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Trading Places

Trading Places - a history of Liverpool Docks

North America

Liverpool has dealt in many North America trades including cotton, tobacco, sugar, grain and people. Discover more or see how each dock was involved in these transatlantic trades below.

Docks involved

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Early American Trade

Liverpool's trade with North America (USA & Canada) began in the 1660s (about 40 years before the slave trade began) bring back tobacco and sugar. As the continent developed, and ships became larger and faster, trade grew. Liverpool exported manufactured items such as cloth and pottery, and imported raw materials and foodstuffs. People were also carried [image, new window].

Steamships

The famous Cunard line was the first of several companies to run regular steam services across the Atlantic from Liverpool in 1840. These liners carried passengers, mail and general cargo to east coast ports. They quickly reduced the crossing time from an average thirty-five days by sailing ship to fourteen days, until in the 1930s crossing took just four to five days.

Emigration

Between 1830 and 1930 over nine million people emigrated via Liverpool, mainly to the United States and Canada. They came from across northern Europe and emigrated for a number of reasons:

  • Poverty, e.g. Irish Potato Famine.
  • Persecution, e.g. 19th century Jewish Russians & Poles.
  • Ambition, i.e. people wanted a better life for themselves.

Many got to Liverpool and could not afford to travel further so stayed in the city. This is one of the reasons why Liverpool has so many people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Conditions on board ship differed depending on how much money you had:

  • First class passengers travelled in relative luxury with their own cabins.
  • Second and third class passengers were able to travel in small cabins.
  • Most others had to travel in steerage. This was basically a room of bunk beds between the decks and the hold. Steerage was very crowded with no air, heating or light. Conditions were even worse during a storm.

Hazards

Steerage was a breeding ground for disease. One ship going to Quebec in 1847 had 158 of her passengers die of typhus or cholera. Famine victims, who were already very weak, were most likely to fall ill.

The journey across the Atlantic could be dangerous.

  • Storms and bad weather could damage or wreck ships.
  • Ships sometimes hit one another.
  • There were fires onboard.
  • Sometimes there was a lack of food.

In 1854 a sailing ship hit the Irish coast, killing 370 out of 400 people. However, most people had uneventful voyages.

Charles Dickens sailed from Liverpool when he travelled to America. You can listen to his account of rough Atlantic seas by clicking on either one of these 2 links (mp3, 486 kb | wav, 3355 kb) or click here to just read the text.

Imports & Exports

Britain's cities grew quickly in the second half of the 19th century. Farmers could not grow enough food for everyone, so grain and other foodstuffs had to be imported from America. It came from the huge farms that had developed on the west coast of the USA, particularly in California. It was carried in sailing ships, rather than by steam, as grain was considered a low value, bulk commodity.

Cotton was Liverpool's most important cargo in the 19th century. Most raw cotton came from the southern United States but after 1840 some also came from Egypt and India.

  • 111,000 tons of cotton were imported in 1820
  • 360,000 tons in 1850
  • 650,000 tons in 1890

Grain and cotton were not the only imports from North America. There was also:

  • fruit carried in refrigerated steamers
  • furs became an important steam cargo in the early 1860s
  • whale oil
  • timber from Canada (Canada Dock is named after this link)

Exports from Liverpool to the USA included:

  • Lancashire coal was exported as ballast in ships returning to America.
  • Many manufactured goods were exported from Liverpool, even prefabricated (ready made) metal churches and houses. These were made in Liverpool and shipped out from what became known as the Cast Iron Shore.

By the 1870s Liverpool ships did more trade with North America than with any other area. American ships tried to take some of this work but their fleet collapsed during the American Civil War (1861-65). Links between Liverpool and America continued during the war, despite the collapse of the cotton trade (this recovered once the war ended). Liverpool even sent ships, weapons and cash to fund the southern states [image, new window].

Decline

The passenger trade between Liverpool and the USA was very strong, but was badly affected by world events.

  • People lost confidence in the ships after the sinking of the Titanic (1912).
  • Foreign competitors began to run services.
  • Many ships were used by the military or damaged during both world wars (1914-18 & 1939-45).
  • The Depression (1929-34) reduced business.

The White Star and Cunard lines were forced to merge in 1934. After World War 2 the passenger industry made a slight recovery, but from the 1950s passenger airlines grew rapidly. 1967 saw the end of Cunard's Liverpool service, and 1971 the end of the Canadian Pacific Line service on the Mersey.

Links between USA and Liverpool were very strong during World War II. The Atlantic convoys brought food, arms and troops to Britain through the docks. This was the last period of activity for many Liverpool docks [image, new window].

Liverpool's links with the USA remain, now mainly through large container ships.

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Royal Seaforth Dock & N. America

A large proportion of Seaforth's trade comes from North America, in particular:

  • Grain - much of this work was taken from other docks such as Alexandra Dock. There is a special grain terminal.
  • Timber - there is a special timber terminal.
  • Soya beans - soya beans are used in about 60% of all food products including bread, baby food and margarine.

Seaforth is a gateway to European markets for many American firms. A rail link connects the port to Europe via the channel tunnel.

