Danish liners around the world

Bruce Peter is Reader in Design History at The Glasgow School of Art. He is half-Danish, a graduate of The Royal College of Art and the University of Glasgow. Having enjoyed travelling on ships across the North Sea from a young age, the design history of modern merchant shipping became one of his research specialities. During the past decade, he has written a number of books and participated in the making of television programmes about various aspects of the development of ship design and operation since the advent of steam propulsion. His most recent publications include Knud E. Hansen A/S: 75 Years of Ship Design (Ferry Publications, 2012) about the famous Danish naval architecture company and The Museum in the Dock/Museet i  dokken (Arvinius+Orfeus, 2013) about Denmark´s new National Maritime Museum.

Danish Liners Around the World tells the remarkable story of Danish shipping companies´ engagement in international liner shipping. Today, Maersk Line is the world´s biggest liner company, operating many of the largest and most technologically sophisticated container ships. Yet, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Danish merchant fleet lagged far behind those of Europe´s great powers. Through a combination of business acumen and technical innovation in the twentieth century, Danish shipping lines gradually expanded, gaining market share by undercutting less efficient rivals.

In this book, the histories of Denmark´s major liner companies – DFDS, EAC, Maersk and Torm – are recorded and successful innovations, particularly the development by Burmeister & Wain of reliably efficient marine diesel engines, are documented.

In recent time, Danish shipping companies – particularly Maersk Line – have played major roles in bringing about the phenomenon of ´globalisation´ as the switch from general cargo to shipping containers has enabled goods to be moved for long distances securely and at unprecedentedly low cost. Consequently, value chains are nowadays spread across oceans and continents. Indeed, the modern-day super-container ship, exemplified by Maersk´s new Triple-E class, symbolises our contemporary world of mass production, distribution and consumerism.