ABSTRACT
Coastal shipping provides a door-to-door service between many European destinations, on the coast and far inland, as well as across the Channel and North Sea to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
United Kingdom coastal shipping carried some 47m Tonnes of conventional cargo in 1973; this became 83m Tonnes if specialised vessels are included, eg, for dumping, aggregates, etc. Coastal shipping covered 12,200m Tonne Miles in 1974, and in addition our offshore islands and Northern Ireland. About 14% of all United Kingdom freight was carried by coastal shipping, and 2.5% by inland waterways.
