Répertoire Général Statistics

detailed notes on spreadsheets

 

 

The tables contain world shipping statistics from the Répertoire Général for 1870 onwards with some gaps and identified typographic errors.

 

It includes

 

  1. such figures as I have for the World number and tonnage of sailing ships and steamships from 1870 to 1920 (table RGtotals)

 

  1. number and tonnage of sailing ships for leading maritime nations from 1870 to 1920 (table RGSail1)

 

  1. number and tonnage of steamships for leading maritime nations from 1870 to 1920 (table RGSteam1).

 

  1. full details of number and tonnage of sailing ships for each flag from 1870 to 1900 where available (table RGSail2). For some years (particularly the early 1870’s) smaller nations are grouped in my source as Central or South America, Asian or Various.

 

  1. number of steamships for each flag from 1870 to 1900 (table RGSteam2)

 

All sailing ship tonnages are net. Wherever possible I have included net as well as gross tonnages for steamships. Net tonnage provides a better basis for comparison with the carrying capacity of sailing ships.

 

Major omissions

 

I do not have any Répertoire Général details at all for 1871-72, 1917-18, 1918-19 or 1919-20.

 

I have only incomplete details for 1887-88, 1902-03, 1909-10, and 1914-15 for either sail or steam.

 

Assistance during early 2008 with access to data for any of these years would be appreciated.

 

In the case of steamships I have only incomplete figures for those years in which there is no net tonnage figure shown in table RGSteam1 prior to 1888 (1872-73, 1874-75, 1875-76, 1877-78, 1880-81, 1881-82, 1883-84 to 1887-88 inclusive).

 

Répertoire Général  in relation to Lloyd’s Register statistics

 

The appendices of many volumes of Lloyd’s Register include comparable statistical time series covering years from 1890 onwards and are readily and widely available. Earlier tables in similar format are included in the four volumes of the Lloyd’s Universal Register for 1886 to 1889 inclusive which are not so widely available. (In effect, the Lloyd’s Universal Register and the standard Lloyd’s Register merged in 1890.

 

Note that the Répertoire Général uses a criterion of 50 net tons for the inclusion of sailing ships against Lloyd’s Register’s use of 100 net tons. However, in the case of steam ships, the Répertoire Général uses a criterion of 100 net tons whereas Lloyd’s Register covers steamships of 100 tons gross and above. This latter distinction is potentially as significant as the first because a steamship of 100 tons net is likely to be of around 150 gross tons. One would therefore expect the Répertoire Général to include fewer steamships than Lloyd’s Register, all other things being equal.

 

The LR statistics of the number of steamers available from 1885-86 onward are larger than the numbers in the RG but perhaps to a lesser degree than one would expect given the significance of the distinction between 100 gross and 100 net tons. It is therefore quite possible that in the 1880’s and into the 1890’s that the RG may include steamers not actually included in LR which in theory LR should cover.

 

 

Sources

 

Ideally, one would work solely from the primary source but no copies of the Répertoire Général are known to exist in New Zealand. I have therefore had to rely mostly on their republication in such volumes of the Report of the [US] Commissioner of Navigation [hereafter abbreviated to RCN] which are available locally (an incomplete series is in the NZ Parliamentary Library and I purchased some volumes). Sets of the RCN should be available in any national or regional library having a set of US Congressional Documents for relevant years. One would expect there to be a set somewhere in the capital city of any country which had governmental relations with the United States extending back into the 19th century.

 

By 1897-98 the Répertoire Général included statistical tables for several earlier years as well as the current year. Volumes which I have been unable to access between 1888 and 1897 could be very useful in filling gaps in the late 1880’s. I strongly recommend hunting for these RG’s (not in RCN) and also 1917-18, 1918-19 or 1919-20 (also not in RCN).

 

The statistics are compiled firstly from the statistical tables on pages 20-23 of the Report of the Commissioner of Navigation for 1887. These cover most years from 1870 (1870-71) to 1886 (1886-87) though with several missing years. An earlier version of this table is in the 1885 RCN (sighted) and presumably also in that for 1886 (not sighted). 1884 was the first year of publication in the RCN. The RCN also republishes shipping statistics compiled by individual nations that have been republished in a British Government publication called “Return on Progress of British Shipping” that I have not sighted. It is possible that the RCN obtained its Répertoire Général statistics from that source (in which case the RCN republication would be third hand).

 

In 1888, the Report of the Commissioner of Navigation switched to using Lloyd’s Universal Register and Lloyd’s Register as its primary source of world shipping statistics. For several years the RCN does not include any Répertoire Général statistics in its annual volumes.

 

From about 1895-96 oward, the RCN again generally includes the annual statistical tables from the Répertoire Général  together with RG summary statistics covering a number of years for the World total and for the leading merchant fleets in addition to the statistics from Lloyd’s Register. So far, I have generally transcribed the details of national shipping fleets beyond 1900 only for  the five largest merchant fleets.

 

Gaps have been filled where possible from scanned pages from the original RG documents with the kind assistance of Luc Van Coolput and Paul de Keijzer. However, I have not yet been able to obtain any statistics for certain years or full details for some others, as listed earlier.

 

 

Typographic errors

 

There are some provable typographic errors in the available publications including some Répertoire Général originals (plus any I may have created myself). The table is therefore still a draft, albeit a checked and partially corrected one. Those errors not yet resolved are shown as a row labelled “Discrepancy” in the spreadsheets. There may be others not yet identified when there are insufficient details to cross check against control totals.

 

Some published errors I have found are:

 

  1. The RG for 1897-98 gives the number of German sailing ships as 1,607 which is well above the trend for the years either side. A separate later series in the RCN indicates the correct number to be 1,067 which is consistent with the trend and exactly corrects the discrepancy of 540 from the total in the published figures.

 

  1. The RG for 1897-98 gives the number of American sailing ships in 1894-95 as 3,600. A later series in the RCN gives a figure of 3,609 which exactly corrects the discrepancy of 9 that otherwise exists.

 

  1. The tonnage of 829,215 for Spanish sailing ships in 1878 (1878-79) is far higher than the values either side so the initial 8 at least must be a typographic error. 429,215 would fit the trend and largely correct the discrepancy but it is possible that there are also transposed numbers or further typographic errors as some discrepancy would remain.

 

  1. There are some significant typographic differences between the 1885 and 1887 editions of the RCN, notably 1,558 and 1,158 for the number of Danish sailing ships in 1884 (1884-85) and 398,561 or 348,561 for the French tonnage in 1885 (1885-86).

 

  1. The number of British steamships in 1904-05 is published as 8,406 which is quite inconsistent with the trend and the tonnage. The figure of 44 Norwegian steam ships in 1881-82 is similarly inconsistent but is as published in two editions of the RCN.

 

 The statistical tables are in MS Excel format at R7WorldStats2.xls