Comparison of the
coverage of the Lloyd’s and Répertoire Générale registers
(updated 16 January 2008)
Understandably, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping has become widely regarded as the primary world source of information about shipping. However, it was not always so. Lloyd’s Register did not even attempt to be a global source of shipping statistics until 1886 in the wake of Lloyd’s of London extending its scope by absorbing the Liverpool Underwriter’s Registry.
Comparisons in the graphs below show the Répertoire Générale compiled by Bureau Veritas of Paris to be a more comprehensive source than Lloyd’s for a major part of the 19th century and an important complementary source into the 20th. Bureau Veritas produced a global register, not “the French one”. Indeed, up to 1886 it produced the only one.
The Répertoire Général compiled from 1870 onward by Bureau Veritas covered shipping in general more comprehensively than Lloyd’s up to the issuing of Lloyd’s Universal Register in 1886 and it exceeded Lloyd’s coverage of sailing ships at least up to World War I by a considerable margin. The attempt at comprehensive coverage of ships of 100 gross tons and above in the standard series of Lloyd’s Register dates only from 1890.
The Répertoire Générale covered significantly more than 60,000 ships in 1870. By comparison, the number of ships in Lloyd’s Register did not exceed 17,000 until the scope was expanded in the Lloyd’s Universal Registers published from 1886 to 1889. The number of steamships covered by the Répertoire Générale was slightly below that of the Lloyd’s Universal Register – although the tonnage was slightly larger - in the late 1880’s and the standard Lloyd’s Register in the early 1890’s, but slipped progressively behind Lloyd’s thereafter.
Part of the explanation for the higher coverage of Sail by the Répertoire Générale throughout the period and the high total number of all ships in the 1870’s, lies in the 50 net tons criterion for inclusion of sailing ships in the Répertoire Générale compared with the 100 ton criterion of Lloyd’s for both Sail and Steam. That may well be a primary explanation for the Répertoire Générale exceeding Lloyd’s coverage of Sail in later years but not the three to four times greater coverage of total shipping during the 1870’s.
The series of graphs below compare the coverage by the two agencies, differentiating Sail and Steam. Consent is granted for reproduction of the graphs with acknowledgement.
In the following graphs, Bureau Veritas is the compiling agency; the Répertoire Générale is the name of the publication. The Bureau Veritas register itself is separate and smaller in coverage.
Comparison of the
number of ships recorded
The following graph compares
the total number of ships covered by each register.
The solid (upper) line indicates the coverage of the Répertoire Général.;
The lower (dashed) line indicates the coverage
of Lloyd’s (using the Universal Register
for 1886-89). The
dotted line shows the numbers in the
standard Lloyd’s Register when it and the Universal Register were
published in parallel.
The total numbers of ships were declining or more or less static despite
the huge expansion of shipping tonnage in the period because the average size
of ships increased dramatically. The tonnage figures following show a very
different pattern.
Digression: For a graph showing the World number of
ships and tonnage of shipping from 1921 to 1998 see http://www.oceansatlas.org/unatlas/uses/transportation_telecomm/maritime_trans/Impoship.htm
(for close-up detail click on the first graph or http://www.oceansatlas.org/unatlas/uses/transportation_telecomm/maritime_trans/images/g1.gif
) The numbers appear to be similar to or broadly consistent with those compiled
by Lloyd’s Register and included in Appendices to LR from 1890-91 up to the
early 1950’s (thereafter in separate statistical publications) [the series has
28,433 ships of nearly 59 million gross tons in 1921 and 87, 157 of more than
532 59 million gross tons in 1998]. Combining this graph with mine of World
ship numbers would give a U-shaped (concave upward) curve from 1870 (from
possibly a decade or so earlier). World carrying capacity is quite another
matter but the number of operating units is an equally important tool in
studying the changing composition of the fleet. (I do not question that world
ship numbers as well as tonnage increased up to the 1860’s or are now more
numerous than c. 1870.)
Number of Sailing
Ships
The following graph shows how
the number of sailing ships covered by the Répertoire
Générale exceeded
the number covered by Lloyd’s
by a margin of several thousand throughout the period.
