Sailing Upstream.

While academic attention in The Netherlands payed to shipping is in itself impressing, an important part of this industry is often neglected. The overall attention given to tramp shipping is not in accordance with its importance for the industry. It is true that many tramping companies do not have the same glamor as for example the big liner companies that were operating in many countries such as the Holland – Amerika Line or Norddeutscher Lloyd. The tramping industry however does have a very interesting and specific dynamic, especially because of its loose nature. It is therefore very useful when one wants to gain an insight in trade- routes, networks and business strategies in a certain period. This study uses sources that were previously unused in this way to obtain a picture about the network dynamics within the tramping industry in a period roughly between 1910 and 1930. By this time two major developments had taken place in the seafaring business. The first was the introduction of the steamship and later motorship, while the second was the introduction of the telegraph. The telegraph completely altered the shipping industry, and especially the tramping industry, as tramping companies benefited very much from fast information on possible new cargoes and other possibilities for their vessels. The main sources used for this study are a selection of charter parties made by the Dutch shipbroker and owner Vinke & Co. These charter parties were made for every journey, whether by a Vinke vessel or by a vessel chartered by the Vinke broker department. The charter parties contain information on cargo, destination, freight rates and all parties that were involved in making such a contract. Charter parties are therefore a very valuable source for research into network and business strategies. These charter parties that are in the possession of the Maritime Museum and Municipal Archive in Amsterdam, have been quantified in the files CharterPartiesVinke.xls and Britsum.xls respectively. Furthermore research is done into the perspective others had on the business strategies of Vinke, mainly trough the analysis of financial sections of the most important newspapers that wrote about shipping, in the Netherlands mainly Telegraaf and Handelsblad. An analysis of these sources gives insight into the dynamics of the tramping industry and the possibilities of further research in this area using these kind of sources. It is observed that while the tramping business is normally known for its loose and unpredictable nature, Vinke explicitly tried to firmly place its business in only a very few particular trades. As all tramping companies they operated the UK bunker coal exports and the Rio de la Plate grain freights, but besides that they mainly operated their vessels in the Baltic area. Actually, their whole network was based around this trade with important connections to wood buyers in the area around Amsterdam and important contacts with Scandinavian and German shipowners who were also experienced in this area. On the other hand Vinke also managed to obtain many other freights with different parties from different nationalities. From Vinke ties spread to many developments that were specific for the period because the Vinke vessels facilitated many of these developments. The study is thus not only a case study focused on networks but also describes broader developments within the tramp market and within the Baltic specifically.