Yamamura parks in front of the Embarcadero. Beyond is Telegraph Hill. To his left is Fisherman's Wharf where the Balclutha is visible.
"'Tramp' had suggested a rusty hulk crewed by Eugene O'Neill bit players. But the Valborg was long and slim..." (p. 17)
She was:
"'Built in Goteborg in 1950...'" (p. 18)
A fact-packed text.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In other words, the "Valborg" had not yet been used long enough to become battered by hard use and the passing of time.
Sean
Poul didn't know it, but he was writing just before a complete turnover in how ships handled cargo -- containerization changed everything, even more than the introduction of powered cranes in the 19th century. It cut costs and reduced turnaround times by whole orders of magnitude -- and virtually eliminated pilferage during loading, unloading and storage, which had been a major problem for centuries.
It also destroyed the traditional labor-culture of harbor and docks, which had ossified and become tremendously resistant to change.
The traditional "tramp steamer" would become utterly redundant within two decades, reduced to a few peripheral trades in remote areas.
It's interesting how few people realized the disruptive potential of this change before it was underway.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
What I knew about tramp freighters came from reading Christopher Buckley's STEAMING TO BAMBOOLA, his memoir of the year he spent as a deckhand on a Norwegian freighter in 1970-71. Frequently amusing, informative, sad, and weird! That was just as containerization was only just kicking in and tramp freighters were still being often used. So, MURDER BOUND, being pub. in 1959, was still topical in its use of tramp freighters.
Sean
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