ABSTRACT
This chapter tackles the lacuna head on by discussing how this particular type of shipping data can be accurately represented on a map. Such an exercise poses specific issues in terms of geovisualization, as it necessitates, among other developments, the creation of a virtual maritime grid to which port nodes and their mutual vessel flows are assigned. The chapter discusses the scarcity of maritime data cartography until recent years in the light of general knowledge on flow mapping in geography and elsewhere. It describes how vessel movement data had been incorporated into a dedicated visualization system. The chapter provides the first-ever cartographies of such movements while discussing the gaps between our results and the existing literature on the transition from sail to steam shipping. It concludes with a number of ways how the visualization system may be improved in the future and how it can contribute toward addressing numerous other issues in global transport studies in general.
