South Africa

° Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth) ° Angola ° Cape Town ° Durban ° East London ° Francistown ° Johannesburg (Inland) ° Port Elizabeth ° Pretoria (Inland) ° Richards Bay ° Saldanha

International Harbors

South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the west, on Namibia in the northwest, on Botswana and Zimbabwe in the north, on Mozambique and Swaziland in the northeast, and on the Indian Ocean in the east and south. Lesotho is an independent enclave in the east. The largest city is Johannesburg Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital.

The Kingdom of the AmaZulu

The rise of the kingdom of the AmaZulu continues the already violent dispersal of neighbouring political entities competing with each other and with British and Boer colonisers for land and basic resources. This troubled period goes down in official South African history as either the Mfecane (IsiZulu) or Difaqane (SeSotho) which literally means "forced dispersal" or "forced migration" because the upheavals caused thousands of refugees. The AmaMfengu, for example, flee to the eastern Cape Colony, to the lands of the AmaXhosa. The fleeing political entities engage in armed skirmishes for land with kingdoms and chiefdoms which they encounter during their flight.

This conflict continued for a number of years throughout the southern African region.

Until the 1990s the view that the upheavals were caused solely by the alleged tyranny of Shaka's rise to power. This view has subsequently been challenged, with some historians disputing the existence of the Mfecane or Difaqane at all. Instead historians identify increasing pressure on the various communities that populated the region as colonisers move in and colonisers and indigenous people fight each other for the dwindling resources. This phenomenon is seen as a direct result of an increase in population and a quest for power.

In 1824, Shaka grants generous land and other rights to two British traders and adventurers Lieutenant Francis Farewell and Henry Fynn who pretend to be envoys of the British monarch and who establish fiefdoms on the land granted them. They are involved in illicit trade. When the colonial government becomes aware of their criminal activities, the men attempt to divert the attention of the colonial authorities from themselves, instead claiming to the British and Cape governments that Shaka and his people are "barbarians", and that Britain should annex Zululand. Together with another adventurer, Nathaniel Isaacs, these men determine the stereotype of Shaka as the "barbaric despot" that needed to be civilised by a colonising imperial Britain.

South Africa. 1851. John Arrowsmith, Cartographer. 4th June 1851. Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour, printed on wove wove paper, in excellent condition. Sheet size: 21 3/4 x 26 7/8 inches. A beautiful map of the eastern coast of South Africa, by the celebrated English mapmaker, John Arrowsmith. John Arrowsmith was the nephew of Aaron Arrowsmith, the founder of the great British cartographical firm. It was John who energetically continued the company's forward position in the world of new geography and maintained the firm's reputation for handsome, elegant maps. John first came to London in 1810 and immediately joined his uncle's cartographic firm. His first publication was his celebrated London Atlas, which became one of the most admired atlases of the period. In the tradition of the great Dutch mapmakers, Arrowsmith republished his London Atlas in three editions, each with added improvements and corrections. His maps of Texas and Australia are amongst the most important of his publications and record some of the earliest delineations of those regions. He was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society and served on the council until he retired. In 1863 he received the patron's gold medal for his contribution to geographic sciences. This elegant map of South Africa is a wonderful example of Arrowsmith's meticulous style and remains one of the finest nineteenth century maps of the area. This early map of South Africa's eastern coast, stretching from Port Elizabeth to the mouth of the Great Kei River. In the lower right corner is an inset map of the whole country, showing the county divisions and the principal towns. There are a wealth of topographical detail as well as geographical comments and tribe locations.

The San (Bushmen) are among the oldest indigenous peoples of South Africa. About 2,000 years ago, the pastoral Khoikhoi (called Hottentots by Europeans) settled mainly in the southern coastal region. By at least the 8th century, Bantu speakers moving southward from East central Africa had settled the North region of present-day South Africa. These Bantu-speaking groups developed their own complex community organizations. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope (so named by King John II of Portugal). The diaries of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors attest to a large Bantu-speaking population in present-day Kwa Zulu-Natal by 1552.

Although European vessels frequently passed by South Africa on their way to East Africa and India, the first permanent European settlement was established in 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck and about 90 other persons set up a provisioning station for the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay on the Cape of Good Hope.

Van Riebeeck Landing at the Cape of Good Hope. 1652. Soon van Riebeeck began to trade with nearby Khoikhoi, gave Europeans land for farms, and brought in Africans (from W and E Africa) and Malays as slaves.

In 1689 about 200 Huguenot refugees from Europe arrived, established a wine industry and intermarried with the earlier Dutch settlers. By 1707 there were about 1,780 freeholders of European descent in South Africa, and they owned about 1,100 slaves.

During the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars the British replaced the Dutch at the Cape from 1795 to 1803 and again from 1806 to 1814, when the territory was assigned to Great Britain by the Congress of Vienna. In 1820, 5,000 British settlers were given small farms near the Great Fish River. They were the first large body of Europeans not to be assimilated into the Afrikaner culture that had developed in the 17th and 18th cent. To escape the restrictions of British rule as well as to obtain new land, about 12,000 Boers left the Cape between 1835 and 1843 in what is known as the Great Trek. The Voortrekkers (as these Boers are known) migrated beyond the Orange River.

