT
A PORT is a shore-based installation for the transfer of goods from
and to ships. When a modern port is being considered, however,
one thinks in terms of a series of docks equipped with deep water
quays, transit sheds, warehouses, cranes, dry docks and repair
facilities for vessels, with access to all these by a system of roads
and railways and with the whole of these facilities co-ordinated by
an overriding management seized with the one aim of speeding the
flow of goods through the port. One does not think of a breakwater,
a few privately owned cranes and a shed or two as a port.
THE FUNCTION OF A PORT
This distinction becomes clear when the function of a port is
considered. To serve as the gateway to an industrialized hinterland,
to provide an outlet for its products and an inlet for the raw materials
it needs, that is the main function of the modern port. London, it
has been calculated, serves a market of 25 million people; the hinter-
land of ports such as Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg is so
densely industrialized that it would be a waste of time to attempt
to separate the areas served by each of these ports. The value of a
port to the economy of a country has been demonstrated in war time.
Ports are a primary object in each campaign, for the enemy knows
well the crippling effect on his opponent of capturing, or even putting
out of action, the ports through which supplies, arms and men reach
the fighting zone. Hence the destruction wrought in the port areas
1
1 CARGO HANDUNG AND THE MODERN PORT
of London, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Hamburg, to mention but a
few. Hence the priority in post-war reconstruction that far seeing
governments accorded to their ports.
The part played by a port will vary with its geographical position,
the markets it serves and many other factors. Some of these will
be discussed later. Owing to the great value of the goods handled
and the importance of the work carried on within their gates, few
ports are allowed to figure as recognized attractions for tourists.
The extent of the modern port, with its many undertakings, is there-
fore realized by comparatively few people. The port of London
consists of five large dock controls, each qualifying by its size for
the appellation of a port, two minor docks and many privately
owned wharves. Actively in control of the five major dock systems
is the Port of London Authority. Responsible also for 69 miles of
the busy tidal waterway of the River Thames their dock estate
consists of over 4000 acres, of which 700 are water. In this estate
are 36 miles of lineal deep water quays. Antwerp, to take a com-
parable port, has a water area alone of more than 1300 acres with
40 miles of quays. In 1960/1, 54,997 ships having a net registered
tonnage of 87,805,013 tons used the port of London (of this nearly
21m tons was coastwise traffic). In 1961/2 the figure was nearly
500,000 tons greater. More than 16,500 ships of 45 m n.r.t. made use
of the port of Antwerp.
THE WORLD'S DEEP SEA TRADE
What is the world picture of deep sea trade against the background
of which the modern port flourishes? In July 1961 Lloyd's Register
of Shipping recorded the total number of vessels (over 100 gross
registered tons) engaged in trading as 37,792, with the colossal total
of 135,915,958 g.r.t. The ports of the world are obsessed with the
problem of handling more and larger ships; despite recessions in
trade and financial ups and downs the management of our ports,
whatever form their control may take, can never evade this problem.
A few figures from the Statistical Tables (issued by Lloyd's Register
of Shipping) show how inescapable is the dilemma.
THE PORT 3
Year No. of vessels Tons gross
1908 30,383 40,882,717
1958 35,202 118,033,731
1963 39,571 145,863,463*
The number of vessels in more than half a century has gone up
by 17 per cent, the gross tonnage by over 300 per cent. On the
individual ship this trend is shown by the increase in the average
size; in 1903 this was roughly 1300 g.r.t.; in 1950, 2700. In the
next ten years it increased by one third to stand at 3600.
Corresponding with this leap forward in the total merchant fleet
tonnage is the total tonnage of cargo carried. The phenomenal
increase can be seen at a glance, i1 >
Year Tonnage of cargo carried
1934 390,000,000
1949 500,000,000
1955 830,000,000
1961 1,160,000,000
In twelve years the amount of cargo carried has more than doubled
itself. A significant feature is that the 1960 figure of 1090 m tons
includes 520 m tons of liquid fuels, etc., carried in bulk.
This, very briefly, is the world picture of an incessant movement
of ships that continues day and night to enter and to leave the
world's ports. <2 ) The picture, however impressive it may be made to
appear, is by no means a bright one. Firstly, there are too many
ships in the world for the cargo offering. This is true despite the
annual toll of vessels lost (in 1962 this was 249 ships of 481,098 tons
g.r.t. — an average figure) and the disposal of ships for scrap (in
1962, 739 ships of 3,036,221 g.r.t.). In comparison with the rate of
new building more old tonnage ought, in the opinion of experts, to
be scrapped. Only a sharp rise in the scrap market, of which there
is at present no sign, will bring about this desirable result.
Secondly, all fleets are insufficiently utilized. The world total of
*But see Appendix A for 1962.
