In the 1960s and 1970s, many of the traditional shipping companies
trading or based in Liverpool slowly vanished because of
containerisation or competition from passenger aircraft. Many of these
shipping lines had been in operation since the early years of the
nineteenth century and had provided links with the outposts of the
Empire and the developing independent countries of the Commonwealth.
They had been established in the days of sailing ships and had survived
the transition from sail to steam and had provided a lifeline to the
country in the difficult days of the First and Second World Wars and the
Great Depression of the 1930s. With a fascinating collection of newly
unearthed photographs, shipping historian Ian Collard documents this
important period of transition in the history of one of the world's most
famous ports.