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The Colombo Express, one of the largest container ships in the world (when she was built in 2005), owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd of Germany

Cargo fleet in 2006

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.^{[citation needed]}

Types[link]

Cargo ships/freighters can be divided into four groups, according to the type of cargo they carry. These groups are:

1. General Cargo Vessels
2. Tankers
3. Dry-bulk Carriers
4. Multipurpose Vessels

General Cargo Vessels carry packaged items like chemicals, foods, furniture, machinery, motor vehicles, footwear, garments, etc.

Tankers carry petroleum products or other liquid cargo.

Dry Bulk Carriers carry coal, grain, ore and other similar products in loose form.

Multi-purpose Vessels, as the name suggests, carry different classes of cargo – e.g. liquid and general cargo – at the same time.

Specialized types of cargo vessels include container ships and bulk carriers (technically tankers of all sizes are cargo ships, although they are routinely thought of as a separate category). Cargo ships fall into two further categories that reflect the services they offer to industry: liner and tramp services. Those on a fixed published schedule and fixed tariff rates are cargo liners. Tramp ships do not have fixed schedules. Users charter them to haul loads. Generally, the smaller shipping companies and private individuals operate tramp ships. Cargo liners run on fixed schedules published by the shipping companies. Each trip a liner takes is called a voyage. Liners mostly carry general cargo. However, some cargo liners may carry passengers also. A cargo liner that carries 12 or more passengers is called a combination or passenger-cum-cargo line.

History[link]

The earliest records of waterborne activity mention the carriage of items for trade; the evidence of history and archaeology shows the practice to be widespread by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The desire to operate trade routes over longer distances and at more seasons of the year motivated improvements in ship design during the Middle Ages.

Before the middle of the 19th century, the incidence of piracy resulted in most cargo ships being armed, sometimes quite heavily, as in the case of the Manila galleons and East Indiamen. This sometimes resulted in the ships being escorted.

Piracy[link]

Piracy is still quite common in some waters, particularly in the Malacca Straits, a narrow channel between Indonesia and Singapore / Malaysia, and cargo ships are still commonly targeted. In 2004, the governments of those three nations agreed to provide better protection for the ships passing through the Straits. The waters off Somalia and Nigeria are also prone to piracy, while smaller vessels are also in danger along parts of the South American, Southeast Asian coasts and near the Caribbean Sea.^[1][2]

Definitions[link]

A Delmas container ship unloading at the Zanzibar port in Tanzania

The words cargo and freight have become interchangeable in casual usage. Technically, "cargo" refers to the goods carried aboard the ship for hire, while "freight" refers to the compensation the ship or charterer receives for carrying the cargo.

Generally, the modern ocean shipping business is divided into two classes:

1. Liner business: typically (but not exclusively) container vessels (wherein "general cargo" is carried in 20 or 40-foot "boxes"), operating as "common carriers", calling a regularly published schedule of ports. A common carrier refers to a regulated service where any member of the public may book cargo for shipment, according to long-established and internationally agreed rules.
2. Tramp-tanker business: generally this is private business arranged between the shipper and receiver and facilitated by the vessel owners or operators, who offer their vessels for hire to carry bulk (dry or liquid) or break bulk (cargoes with individually handled pieces) to any suitable port(s) in the world, according to a specifically drawn contract, called a charter party.

Larger cargo ships are generally operated by shipping lines: companies that specialize in the handling of cargo in general. Smaller vessels, such as coasters, are often owned by their operators.

Vessel prefixes[link]

A category designation appears before the vessel's name. Naval ships, for example, have "USS" (United States Ship), "HMS" (Her/His Majesty's Ship), "HMCS" (Her/His majesty's Canadian Ship) "HTMS" (His Thai Majesty's Ship). Merchant ships may have "RMS (Royal Mail Ship, usually a passenger liner), "MV" (Motor Vessel, powered by Diesel). "SS" (Steam Ship, now seldom seen, powered by steam). "TS", sometimes found in first position before a merchant ship's prefix, denotes that it is a Turbine Steamer. (For further discussion, see Ship prefixes.)