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Gladstone Dock & N. America

The North American passenger trade was very important to Gladstone Dock. The graving dock was designed to repair the huge transatlantic passenger liners belonging to Cunard and White Star Lines. [image, new window]

The Cunard liner, 'Aquitania', was actually in the graving dock when World War I broke out. She had been damaged off the coast of Ireland in July 1914, and was converted to carry soldiers while being repaired [image, new window].

The wet dock was also an important base for Atlantic escorts and minesweepers during World War II.

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Canada Dock & N. America

Canada Dock was built away from the other docks because of the fire risk of its main cargo - timber. This was mainly imported from North America (especially Canada). Timber-carrying ships were moored with their bows on the quay to allow the long pieces of timber to be dragged ashore.

In the 1860s the docks large size made it suitable for importing grain and meat cargoes from the USA. Cotton also became important after 1865. Later the dock was involved in the North Americas passenger trade.

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Huskisson Dock & N. America

Much of Huskisson Dock's trade has been based on North American links.

  • 1852 - the dock is designed to deal in timber (imported from North America)
  • 1860s - Huskisson becomes the home to the North America steamer trade and transatlantic liners. Companies such as Donaldson, Cunard, and White Star are based there for many years.
  • 1950s - a huge 100,000-ton sugar silo (storage tower) is built by Tate & Lyle (this silo became a Grade II listed building).

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Waterloo Dock & N. America

Waterloo Dock's main cargo was grain, especially from North America. The trade grew quickly after the repeal (withdrawal) of the Corn Laws and with the growth of industrial Britain. The dock had huge grain warehouses and the latest handling and storing equipment. When these became old-fashioned, the east part of the dock was turned into an oil-seed mill and the west into a corn mill.

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Princes Dock & N. America

Princes Dock was built in 1810 for the profitable sailing vessels running to North America. These vessels carried:

  • passengers - including emigrants
  • mail
  • other high value cargoes

After about 20 years Princes Dock lost much of the North American trade. Large steam ships were built, so new larger docks were built for them downstream. Princes Dock then moved into new markets.

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Old Dock & N. America

There was some trade with North America before Old Dock opened - tobacco was the main import. Trade grew to include cotton, rum, sugar etc.

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Canning Dock & N. America

Many ships bound for North America were repaired at Canning Dock in the 18th and early 19th century. However there were fewer visitors after the much larger Sandon graving docks opened in 1851. Some ocean-going ships were repaired or converted at Canning graving dock during World War II. However the 35ft entrance was too narrow for many ocean-going ships.

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Albert Dock was used as an unloading dock for deep-sea ships from the Americas until around 1890 (when it became too small). Cargoes included:

  • Cotton
  • Sugar
  • Tobacco
  • Spirits

These cargoes were made from plants that only grew at certain times of the year. Traders could store them at the Albert Dock's warehouses and release them slowly over the year. This helped to reduce the seasonal differences in supply and price.

Ships that brought cargoes such as rum and sugar from America had often already been to places such as Calcutta. They had:

  • Unloaded manufactured goods from England in Calcutta
  • Loaded up with stores and workers for use on the sugar plantations in Demerara, Trinidad and Guadeloupe
  • Then sailed to America to exchange those supplies and workers for sugar, rum etc.

Albert Dock was used as a base for escort vessels travelling across the Atlantic during World War II. This was the last real use for the dock before it closed in 1972.

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Pier Head & N. America

The Pier Head is the site of the floating landing stage. The north end provided river berths for vessels going to North America:

  • Famous Cunard liners like the Mauretania and Aquitania. The Cunard Line also had its offices at the Cunard Building, at the Pier Head.
  • The White Star vessels like Oceanic and Georgic.
  • The Canadian-Pacific 'Empress Ships'.

Riverside railway station was opened at the end of the 19th century. This private station offered direct connections to London.

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Wapping Dock & N. America

Wapping Dock was mainly a passage to other docks. However its warehouses were once full of cargo from North America. The deep-sea vessels brought these cargoes into the warehouses:

  • cotton - from the southern states
  • tobacco - one of Liverpool's earliest imports
  • wool
  • sugar
  • rum

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Herculaneum Dock & N. America

Herculaneum Dock, especially the graving docks, was very busy during World War II. Liverpool was the UK base for the North Atlantic convoy (groups of trade vessels escorted by military ships across the ocean).

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Birkenhead Docks & N. America

North American trades were very important to Birkenhead Docks.

Railways: Bridges, rails and rolling stock (parts of trains) for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada were all exported during the 1850s and 1860s. They left from the specially built Canada Works on the Great Float.
Timber: The timber trade was originally based at West Float (away from other quays due to the fire risk). Birkenhead imported less wood than Liverpool.
Grain: Imported grain was very important to Birkenhead, especially between the wars. Huge grain silos (storage towers) and flourmills filled the banks of the Great Float during the 20th century. In the mid-1920s Birkenhead was second only to Minneapolis, USA in the amount of grain it milled.
Animals: Large areas of land near the river were converted to lairages and railways for importing livestock. Live cattle and sheep, as well as refrigerated meats were imported and used in several ways:

  • Milk & meat to feed the population of Victorian Britain.
  • Leather for clothes and shoes
  • Fat for candles and chemical manufacture
  • Bones for gelatine and glue. About 40 local firms used blood, intestines (guts) and bones alone.

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