Coasters - Great Britain: books - history and types

Coastal Shipping Through Time

Before the development of canals, railways or metalled roads, the quickest and most effective means of transporting goods from one point to another in Britain was by the use of coastal shipping, shallow-draft boats travelling between the ports of the British Isles. With the development and improvement of the canals, railways and especially the road network, however, coastal shipping in the UK has decreased dramatically.

In this book, maritime author Ian Collard takes a look at the history of coastal shipping in the UK, examining in turn the ports of the English Channel, the North East, Scotland and the Irish Sea and the ships used to transport so much cargo and so many passengers.

Coasters of South Wales

This volume looks at ports between Swansea in the west and Chepstow in the east. The industrial revolution saw a huge and rapid expansion of ports in this area, thanks largely to the insatiable appetite for coal and metals which could be supplied in abundance from South Wales. The latter half of the twentieth century saw an inexorable decline in the area's coal production and heavy industry with the inevitable result that large sections of port areas have declined in maritime importance.