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The importance of the east of Scotland in the early use and development of the steamship appears to have been undervalued by most writers. A general description of the development of steam navigation before about 1850 is given in order to set the scene for the specific study of Scotland's east coast. This is followed by a brief account of the state of transport in that area before the invention of the steamship. A narrative is given of the introduction of steamers there, at first in the sheltered estuaries, but gradually out into the very exposed North Sea and waters surrounding the northern isles. This is followed by analysis of the patterns of building and ownership of the vessels engaged in that trade. That part of the work relies heavily on contemporary Parliamentary papers. The influence of the early railways, as both competitors and customers is examined. The effect of legislation, and other action by government, is considered. The fate of wrecked ships, and the potential for the assistance of underwater archaeologists in assisting the historian to understand the early steamship is assessed. This includes specific recommendations for possible future archaeological research. It is concluded that the east of Scotland did have an important role in the world of the early steamship. Many of the largest steam ships in the world, for their time, served these routes. A number of important technical developments were tried out in the area. East of Scotland shipbuilders had a more prominent role in constructing early steamships than has been suggested elsewhere. Topological maps of steamship routes for three selected years are included in the text. Appendices give an outline chronology and a list of steam related publications by the candidate. The final appendix gives details of the 201 steamships identified as having traded on the east of Scotland during the period. Seventeen other ships, built in the area, but used elsewhere are listed in a supplement at the end of that appendix.

The Transport Board’s very significant and effective role in the preparation of all the major military expeditions and in the ultimate defeat of Bonaparte has been largely ignored by historians. The Board has hitherto been perceived as a subsidiary board of the Admiralty. However it was responsible to the Treasury and its main task was to transport and support the army overseas, on the instructions of the Secretary of State for War. The government depended upon the availability of merchant ships for this purpose. Yet less than 10 per cent of the registered merchant ships were suitable to be used as troop ships. At peaks of demand, in 1805, 1808 and 1814, the Transport Board chartered 30 to 39 per cent of this shipping. This had a significant impact international trade, on freight rates and the domestic price of commodities, particularly coal. There is strong evidence that between 1793 and 1805 government contracts sustained the British merchant shipping fleet by replacing the trade, previously conducted with European ports that were then controlled by the enemy. Without this support those ships would have been laid up. The government’s requirement to reduce the costs of war generally encouraged early termination of transports’ contracts, rather than retaining them for the next big expedition. This occurred particularly between 1807 and 1809. That and the restricted use of naval vessels to convey troops hindered the speedy preparation of exceptionally large expeditions. The study suggests that some of the proposed expeditions were just too big to be managed effectively. Despite the Transport Board’s direct communications with the Secretary of State it was not consulted for advice during the planning of expeditions and consequently the impact of seasonality was ignored and preparation times underestimated. There were inevitably delays in the preparations of expeditions but this thesis demonstrates that the times taken to prepare for major expeditions was between 10 to 16 weeks, not excessive even by today’s standards.

Conceptions of modernity have tended towards the identification of urban spatial practice as the primary signifier of meaning in this discourse. While much of this work has been crucial in identifying just what is at stake in a reading of modernity as a spatial and political project, this has lead to an oversight of the importance of the increasingly global character of social relations in this narrative. This thesis attempts to engage with this question from the perspective of the steamship, writing a cultural history of the introduction of steam power into colonial shipping during the mid-nineteenth century. Taking as a case study the steamships of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, widely known as P&O, this thesis sets out to highlight the importance of globalised networks of mobility in our conception of the experience of modernity. The introduction of steam is explored through the experiences of the passengers on board these ships. Utilising diaries, letters, contemporary press reports and published accounts of voyages, the impact of technological change is charted through associated cultural attitudes and altered conceptions of global travel. While the transitions which accompanied steam power’s entry into global shipping present a radical historical disjuncture, empirical research points rather to a complex srrucrure ofco-constitution between technology, global capital and the newly mobile human subjects aboard these vessels. The consequences of a departure from sail power gave rise not simply to a transitional society at sea on a difi'erent scale and at a greater velocity, but made possible structural change which allowed for a new kind of specifically modern, idiosyncratically imperial environment, in which global actors reinforced and receded aspects of control through performative instances of imperialism. Calling for an innovative interdisciplinary engagement with the maritime humanities, the thesis utilises a critical approach to historical material, seeing developing attitudes toward sea travel in relation to wider discourses governing conceptions of empire, colonialism and global space in the modern era.