Famous cargo ships include the Liberty ships of World War II, partly based on a British design. Liberty ship sections were prefabricated in locations across the USA and then assembled by shipbuilders in an average of six weeks, with the record just over four days. These ships allowed the Allies to replace sunken cargo vessels at a rate greater than the Kriegsmarine's U-boats could sink them, and contributed significantly to the war effort, the delivery of supplies, and eventual victory over the Axis powers.

Lake freighters built for the Great Lakes in North America differ in design from "salties" because of the difference in wave size and frequency in the lakes. A number of these boats are so large that they cannot leave the lakes because they do not fit into the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Sizes of cargo ships[link]

Cargo ships are categorized partly by capacity, partly by weight, and partly by dimensions (often with reference to the various canals and canal locks they fit through). Common categories include:

• Dry Cargo
  • Small Handy size, carriers of 20,000 long tons deadweight (DWT)-28,000 DWT
  • Handy size, carriers of 28,000-40,000 DWT
    • Seawaymax, the largest size that can traverse the St Lawrence Seaway
  • Handymax, carriers of 40,000-50,000 DWT
  • Panamax, the largest size that can traverse the Panama Canal (generally: vessels with a width smaller than 32.2 m)
  • Capesize, vessels larger than Panamax and Post-Panamax, and must traverse the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn to travel between oceans
  • Chinamax, carriers of 380,000-400,000 DWT with main dimensions limited by port infrastructure in China
• Wet Cargo
  • Aframax, oil tankers between 75,000 and 115,000 DWT. This is the largest size defined by the average freight rate assessment (AFRA) scheme.
  • Suezmax, the largest size that can traverse the Suez Canal
  • VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), supertankers between 150,000 and 320,000 DWT.
    • Malaccamax, the largest size that can traverse the Strait of Malacca
  • ULCC (Ultra Large Crude Carrier), enormous supertankers between 320,000 and 550,000 DWT

See also[link]

Nautical portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: General cargo ships

• Merchant vessel
• Ship transport
• Merchant Navy
• United States Merchant Marine

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wikitravel - Freighter travel
• Vessel size groups
• Cargo ship: general structure and arrangement by Picture

v t e Modern merchant ships Dry cargo Barge · Bulk carrier/Lake freighter · Car float · Coaster · Collier · Container ship · Heavy lift ship  · Hopper barge  · Lighter aboard ship · Reefer ship · RORO ship · Submarine Cargo Vessel · Train ferry · Livestock carrier Tankers Chemical tanker · FPSO unit  · LNG carrier  · Oil tanker · Tanker Passenger Cargo liner · Cruiseferry  · Cruise ship  · Ferry · Narrowboat · Ocean liner · RORO ship · Train ferry Support Dive support · Fireboat · Supply ship · Tender  · Towboat · Tugboat Other Pipe-laying ship  · Cable layer · Crane vessel · Dredger  · Drillship  · Fishing vessel · Icebreaker · Merchant submarine  · Narco submarine  · Research vessel · Riverboat  · Semi-submersible · Snagboat

Marco Polo
Portrait of Marco Polo[Note 1]
Born	c. 1254 presumably in Venice, Italy
Died	January 9, 1324(1324-01-09) (aged 69) Venice, Venetian Republic
Resting place	Church of San Lorenzo 45°15′41″N 12°12′15″E / 45.2613°N 12.2043°E / 45.2613; 12.2043
Occupation	Merchant, Explorer
Known for	The Travels of Marco Polo
Spouse	Donata Badoer
Children	Fantina, Bellela, and Moretta
Parents	Mother: Unknown Father: Niccolò Polo

Marco Polo (ⁱ/ˈmɑrkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko ˈpɔːlo]; c. 1254 – January 9, 1324)^[1] was a Venetian merchant traveler^[2][3] from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was imprisoned, and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married and had three children. He died in 1324, and was buried in San Lorenzo.

Their pioneering journey inspired Christopher Columbus^[4] and others. Marco Polo's other legacies include Venice Marco Polo Airport, the Marco Polo sheep, and several books and films. He also had an influence on European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.

