Bale (logistics)

“ It is the master's duty to provide both ballast and dunnage when necessary for the safe and proper transportation of his cargo. And it has been held that, in selecting materials for these purposes, even when he has chartered the entire capacity of his ship for articles which require ballast or dunnage, he is not precluded from taking articles on which he can realize freight. ”

“ Many harbours [29] provide only for small coasting craft and cannot accommodate large ocean traders, many are affected by tide and quite unprovided with docks; others again lack quay and truck accommodation save of the simplest order. There is also the problem of dock labourers, men skilled in the handling of particular types of cargo. Manifestly you cannot order any ship to any port. Vessels must therefore run to their usual harbours and to provide the machinery for "turning them" rapidly round presents, under the congested conditions of war, a problem of extreme complexity. ”

“ There are inspectors in the docks, whose business it is to examine the coffee and send specimens of it to the broker's office in the city. It is the same with all the other shiploads that come in. They are examined by inspectors, specimens are taken out and sent to the city, and the goods themselves are stored in the warehouses.
"Now, we will suppose a person wishes to buy some of these goods to make up a cargo. Perhaps it is a man who is going to send a ship to Africa after elephants' tusks, and he wants a great variety of goods to send there to pay the natives for them. ”

“ On these assumptions the argument is that cargo has also a function as ballast; that if, for instance, the loss is caused by the improper shifting of pigs of lead, it does not matter whether they are called ballast or cargo, but in either case, so far as the change affects the fitness of the ship as a carrier, it is management of the vessel, within the act. ”

“ There is freight enough for all. Every vessel that has a sound keel and a helm to steer her is actively employed. Old craft and odd are come on the sea to serve turn in our emergency. Barges and inland watermen, Hudson Bay sloops, whilom pleasure craft, mud-hoppers reshelled, hulks even, are used; if they can neither sail nor steam, the ropemakers can supply a hawser—there is trade and bargain for a tow. After peace-years of grinding competition with the freight-grabbing steam coasters, the sailing craft of the smaller ports have found a new prosperity, from which no risks can daunt them. ”

“ They usually carry no flag, and are dirty and lack paint, but they carry a load that would interest the most blasé European. Those bound up-stream, under full sail, like ourselves, are piled with European boxes and bales, from stem to stern; and on top of the freight, in the midst of the freight, sitting on it, stretched out on it, peeping from it, is another cargo of human beings, men, women and children, black, yellow, clothed in all the hues of heaven and the rags of earth. It is an impassive load that stares at us with incurious, unwinking eyes. ”

“ The master is the agent of the shipowner only; he has nothing to do with the cargo. [23]
Even where a cargo is made contraband by going to the enemy, the vessel, if not belonging to the owner of the cargo, will go free.
All the papers show that the master had no control of the cargo after getting to Nassau. He was to drop it there; his vessel was to be cleared, as to this cargo, at that place; and the charter-party ended there, at Nassau.
The owners of the ship had no interest in the cargo. They were mere common carriers, to receive freight for the performance of an ordinary and honest duty. ”

“ Today, 95 percent of our imports and exports are moved by water—more than one billion metric tons of cargo—and our waterways currently handle 140 million passengers a year. Our domestic fleet is one of our most productive and cost-effective modes of transportation, moving 24 percent of the Nation's cargo at less than 2 percent of America's total freight cost. ”

“ The publicans, butchers, grocers, or lodging-house-keepers, are the ballast-contractors, and they only employ those parties who are customers at their houses. It is the owner or captain of the vessel who contracts with these “truckmen” for the ballasting of the ship at a certain price per score of tons, and the truckmen for that sum undertake not only to procure the ballast from the Trinity Company, and save the owner or captain all the trouble of so doing, but also to carry it from the Trinity-lighters on board the ship. ”

“ But a large gang is required for all that, and when the last pile has disappeared from the wharf the carriers strew themselves about it and sleep soundly on the hard planks until the next load arrives. Its quota supplied, the steamer’s hatches are quickly battened down, icy air is turned in upon the perishable cargo, and the vessel rushes full speed ahead for the United States or England, where the fruit begins to rattle away in other trucks before the mere human passengers have leave to descend the gangway. ”

“ They may be seen in all our smaller ports, often lying disconsolately upon mud-banks at ebb-tide, or, looking woefully out of place, at some wharf belonging to a seaside place like Margate or Ramsgate. Oh, so dirty, so miserable they look! They only carry such rough cargoes as it does not pay to put in steam, and, in consequence, their freight-earning capacity is very low. That, again, reacts upon the equipment. Worn-out gear, wretched food, and not enough men or boys to do the heavy work, they provide a hard school for the young seaman. ”

“ The other warehouses are upon an almost equally extensive scale, and, though in separate blocks, cover an area of nearly nineteen acres. Below them and the tobacco warehouses are vast arched vaults which can contain, exclusive of the gangways, sixty-six thousand pipes of wine and spirits. Hydraulic machinery is now in use in all parts of the docks for the purpose of discharging the cargoes of vessels and landing them on the quays or delivering them into the warehouses, and it is no uncommon thing to discharge from one ship a thousand tons of cargo in the course of twelve or fifteen hours. ”

“ We may economise in the working of our ships at sea, but if on their arrival in port they have to wait for berths to discharge and load, and if these operations are hampered by the lack of mechanical appliances or labour, the shipowners’ exertions are in vain. Nor does the difficulty end here: docks lose their value and attractiveness if the cost of moving cargoes from the ship’s side to the warehouse, or to the manufacturing districts, forms a heavy addition to the freight. ”