The upper solid line indicates the number recorded by Bureau Veritas;
the dashed line indicates the
number recorded in Lloyd’s Register (from 1886 to 1889 the
number in Lloyd’s Universal Register).
It does not necessarily follow that the Répertoire
Générale includes all of the sailing ships
covered by Lloyd’s. Direct
comparison of sample pages is necessary to establish to what degree the
Répertoire Générale
coverage of sail = Lloyd’s
+ extras, or whether, as is more
likely, a substantial core is common to both, but each includes significant
numbers
that the other does not. In the latter case, addition to either
total of those ships included in the other but not in
itself, could well provide significantly higher world totals than
either alone.
Number of Steam
Ships
The following graph shows that Lloyd’s (the dashed upper line) covered
slightly more steam ships from the
time that the Universal Register
commenced in 1886, and that the gap widened thereafter.
Note that the
graph is drawn to a different vertical scale from those above
for Sail and total ship numbers.
The question also arises of the degree to which either register covered
any significant number of steam
ships not also covered by the other, the addition of which to the
higher figure might indicate a significantly
larger world total than indicated by either
alone.
Comparison of the
tonnage of ships recorded
Tonnage provides a more useful indication of the carrying capacity of the ships recorded by each agency as the average tonnage of sail and steam ships differed significantly through time. To the degree that the average tonnage of ships recorded by one agency differs from that of the other, a different picture may emerge of the coverage of shipping.
Total tonnage,
Sail and Steam
In the above
graph, the tonnage of ships recorded in the Répertoire
Générale register is shown as the solid line from
1870 onward and the Lloyd’s tonnage as the dashed line from the mid 1880’s on.
The graph combines net tonnages for sailing ships and gross tonnages for steam
but this does not seriously affect the comparability for this purpose because,
generally speaking, sailing ships’ gross tonnages are only slightly larger than
the net, so that either total can serve as a rough approximation for the other
in general comparions. In this case, combining the
net tonnage of sailing ships with the gross tonnage of steamships provides a
first approximation of the gross tonnage of all ships.
The graph shows
that the total tonnages covered by each register were similar but that the Répertoire Générales’
greater coverage of Sail gave it a slight edge into the 20th century
when Lloyd’s greater coverage of Steam, and the widening gap in the agencies’
coverage of Steam gave Lloyd’s the edge.
Tonnage of Steam
Ships in each register
In the above
graph, the gross tonnage of steam ships recorded in the Répertoire
Générale register is shown as the solid line from
1870 onward and the Lloyd’s tonnage as the dashed line from the mid 1880’s on.
The graph shows
slightly greater coverage of steam ship tonnage by the Répertoire
Générale initially – even though Lloyd’s already
covered more steamships – but that Lloyd’s coverage overtook that of Bureau Veritas
during the early 20th century. For a period, the Répertoire
Générale evidently had slightly greater coverage of
larger steamships even though fewer overall and a higher threshold for
inclusion.
Tonnage of Sailing
Ships in each register
In the above
graph, the net tonnage of sailing ships recorded in the Répertoire
Générale register is shown as the solid line from
1870 onward and the Lloyd’s tonnage as the dashed line from the mid 1880’s on.
Note that this graph is drawn to a different vertical scale from those above
for Steam and all ships.
The graph shows
greater coverage by the Répertoire Générale throughout the period. Establishing to what
degree this is due to the different criteria (50 tons for the Répertoire Générale,
100 tons for Lloyd’s) requires access to statistics from each agency, to which
I do not currently have access, breaking down the total tonnage into size
categories, or else a comparison between sample pages of each register.
The transition
from Sail to Steam
The
same data can be used to measure the transition from Sail to Steam. Go to Transition
Sources
The Lloyd’s statistics are published as appendices to the registers for each year from the 1890’s onward.
My principal source for the Répertoire Générale
is the register itself and annual reports of the
Report of the Commissioner of Navigation to the Secretary of the Treasury, 1885, 1887, 1888, 1891-92.
Annual Report Commissioner of Navigation to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 1904, 1909, 1912.
Both series were published by the Government Printing Office, Washington.
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