For those of you interested in traffic levels, here's the
Marine Log for Saturday, November 7, 1992 from the New Orleans
Times-Picayune. New Orleans is either the 2nd or 3rd busiest port
in the U.S. (vies with Houston, New York City is #1), and has
hundreds of wharfs, all kinds of facilities, and several
shipyards. In short, it's a Class A seaport, by Traveller
standards. You all know the population of the U.S. (about 250
million, give or take), so think of New Orleans as the #2 A
starport on a population 8 world...
I have deleted the Agent & wharf information as irrelevant,
and please remember this is just the big stuff -- doesn't show the
tons of Mississippi River traffic (interplanetary traffic??) and
small boats.
-------- ----------
ARRIVALS DEPARTURES
-------- ----------
Friday Dest.
Anantel Atlas Tug Alice Moran & Barge Foreign
Golden Luck Miroslawiec "
*Kathrine Sif Holger Sif "
Kapitan Stankov Chios Star Venezuela
Inger Swan Cape Foreign
*Birdie Tatay "
Timi Santa Rita "
Hua Tong Hai Texas Sun "
Profitis Elias Tug Leopardo Grande & Barge "
Far Eastern Grain Tomas Hope "
*Brigit Maersk Sunderland Spirit "
Knock Ardy Leslie Lykes "
Sulby BT Neptune "
Mega Buck Kotor "
Western Trade Bertina Houston
Hoegh Dene Aston Trader Florida
Stassfurt Rapel Coastwise
*Enchanted Seas Aristidis Foriegn
Sam Houston BL Helene "
Pergamos Golden Chase "
*Ulan Bator Emil S "
Seamaid "
Hope Mexico
Saturday
Forum Victory *Kathrine Sif Panama
Blue Sapphire *Brigit Maersk Charleston
Alpha Sun *Ulan Bator Rotterdam
Sea Merchant Botany Tradition Foriegn
Focomar *Enchanted Seas Jamaica
Jahre President Cleo Florida
Marlin Ilya Erenburg Foriegn
Hoegh Forum Argus "
Ocean Ever Onda Bianca "
Anangel Ares Scenery Sea "
Chubut Sarla "
Gas Fueguino Liberty Victory "
Sealand Challenger *Birdie "
Angelique Elpida "
Deneb Ioannis P "
New Glory Oksywie "
Mayaguez Vera Martyetskaya "
Fort Windsor Proteus "
Rachel B. Christina C "
Note that ships tagged with an (*) arrived one day, presumably
loaded/unloaded, and left the next day...fast turnaround. Many of
these ships exceed 2000 TRAVELLER tons in displacement. No
supertankers, New Orleans is not a deep enough port. So on *one*
*day*, we had at least 40,000 - 50,000 Traveller displacement tons
(Fermi figure) of shipping in and out... times 365 days =
18,250,000 Traveller tons? Even with the MegaTraveller
"interlinked economies" model of trade, that's a lot of traffic.
Twenty ships comparable to an Akerut, Oberlindes, or Imperial Lines
freighter every day. So what's traffic like on pop A world?
I notice that names vary from the romantic to the appallingly
mundane. (I like "Mega Buck", tho. Shows a certain amount of
chutzpah.) Shipping lines often give their ships names of the same
type/flavor; for example, Lykes Lines has a tradition of naming all
its ships ships after female members of the Lykes familiy. In the
_Traveller Adventure_, we are given the ship name styles of several
of the major shipping lines, btw. Just another little something to
add flavor to your universe, eh what?
-- Cynthia