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Safety at Sea during the Industrial Revolution

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  • Morgan Kelly
  • Cormac Ó Gráda
  • Peter Solar

Abstract

Shipping was central to the rise of the Atlantic economies, but an extremely hazardous activity: in the 1780s, roughly five per cent of British ships sailing in summer for the United States never returned. Against the widespread belief that shipping technology was stagnant before iron steamships, in this paper we demonstrate that between the 1780s and 1820s, a safety revolution occurred that saw shipping losses and insurance rates on oceanic routes almost halved thanks to steady improvements in shipbuilding and navigation. Iron reinforcing led to stronger vessels while navigation improved, not through chronometers which remained too expensive and unreliable for general use, but through radically improved charts, accessible manuals of basic navigational techniques, and improved shore-based navigational aids.

Suggested Citation

  • Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda & Peter Solar, 2019. "Safety at Sea during the Industrial Revolution," Working Papers 10197/11167, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:10197/11167
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/11167
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Peter M. Solar & Oliver Buxton Dunn & Aidan Kane, 2024. "Shipping in the London coal trade, 1700‒1860," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 1005-1034, August.
    2. Timothy J. Hatton, 2024. "Sailing Ship Technology, Navigation and the Duration of Voyages to Australia, 1848-85," CEH Discussion Papers 07, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    3. Timothy J. Hatton, 2025. "Emigrant voyages from the UK to North America and Australasia, 1853–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 78(2), pages 452-473, May.
    4. Arteaga, Fernando & Desierto, Desiree & Koyama, Mark, 2024. "Shipwrecked by rents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    5. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2019. "Economic History: «An Isthmus Joining Two Great Continents»?," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 81-120.
    6. Dan Bogart & Oliver Buxton Dunn & Eduard J. Alvarez‐Palau & Leigh Shaw‐Taylor, 2022. "Organizations and efficiency in public services: The case of English lighthouses revisited," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(2), pages 975-994, April.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • N - Economic History
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies

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