This thesis examines the dry bulk sector of the shipping industry. We begin by analysing the relation between second-hand vessel prices, net earnings, and holding period returns. Specifically, we provide strong statistical evidence that almost the entire volatility of shipping earnings yields can be attributed to variation in expected net earnings growth; almost none to expected returns variation and almost none to varying expectations about the terminal earnings yield. According to our results, earnings yields are negatively and significantly related to future net earnings growth. Furthermore, we find no consistent, strong statistical evidence supporting the existence of time-varying risk premia in the valuation of dry bulk vessels. Accordingly, we integrate the examination of the second-hand market by incorporating in the analysis the trading activity related to dry bulk vessels. For this purpose, we develop a heterogeneous expectations asset pricing model that can account for the actual behaviour of vessel prices and the positive correlation between net earnings, vessel prices, and second-hand vessel transactions. The proposed economy consists of two agent types who form heterogeneous expectations about future net earnings and at the same time under(over)estimate the future demand responses of their competitors. Formal estimation of the model suggests that the average investor expectations in the second-hand market for ships must be “near-rational”. In particular, the investor population must consist of a very large fraction of agents with totally – or very close to – rational beliefs while the remaining ones must hold highly extrapolative beliefs; thus, there must exist significant heterogeneity of beliefs in the market. Having concluded the analysis of the second-hand physical shipping market we turn to the derivative market for Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs) related to the dry bulk shipping sector. Accordingly, we illustrate formally that the bulk of volatility in the FFA basis can be attributed to expectations about future physical market conditions rather than expectations about future risk premia. Despite this finding, though, we document the existence of a bias in the FFA rates in the form of “contango” but also of both a strong momentum effect and significant predictability of risk premia by price-based signals and economic variables reflecting physical market conditions. The evidence of bias is further supported by the results of three econometric tests which suggest rejection of the unbiased expectations hypothesis. Finally, to justify these findings, we develop a dynamic asset pricing framework that can incorporate both the “hedging pressure” feature and a heterogeneous-beliefs explanation.

The Maritime Labour Convention amendments concerning abandonment of seafarers are expected to come into force in 2017, something long sought by seafarers’ representatives. The Convention is already considered a success, being referred to as a ‘super convention’ or ‘seafarers’ bill of rights’, and the amendments are expected to receive a similar reception. Although it is an international legal instrument, the Maritime Labour Convention also establishes, for contracting states, soft guidelines on how its provisions should be implemented. The Convention recognises that the seafarer is a transnational worker in that different states are entitled to adopt varying approaches to achieving the objectives of the law where the seafarer is concerned. It is argued in this thesis that seafarers are transnational workers, hence that ‘abandonment of seafarers’ is a transnational phenomenon. That in turn means that the concept should not be confined merely to current international legal definitions. From a legal point of view, abandonment is a contractual breach committed by the employer. From a moral point of view, it is the employer severing their responsibility for their employees. Although this analysis is made largely through an English law lens, legislations of different countries are also studied. The evaluation undertaken in this study proves that there is in reality only a nominal differences between the legal rules of these countries in this area. The thesis will also assert that third parties in the employer-worker relationship, the so-called ‘private actors’, also have responsibilities in preventing abandonment from occurring, or in providing assistance when abandonment does happen. These private actors are essentially those persons involved in the maritime trade network – including those having responsibility for safety, such as flag states, port states, classification societies and P&I Clubs. In this regard, it is also stressed in this thesis that substandard shipping is directly connected to abandonment of seafarers; indeed, the Maritime Labour Convention should thus be seen as an important tool to help combat substandard shipping.

National shipping centres comprise both upstream and downstream firms in the logistics chain to conduct shipping and trade-related activities. Users of national shipping centres include traders, logistics service providers, shipping lines, terminal operators, and other actors. Shipping is the business of transporting goods to facilitate trade. Shipping and trade are closely associated. Shipping centres are located in transport complex economies that are desirable for their users to perform various shipping related business activities. To explore the formation of national shipping centres, this study identifies trade facilitation measures at both the macro and micro levels that enhance economic performance. To build the model of national shipping centre, hypotheses have been developed to illustrate the relationship between trade facilitation activities and trade costs. Furthermore, the economic outcomes are also examined in this theoretical model. To validate the proposed research model, data are collected from the World Bank, and analytical tool is used for data analysis. The results suggest that trade facilitation measures are negatively associated with trade costs. The results also suggest that the trade facilitation measures of a country are positively associated with its economic performance. The findings of this study are useful for both business managers and policy makers. Based on the finding, managers can formulate effective business strategies to select a location for their firms to conduct their business activities. On the other hand, policy makers can formulate relevant measures to attract business firms to locate at their countries. In studying the formation of national shipping centres, the importance of developing social capital for trade facilitation is also emphasized. To illustrate the validity of the findings, two case studies are presented. The first case study examines countries with more than one port. These countries are China, Japan, and Korea. The second case study look into areas with single port (i.e., Hong Kong and Singapore). Overall, this study builds a theoretical model and validates the model to seek answers to the following questions: • What are the roles of trade facilitation at the macro-level and micro-level in the development of national shipping centres? • Does trade facilitation influence the economic development of a country? • What is the link between the development of social capita (in terms of trade facilitation measures) and the economic performance of a country? • What are the differences national shipping centres between developed and developing countries?