“ Our commercial ships and marine infrastructure-and the dedicated men and women who are part of our maritime industry and U.S. Merchant Marine-continue to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing marketplace and the expanding globalization of trade. Our merchant fleet is a key component of our Nation's intermodal transportation system, carrying more than one billion tons of cargo between domestic ports and supporting our connection to overseas markets. ”

“ We have no cargo to discharge (having crossed in ballast trim) , but—the storms of the North Atlantic calling for a weight to make us seaworthy—we have a lading of coal sufficient to steam us back to our home port. This has all to be raised from the holds and stowed in the bunker spaces: the holds must be cleaned [221] for food-stuffs: for grain in bulk there is carpenter-work in fitting the midship boards to ensure that our cargo shall not shift. ”

“ Her cargo space was littered up with a number of grain chutes, which would have to come out; and her boats, which had been stored in the empty hold aft, away from the weather, were in tiptop shape. She had a spare anchor, plenty of chain, wire cable and Manila lines, though these latter would doubtless have to be renewed in their entirety, owing to deterioration from age.
Her crew quarters were commodious and ample, and the officers' quarters all that could be desired; her galley equipment was complete, even to a small auxiliary ice plant. ”

“ Whenever one talks now of human affairs one comes presently to shipping and transport generally. In Paris, in Italy, when I returned to England, everywhere I found “cost of carriage” was being discovered to be a question of fundamental importance. Yet transport, railroads and shipping, these vitally important services in the world's affairs, are nearly everywhere in private hands and run for profit. In the case of shipping they are run for profit on such antiquated lines that freights vary from day to day and from hour to hour. It makes the business of food supply a gamble. ”

“ If 8 tons be taken as the capacity of an ordinary railway truck and 30 trucks be allowed to a train, ~it will be obvious that a single modern cargo ship will require a vast procession of rolling stock to clear her cargo. A single cargo of 10,000 tons, for example, will require some 125O railway trucks for its removal; or, allowing 6 yards' length to the truck, 7500 yards of rolling stock, without engines and vans. And, in fact, congestion of shipping owing to delays is frequently the cause of bitter complaint in the case of certain ports. ”

“ CASE OF THE GILDERSLIENE. Ship under the United States colours and register. Charter-party with Messrs. Halliday, Fox, and Co., of London, who describe themselves as merchants and freighters, to make a voyage to Calcutta and back to London or Liverpool. Cargo taken in at Sunderland, and consisting of coal, said to be shipped for the "service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company," but not even averred to be on "their account and risk." No certificate or other evidence of property; ship and cargo condemned. Master knows nothing of property except what appears by the papers. ”

“ If we burden them with load-lines, which prevent them from carrying as much cargo with safety as a foreign vessel would be allowed to do—half a foot, or even three inches less depth may deprive them of all their profit—or saddle them with charges for surveys and so forth, already very heavy, and to which their competitors are not subjected, we, in either case, drive them from the trade. We must further, if we adopt the principle of a certificate of seaworthiness, recollect the interests of a great number of small coasters, and carefully consider if it would not seriously affect them. ”

“ The captain was expected to “break his orders in any part,” if he could drive a better bargain than his employer had been able to foresee at a distance of ten thousand miles from the market. Merchants as well as navigators, the old-time shipmaster found compensation for these arduous responsibilities in the “privileges” which allowed him a liberal amount of cargo space on their own account, as well as a commission on the sales of the freight out and back. His own share of the profits of two or three voyages to the Far East might enable him to buy and ship and freight a vessel for himself. ”

“ The flocks and herds of the squatters in the bush are increasing at a most rapid rate—far beyond the consumptive demand of the colony—and the supplies for export of hides, tallow, oil, and wool must very largely increase. Of the latter most important raw material the following were the shipments to this country during the past three years:—
In bales the total exports of last year were 153,000, of an average of about 300 lb. weight each. This article alone would afford return cargoes for from thirty to forty thousand tons of shipping. ”

“ P. H. L. and H. G. Hilken, the representatives of the North German Lloyd at Baltimore, had done everything in their power to make this extremely delicate part of our task as easy and safe as possible for us.
They had not only acquired, on the quiet, all the goods for our return cargo, and had them taken to the sheds ready for loading—it was a jolly fine stock, too, and many who saw it wondered how on earth such a quantity of goods could ever be stored away on a U-Boat—but they had even procured the necessary and specially adapted loading and stocking personnel—gangs of lightermen and dockers. ”

“ Mules pull small trucks up from the beach to the high ground behind the beach, where the mules are unhitched and the trucks, with their own momentum, run down the plateau, which is on a gentle slope. Bell’s idea is to have a Supply depot at the end of the railway on the plateau, and to issue from there to Horse Transport, which will come up one wagon at a time. Should transport collect in any spot on this plateau it immediately draws shell fire. ”

“ The cargo is thrown overboard to avoid the penalty and imprisonment to which it would subject the crew, as well as the confiscation of the vessel and cargo. If they reach the English coast, and are chased by the revenue vessels, or have notice by signals from their agents on shore that they are discovered, and cannot land their cargoes, they take the exact bearings and distances of several points of land, and with heavy stones sink their tubs of spirits, which are always strung upon a hawser like a row of beads. ”

“ Cargo-handling compares favourably with the most advanced ports. Efficient, modern methods, a plentiful supply of labour, lighterage, road-transport and experienced staffs, capable of undertaking any operation from the stowage of special cargoes to the handling of heavy-lifts and bulk oils, make the Port popular with all connected with shipping. 750,000 measurement tons (mainland) and 230,000 measurement tons (island) of godown space is equipped for ordinary, refrigerated and dangerous goods storage. ”