Life[link]

Early life and Asian travel[link]

The exact time and place of Marco Polo's birth are unknown, and current theories are mostly conjectural. One possible place of birth is Venice's former contrada of San Giovanni Crisostomo, which is sometimes presented by historians as the birthplace, and it is generally accepted that Marco Polo was born in the Venetian Republic with most biographers pointing towards Venice itself as Marco Polo's home town.^[5] Some biographers suggest that Polo was born in the town of Korčula (Curzola), on the island of Korčula in today's Croatia, however there is no proof to this claim.^[6][7] The most quoted specific date of Polo's birth is somewhere "around 1254".^{[Note 2]} His father Niccolò was a merchant who traded with the Middle East, becoming wealthy and achieving great prestige.^[8][9] Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage, before Marco was born.^[9] In 1260, Niccolò and Maffeo were residing in Constantinople when they foresaw a political change; they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away.^[8] According to The Travels of Marco Polo, they passed through much of Asia, and met with the Kublai Khan.^[10] Meanwhile, Marco Polo's mother died, and he was raised by an aunt and uncle.^[9] Polo was well educated, and learned merchant subjects including foreign currency, appraising, and the handling of cargo ships,^[9] although he learned little or no Latin.^[8]

Map of the journey

In 1269, Niccolò and Maffeo returned to Venice, meeting Marco for the first time. In 1271, Marco Polo (at seventeen years of age), his father, and his uncle set off for Asia on the series of adventures that were later documented in Marco's book. They returned to Venice in 1295, 24 years later, with many riches and treasures. They had traveled almost 15,000 miles (24,000 km).^[9]

Genoese captivity and later life[link]

Upon the Polos' return to Italy, Venice was at war with Genoa.^[11] Genoese admiral Lamba D'Oria overwhelmed a Venetian fleet at the Battle of Curzola near the island of Korčula, and Polo was taken prisoner.^[11] He spent several months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa,^[9] who incorporated tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China. The book soon spread throughout Europe in manuscript form, and became known as The Travels of Marco Polo. It depicts the Polos' journeys throughout Asia, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the Far East, including China, India, and Japan.^[12]

While Polo's book describes paper money and the burning of coal, it fails to mention the Great Wall of China, chopsticks, and footbinding, making skeptics wonder if Marco Polo had really gone to China, or wrote his book based on hearsay.^[13] Yet, if the purpose of Polo's tales was to impress others with tales of his high esteem and fond regard in an advanced civilization, then the shrewd thing for Polo to do would be to omit those details that would cause his listeners to scoff at the Chinese with a sense of European superiority. Furthermore, researchers note that the Great Wall familiar to us today is a Ming structure, post-dating Marco Polo's travels by more than two centuries. The Yuan rulers whom Polo served, as well as the preceding Jin and Liao Empires controlled territories both north and south of the today's wall, and would have no reasons to maintain any fortifications that may have remained there from the earlier dynasties.^[14] Other Europeans who traveled to Khanbaliq during the Yuan Dynasty, such as Giovanni de' Marignolli and Odoric of Pordenone, said nothing about the wall either.^[14] Finally, the hearsay theory does not explain the absence of chop stick or foot binding reports. University of Tübingen researcher Hans Ulrich Vogel stated that Polo's description of paper money and salt production supported his presence in China.^[15]

Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299,^[9] and returned home to Venice, where his father and uncle had purchased a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo. The company continued its activities and Marco soon became a wealthy merchant. Polo financed other expeditions, but never left Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, the daughter of Vitale Badoer, a merchant.^[16] They had three daughters, called Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.^[17]

Death[link]

San Lorenzo di Venezia church in the sestiere of Castello of Venice, where Polo was buried. The photo was taken after the church was rebuilt.

