Author Topic: Ship Movements Of The Past  (Read 3996 times)

Offline Eric Swedberg

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Ship Movements Of The Past
« on: May 25, 2015, 07:39:01 PM »
Although I've been here for a while and have only on occasion participated, I've been quite interested in ship traffic since I was a kid in the 1960s. Being that this is a community of ship spotters, I thought there would be more information on past decades ship traffic here or elsewhere on the internet. Would there be interest in such a department here? I've been collating such information on Columbia River traffic since 1967, it's a laborious process (I'm still working, too) and I'm nearly done with 1970. I will be saving this information with our local maritime museum, but I am also happy to share it here. Maybe somebody has been doing the same in their locale? Maybe somebody has a library of Lloyds Lists? Would this be manageable for the admins here?

Offline Tony des Landes

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Re: Ship Movements Of The Past
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2015, 11:17:59 PM »
Hi Eric

I have done something similar for the Port of Napier going all the way back to 1895. I have also recorded details of all ships plus I have managed to obtain a photo for every vessel.

I imagine Napier has had a lot less ships than the Columbia River, but yes it was a laborious process and for a number of years I had to make my way through hundreds of old newspapers back to the 1890's. The Port only had records back to 1931 and even then there were a few gaps and I had to resort to newspapers as well for those.

I have put all the details into an Access database where I can easily search records by vessel, cargo, dates etc. I have also developed a report and printed off all the contents plus photos and then had bound professionally by a bookbinder.

I've attached a document showing how my database works and also a photo of my book - the result of several years work.

Regards
Tony

« Last Edit: May 26, 2015, 12:34:33 AM by Tony des Landes »
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Offline Eric Swedberg

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Re: Ship Movements Of The Past
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2015, 02:13:26 AM »
Hi Tony
That is quite impressive, although I haven't been able to open the Napier file, only the navigation info, which hasn't been "clickable" for me, but I'll fiddle with it when I have more time.
Yes, the Columbia River traffic has been a lot to wade through, I have more information on the Port of Astoria traffic, which is were I grew up and had access to their files. By luck, the Walter Frost (Vancouver BC) photo trove is mostly of the same ships that called here, so I have a lot of visual reference available.

Offline Eric Swedberg

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Re: Ship Movements Of The Past
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2015, 12:10:05 AM »
OK, I must be doing something wrong. I clicked the file you provided, and got the tutorial on how to use the database, but I don't find the actual database.

Offline Tony des Landes

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Re: Ship Movements Of The Past
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2015, 01:12:11 AM »
Hi Eric

I've attached a zipped copy of my database to this forum which you can download and extract the file which you can open with Microsoft Access

You will get an error saying that the image file doesn't exist with some forms but that can be solved by putting a .jpg file with the same name as the ship in the same folder as the database

Regards

Tony
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Offline Eric Swedberg

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Re: Ship Movements Of The Past
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2015, 02:50:12 PM »
Thanks Tony, I'll dive/delve into it today.

 

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