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This section explores the intangible infrastructures of maritime economies and the shipping industry through analysis of three separate components. The first sub-section explores the role of shipping agents in the twentieth century by analysing the varieties of agencies, their changing functions, the impact of both World Wars, and, in particular, the impact of containerisation. It determines that by the end of the century, technological, geopolitical, and managerial transformations rendered the role of the shipping agent all but obsolete. The second sub-section examines the consular services of Nordic countries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in order to determine whether or not they were successful, and discovers that the assumption that consular services lowered maritime transaction costs cannot be wholly verified. The final sub-section explores the Mediterranean narrow-sea nexus and the way in which the Mediterranean region served as a ‘strategic corridor’ for European colonial activity.

By the 1960s Britain's ports were not a link in an efficient transportation system but an obstacle to its proper functioning. The great expansion of British ports during the Victorian era had been based on a break bulk system of loading and unloading cargoes which relied heavily on a casual dock labour supply. This method of working the ports was just about acceptable until the post-1945 period when the growing importance of the unit load – principally the container – to carry cargo meant that the old port system needed a radical overhaul. Basically capital was to replace labour, with expensive container cranes working more swiftly and efficiently than gangs of dock workers. Port labour's resistance to these changes in the 1960s and 1970s led to government intervention aimed at reducing the negative impact of containerisation on port communities, but in the end the old dock labour scheme was dismantled in the 1980s. Although now fewer in number, the main British ports were by 1990 efficiently run and were an example of successful adaptation to major economic change.

This chapter details the attempts to physically develop the port of Fremantle to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of the shipping industry. An Outer Harbour, following the half-decade old, solid plans of C. Y. O’Connor’s, was established in the 1950s. The harbour was also considerably deepened. An attempt at providing a dry dock, however, was unsuccessful. Tull concludes that these developments extended the capacity of the dock, possibly to levels unnecessary for their trade, at an expense that would later cause considerable financial problems in the 1980s.

This final chapter explores the opportunities available for Cape Town seafarers during the Apartheid era of 1948 to 1994. The purpose is to seek a better understanding of how modern seafaring can shape political consciousness, via an examination of the radical traditions on the Atlantic during the age of sail. It introduces the living conditions of Apartheid era South Africa, then explores the reasons for the lack of revolutionary attitudes from South African sailors at sea. These reasons include the marginally better rights for sailors at sea than on land; the improvement of shipboard conditions due to containerisation; the threat of cheap labour from Asia supplanting jobs; and the general feeling of escape from the cruelties of Apartheid whilst living at sea. Overall, it concludes that sailors did not use their skills to challenge Apartheid, but instead did what they could to make the lives of themselves and their families easier under the regime.

This chapter provides a history of the shipping market between the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the shipping crisis of 1973. It documents the major changes to shipping and shipbuilding practices that occurred during this period, including the increase in technological advancement, a steady growth of the oil trade, and the rise of container shipping. It concludes in 1973 after a misleadingly strong growth in shipping demand, and cites the short but consequential Yom Kippur War as a crucial shift in international power structure and the world economy, deeming it the beginning of the shipping crisis.

This chapter considers the development of the companies that employed watersiders, and the difficulties and problems inherent in their dealings with the labour organisations that represented these workers. The chapter ends by introducing harbour boards and independent stevedoring companies as the primary employers of watersiders, rather than shipping companies, and outlines the further fragmentation that occured as a result

This chapter considers the labour relations during the conventional cargo era, twenty years before the introduction of the container industry. Reveley argues in depth that companies that hired watersiders were disempowered by the structure of the labour market. The chapter is divided into subsections as follows: Bargaining Structures; Union Bargaining Strategies; The Employers, Bargaining, and the WIT; The Unions Amalgamate Nationally; Work Relations and Managerial Control Strategies; Management Through the Wages System; Workplace Bargaining Over “Rates”; Informal Work Practices; and Labour Productivity and Costs. The chapter concludes by stating that though employers could individually profit from these circumstances, collectively they were in a worse position than the strengthened unions, and that this status quo, despite bargaining efforts, remained so at the start of containerisation.

This chapter details the introduction of containerism to the shipping industry and the tremendous effect of rapid technological change that it brought about within the industry and the running of ports. It documents the disputes over the use of new cargo-handling equipment and the subsequent nationwide agreement to accomodate container ships at New Zealand ports. The conclusion demonstrates that though watersiders managed to secure favourable terms during the process, the terms were inherently unsustainable and counter-productive to the efficiency, and lower labour requirements, of the container industry.

This chapter serves as a conceptual introduction to containerism. It follows a concise, linear route through the development of the industry, and discusses the relevant factors and technologies that enabled its rise to prominence within the shipping industry. It summarises the industry’s growth by claiming the rapid improvement of technologies and the global demand for the service created a tremendous momentum brought the industry into prominence