Long before air travel allowed change of crews at short intervals of four or five months, many British tramp crews faced long voyages of up to three or four years in duration without calling at any British port. Single men for the positions of Master, Mates, Engineers and deck crew were the obvious candidates, as they could withstand the very long separations from friends, families and loved ones, whereas married men could not take such years of separation.

These single men had always dreamed of a life at sea for a long time since boyhood, travelling the seven seas in a perpetual whirl of new ports, places and adventure, quite divorced from the reality of life ashore at home. The nature of trading was such that the tramps operated mostly on voyage charters only, fixed by their owners and agents on the Baltic Exchange in London, with several time charters varying from as little time of one month up to two years in duration. British shipping had a huge monopoly of world trade during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, and thus sending tramps to the ends of the earth for profitable trading was the expected norm of shipowners.

We will look at several very long voyages in detail that had durations of up to or over four years without a single or almost no calls at British ports for discharge, crew changes, refits, dry dockings or special surveys.

QUEEN LOUISE

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