In 1323, Polo was confined to bed, due to illness. On January 8, 1324, despite physicians' efforts to treat him, Polo was on his deathbed. To write and certify the will, his family requested Giovanni Giustiniani, a priest of San Procolo. His wife, Donata, and his three daughters were appointed by him as co-executrices. The church was entitled by law to a portion of his estate; he approved of this and ordered that a further sum be paid to the convent of San Lorenzo, the place where he wished to be buried.^[1] He also set free a "Tartar slave" who may have accompanied him from Asia.^[18]

He divided up the rest of his assets, including several properties, between individuals, religious institutions, and every guild and fraternity to which he belonged. He also wrote-off multiple debts including 300 lire that his sister-in-law owed him, and others for the convent of San Giovanni, San Paolo of the Order of Preachers, and a cleric named Friar Benvenuto. He ordered 220 soldi be paid to Giovanni Giustiniani for his work as a notary and his prayers.^[1] The will, which was not signed by Polo, but was validated by then relevant "signum manus" rule, by which the testator only had to touch the document to make it abide to the rule of law,^[19] was dated January 9, 1324. Due to the Venetian law stating that the day ends at sunset, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined, but it was between the sunsets of January 8 and 9, 1324.^[1]

Travels of Marco Polo[link]

A miniature from Il Milione.

An authoritative version of Marco Polo's book does not exist, and the early manuscripts differ significantly. The published versions of his book either rely on single scripts, blend multiple versions together or add notes to clarify, for example in the English translation by Henry Yule. Another English translation by A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, published in 1938, is based on the Latin manuscript which was found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo in 1932, and is 50% longer than other versions.^[20] Approximately 150 variants in various languages are known to exist, and without the availability of a printing press many errors were made during copying and translation, resulting in many discrepancies.^[21] Polo related his memoirs to Rustichello da Pisa while both were prisoners of the Genova Republic. Rustichello wrote The Devisament du Monde in Langues d'Oil, a lingua franca of crusaders and western merchants in the orient.^[22] The idea probably was to create a handbook for merchants, essentially a text on weights, measures and distances.^[23]

Narrative[link]

A page from Il Milione, from a manuscript believed to date between 1298–1299.

The book starts with a preface about his father and uncle traveling to Bolghar where Prince Berke Khan lived. A year later, they went to Ukek^[24] and continued to Bukhara. There, an envoy from Levant invited them to meet Kublai Khan, who had never met Europeans.^[25] In 1266, they reached the seat of the Kublai Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing, China. Khan received the brothers with hospitality and asked them many questions regarding the European legal and political system.^[26] He also inquired about the Pope and Church in Rome.^[27] After the brothers answered the questions he tasked them with delivering a letter to the Pope, requesting 100 Christians acquainted with the Seven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). Kublai Khan requested that an envoy bring him back oil of the lamp in Jerusalem.^[28] The long sede vacante between the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 and the election of his successor delayed the Polos in fulfilling Khan's request. They followed the suggestion of Theobald Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt, and returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270 to await the nomination of the new Pope, which allowed Marco to see his father for the first time, at the age of fifteen or sixteen.^[29]

Polo wearing a Tartar outfit, age of print unknown.

In 1271, Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo embarked on their voyage to fulfill Khan's request. They sailed to Acre, and then rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz. They wanted to sail to China, but the ships there were not seaworthy, so they continued overland until reaching Khan's summer palace in Shangdu, near present-day Zhangjiakou. Three and a half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, Khan welcomed the Polos into his palace.^[9] The exact date of their arrival is unknown, but scholars estimate it to be between 1271 and 1275.^{[Note 3]} On reaching the Yuan court, the Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.^[8]

Marco knew four languages, and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to Khan. It is possible that he became a government official;^[9] he wrote about many imperial visits to China's southern and eastern provinces, the far south and Burma.^[30]

Kublai Khan declined the Polos' requests to leave China. They became worried about returning home safely, believing that if Khan died, his enemies might turn against them because of their close involvement with the ruler. In 1292, Khan's great-nephew, then ruler of Persia, sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife, and they asked the Polos to accompany them, so they were permitted to return to Persia with the wedding party – which left that same year from Zaitun in southern China on a fleet of 14 junks. The party sailed to the port of Singapore, travelled north to Sumatra, sailed west to the Trincomalee port of Jaffna under Savakanmaindan and to Pandyan of Tamilakkam. Describing the Pandyan kingdom under Lord Emperor Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I as the richest empire in existence, Polo arrived during the reign of Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I, son of Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I and one of five brother kings on the continent.^[31] Eventually Polo crossed the Arabian Sea to Hormuz. The two-years voyage was a perilous one – of the six hundred people (not including the crew) in the convoy only eighteen had survived (including all three Polos).^[32] The Polos left the wedding party after reaching Hormuz and travelled overland to the port of Trebizond on the Black Sea, the present day Trabzon.^[9]

Legacy[link]

Further exploration[link]

Handwritten notes by Christopher Columbus on a Latin edition of Polo's book.