The freight market is one of the most important and vital ones in the shipping industry, since its behaviour and state affect the majority of the decisions made in the industry. Considering the important aspects of the freight rates and different types/sizes of ships in the dry bulk shipping market, this thesis attempts to increase the understanding of the dynamics of physical hedging instruments and provide robust chartering strategies that can be used to increase the profitability of these operations. The chartering strategies are defined as the best mix of contracts that need to be signed in order to optimise the revenues generated by operating in the freight market. The first empirical part (Chapter 2) assess a widely used approach (i.e. technical trading rules) and examines whether it can allow identifying optimal chartering strategies. Precisely, the study examines the types and aspects of strategies that can be formulated while also analysing their profitability. The results show that the revolution of the freight rates is the key factor when attempting to make an optimal decision. The fluctuations in freight values are usually due to changes in the demand and supply levels therefore a new macroeconomic dataset is constructed in Chapter 3 based on a high number of various demand and supply variables that can affect the level of freight rates. The empirical findings highlight important dynamic interactions between the macroeconomic variables and the freight rate curve while it is also observed that a significant percentage of the freight rate variation is attributed to fluctuations in the supply macroeconomic variables. Finally, in Chapter 4 the thesis analyses the relationship between risk and return in shipping investments from a financial and managerial perspective in order to understand the firms' competitive behaviour. The empirical results indicate that the nature of the risk and return relationship is affected by the risk measures, return measures, subsamples, market conditions and macroeconomic variables associated with the freight rate cycle. Overall, the empirical findings of this thesis have important implications on the freight market trading and risk management as well as chartering operations such as the type of contract that should be signed depending on different market conditions.

The container liner shipping industry (CLSI) can be defined as one consisting of a fleet of vessels that provides a fixed service at regular intervals between ports of call. It is noteworthy that the CLSI is remarkably acting as an artery in making contributions to the growth of the global economy. However, in an era of unprecedented global changes, the CLSI faces a variety of internal and external risks. Moreover, the reliability and capability of liner shipping operators (LSOs) vary under different environmental conditions. Consequently, it is important for LSOs to ensure that the safety and reliability of their internal operations as well as external environments through proactive assessment of their reliability and capability are intact. The literature indicates that disruptive events have been assessed and investigated by many researchers and practitioners whilst the root causes arising from external risks have not yet been fully identified. The aim of this research was to develop integrated frameworks for assessing risk and reliability in the CLSI under high uncertainties. As a result, three interlocking levels of analysis have been highlighted in this research: 1) business environment-based risk (BEBR), 2) organisational reliability and capability (ORC) of LSOs, and 3) punctuality of containerships. To achieve the aim, firstly, this research employed a combination of different decision-making methods (i.e. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Set Theory (FST) and Evidential Reasoning (ER)) for the assessment of the BEBR. The research outcomes are providing LSOs with a powerful decision-making tool to assess the risk value of a country prior to investment and strategic decisions. In addition, LSOs are also able to regularly assess the overall level of existing BEBR in a host country prior to development of mitigation strategies that can help to minimise financial losses. Secondly, this research employs the Fuzzy Bayesian Belief Network (FBBN) method for evaluating the ORC of LSOs. By exploiting the proposed FBBN model, LSOs are able to conduct a self-evaluation of their ORC prior to the selection of a strategy for enhancing their competitive advantages in the CLSI. A significant concern in container liner shipping operations is the punctuality of containerships. Therefore, thirdly, this research concentrated on analysing and predicting the arrival punctuality of a liner vessel under dynamic environments by employing a combination of Fuzzy Rule-Base (FRB) and FBBN methods. Finally, a probabilistic model for analysing and predicting the departure punctuality of a liner vessel was generated. Accordingly, from the outcomes of this research LSOs are able to forecast their vessels’ arrival and departure punctuality and, further, tactical strategies can be implemented if a vessel is expected to be delayed. In addition, both arrival and departure punctuality models are capable of helping academic researchers and industrial practitioners to comprehend the influence of uncertain environments on the service punctuality. In order to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed methodologies and models, several real test cases were conducted by choosing the Malaysian maritime industry as a focus of study. The results obtained from these test cases have provided useful information for recommending preventive measures, improvement strategies and tactical solutions. The frameworks and models that have been proposed in this research for assessing risk and reliability of the CLSI will provide managerial insights for modelling and assessing complex systems dealing with both quantitative and qualitative criteria in a rational, reliable and transparent manner. In addition, these models have been developed in a generic sense so that they can be tailored for application in other industrial sectors.