Ocean Transport

Ocean Transport The sea represents one of the oldes and cheapest modes for transporting bulky goods. The us' of containers has made it easy to transfer goods to lane transport by rail or road at the world's major ports. Th. oceans are open highways with few natural barriers, bu the bulk of the world's trade passes along certain well marked routes.

Major Ocean Trade Routes The major ocean tradt routes in the world are as follows:
(a) The North Atlantic Route The North Atlantic routE links the world's major ports such as London, Rotterdam, Hamburg, New York, Yokohama, Singapore, Colomboj San Francisco and Honolulu. On both sides of the Nort~ Atlantic there are regions of dense population and intensel
industrial activity. The ports on the North Sea, the BaJtic Sea and the English Channel are the outlets of thea,?,f\­ cultural and industrial regions of Europe. Manuufactured items are exported from these ports to the United stateS and Canada. In north-eastern North America there are large ocean terminals- New York, Boston, Philadelphia­favourably located for trade around the world and with Western Europe in particular. The external trade of the North Atlantic region is greater than all the trade of the rest of the world.

(b) The Cape of Good Hope Route The Cape of Good Hope .route was once the subsidiary alternative to the Suez Canal route, but because of its long and circuitous nature, it was avoided by most ships. But when the Suez Canal was closed in 1967 oil tankers and liners had to take this route. Even after the Suez Canal re-opened in 1975 much trade has continued to take this route, partly because tankers and other vessels are nowadays much larger.

(c) The Mediterranean-Suez-Asiatic Route With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Mediterranean-Suez­Asiatic route linking Europe with the Far East gained importance. The route was once considered the 'life-line' of Britain because oil supplies from West Asia and tropical raw materials and food-stuffs from the Asiatic colonies came through the Suez. When the Panama Canal opened in 1913, SOme traffic, especially that for New Zealand and the Far East, was diverted, but traffic on the Suez Canal route continued to increase. Oil is sent across the Arabian desert by pipelines from the Persian Gulf oil-fields to the Mediterranean terminals at Banias, Tripoli and Saida (Sidon), for shipment to Europe, instead of going by tanker round the Cape of Good Hope. This is an economical as well as the fastest way of transporting oil to Europe.

(d) The Panama Canal-West Indian-Central American Route The completion of the Panama Canal eliminated the long and dangerous voyage round the stormy Cape Horn. "The Panama Canal is the gateway to the Pacific." It has benefited countries on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts, facilitating the trade in minerals, oil, foodstuffs, raw ma­terials and manufactured products. But it is the traffic between the east and west coasts of the United States that has benefited the most. The Panama route has also ben­efited trade in the West Indian islands and the Pacific states of North, Central and South America.

(e) The South Atlantic Route The ocean traffic in the South Atlantic is less than that in the North Atlantic, because it connects regions of low population densities and limited economic development. Only south-eastern Brazil and parts of South Africa have large-scale industrial development.

(f) The Trans-Pacific Route Trade across the North Pacific Ocean traverses several routes which converge at Honolulu, 'the cross-roads of the Pacific', for refuelling and servicing. The distance is, however, halved if one takes the direct route farther north in a great circle, which links Vancouver and Yokohama without touching the Hawaiian islands.