The Fra Mauro map, published c. 1450 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro.

Other lesser-known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, but Polo's book meant that their journey was the first to be widely known. Christopher Columbus was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to visit those lands for himself; a copy of the book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations.^[4] Bento de Góis, inspired by Polo's writings of a Christian kingdom in the east, travelled 4,000 miles (6,400 km) in three years across Central Asia. He never found the kingdom, but ended his travels at the Great Wall of China in 1605, proving that Cathay was what Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) called "China".^[33]

Commemoration[link]

The Marco Polo sheep, a subspecies of Ovis aries, is named after the explorer,^[34] who described it during his crossing of Pamir (ancient Mount Imeon) in 1271.^{[Note 4]} In 1851, a three-masted Clipper built in Saint John, New Brunswick also took his name; the Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.^[35] The airport in Venice is named Venice Marco Polo Airport,^[36] and the frequent flyer program of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is known as the "Marco Polo Club".^[37] The travels of Marco Polo are fictionalised in Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne's Messer Marco Polo and Gary Jennings' 1984 novel The Journeyer. Polo also appears as the pivotal character in Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. The 1982 television miniseries, Marco Polo, directed by Giuliano Montaldo and depicting Polo's travels, won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for six more.^[38] Marco Polo also appears as a Great Explorer in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution.^[39]

Cartography[link]

Marco Polo's travels may have had some influence on the development of European cartography, ultimately leading to the European voyages of exploration a century later.^[40] The 1453 Fra Mauro map was said by Giovanni Battista Ramusio to have been partially based on the one brought from Cathay by Marco Polo:

That fine illuminated world map on parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery (the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano) was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old nautical map and a world map that had been brought from Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father.

—Giovanni Battista Ramusio^[40]

See also[link]

Venice portal

• Chronology of European exploration of Asia
• Silk Road, which Marco Polo traveled.
• 1284 Yuan expedition to Sri Lanka
• Did Marco Polo go to China?

Notes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Marco Polo (1918). William Marsden. ed. The Travels of Marco Polo. LONDON: J.M. Dent & Sons. p. 461. http://books.google.com/books?id=VovVAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-05-29. (Original from the University of Wisconsin – Madison)
• Daftary, Farhad (1994), The Assassin legends: myths of the Ismaʻilis (2 ed.), I.B. Tauris, p. 213, ISBN 978-1-85043-705-5 
• Hart, H. Henry (1948), Marco Polo, Venetian Adventurer, Kessinger Publishing 
• Otfinoski, Steven (2003), Marco Polo: to China and back, New York: Benchmark Books, ISBN 0-7614-1480-0 
• The Travels of Marco Polo – Volume 1^[1] and Volume 2,^[2] written by Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa, were published by Project Gutenberg
• Yang, Dori Jones (2011-01-11), Daughter of Xanadu, Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, ISBN 978-0-385-73923-8  (Young Adult novel)
• Dalrymple, William (1989), In Xanadu 

Television[link]

• In the Footsteps of Marco Polo is a 2009 PBS documentary about two friends (Denis Belliveau and Francis O'Donnell), who conceived of the ultimate road trip to retrace Marco Polo's journey from Venice to China via land and sea.^[3]
• A 1982 miniseries featured Ken Marshall and Ruocheng Ying.^[4]
• The 2007 television miniseries, Marco Polo, starring Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan, and Ian Somerhalder as Marco, portrays Marco Polo being left alone in China while his uncle and father return to Venice, to be reunited with him many years later.^[5]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marco Polo

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Marco Polo

• Marco Polo's house in Venice, near the church of San Giovanni Grisostomo
• National Geographic Marco Polo: Journey from Venice to China
• In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A Journey through the Met to the Land of the Great Khan
• Marco Polo at the Open Directory Project
• Works by Marco Polo at Project Gutenberg
• Marco Polo at the Internet Movie Database