Before the opening of the Suez Canal in the mid-nineteenth century, the most direct route for European ships to the East was to sail down along the west coast of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope, up along the east coast and then across the Indian Ocean to India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

One of the first and most important stops en route was Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of southern Africa. Initially established as a victualling base by the Dutch East Indian Company, the fertility of the land and the utility of the harbour encouraged the area's further development by Europeans.

March, 18, 1849, Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, London, United Kingdom

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Accounts from this colony, of Jan. 11, have come to hand, and they read very satisfactorily. A party residing at Natal gives a very interesting statement of the result of his cotton plantations, and there is no subject to which the attention of our capitalists could be more usefully directed. At the period of his writing he had twenty-nine acres, bearing their fourth crop, and no charge had been incurred for ploughing since 1845, cotton being perennial. The last yield was 8,925 lbs. of clean, or "ginned," or 307 lbs. to the acre. "That which I have shipped to England," the same party remarks, "during the last three years, has netted in the average 5d. per lb." From the 1st August, 1847, to the 31st July, 1848, the expenses were as follows: Caffir wages, 37 16s. 7d.; rugs for Caffirs, 3 14s. 6d.; 50-1/2 muids of maize for ditto, 10 I9s. 4d.; meat for ditto, & 6s. 2d.; bagging, 6 8s. 3d.; twelve spades, &c., 2 10s.; total, 64 14s. 8d. This brings the cost of production, exclusive of the first outlay for the purchase of the land, ploughing, &c., to 1 3-10d., while at 4-1/2d. per lb., the value of the staple on the spot, 8,925 lbs. would realise 167 8s. This is an encouraging statement, and should tempt further enterprise in the same direction. The Cape colony is represented as having, during the past year, been very prosperous. Crime was scarce, the harvest plentiful, no epidemics prevailed, trade and commerce progressed quietly, and the schools, etc., were well supported. The working classes are described as being particularly well off.

Cape Town from "The Life and Times of Queen Victoria." Robert Wilson

December 1, 1859, Cape and Natal News, London, United Kingdom

IMMIGRATION. During the month the Lord Raglan has arrived at Cape Town with immigrants, including a number of labourers for the Cape Town and Wellington line of railway. Three other vessels have sailed for that port, one or two of which will probably arrive before the mail leaves. Two vessels are also nearly due at Port Elizabeth. Mr. Field appears to have been executing his duty in a much more energetic and efficient manner since the recent exposures; and we are glad to hear that the permit cases, a large number' of which have gone home, are receiving more prompt attention at his hands. The late drought, which has put the colony back in so many other respects, although it has not thrown any of the immigrants who have already arrived out of employment, has exerted a prejudicial effect upon the enterprise which should prompt the colonists to seek for and employ the various kinds of European labour. Still when it is borne in mind that many of those who have arrived in the colony have already passed through it to the countries beyond, and that this is still going on, it will be seen that South Africa offers a larger field for immigration than might at first be supposed. We have no fear for the success of those who are already on the way, and believe that the colony will find employment for as many as its means will enable it to obtain. Agricultural labourers will soon be in considerable demand.

Graaff-Reinet Herald.

Diamonds were discovered in 1867 along the Vaal and Orange rivers and in 1870 at what became (1871) Kimberley; in 1886 gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand. These discoveries (especially that of gold) spurred great economic development in S Africa during 1870 1900; foreign trade increased dramatically, rail trackage expanded from c.70 mi (110 km) in 1870 to c.3,600 mi (5,790 km) in 1895, and the number of whites rose from about 300,000 in 1870 to about 1 million in 1900.

Photo: Black, Chinese, White laborers
South Africa gold mines, 1890-1923

March 4, 1876, The Colonies, London, United Kingdom

We have also on our table The South African Conference (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.), with an introduction by "An Old Colonist," who says that his object is to correct prevalent misapprehension and to show "how the growth of a noble idea has been checked by premature and mistaken action." It gives in a fair, and, on the whole, temperate, manner the views of the, not anti-federation, but anti-Froude, party at the Cape, and says that "the stake of English critics has been in the assumption that the agitation at the Cape has been a new movement, consequent upon a now and bold English policy; whereas it was but the revival of old feuds, of which all friends of the Colony hoped they had heard the last." The "Old Colonist" derives his title from a twenty-five years' residence in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony," and makes a very strong case in support of his views. He gives copious extracts from speeches in the local Parliament those taken from the speech of Mr. Sprigg, member for East London, are well worthy of perusal. We quote the following, which cannot be controverted:

Sir, there is no doctrine better understood or more firmly settled in England than this, that, so long as the Ministry possess the confidence of the country, they are entitled to enjoy the confidence and be sustained by the power of the Crown; and it is that same constitutional doctrine which we, who have taken up this question, contend has been infringed by the course followed by the Secretary of State and his agent, Mr. Froude;" whom Mr. Molteno describes as "a gentleman, for whom I may say I entertain the highest respect, coming out to this Colony to take a trip to look at it. He runs through the country on a post-cart, sees a little here and a little there, and then he flies away."

This pamphlet should be read by those who desire to make themselves acquainted with both sides of a most important question.

October 23, 1880, Colonies and India, London, United Kingdom

November 14, 1888, Colonies and India, London, Middlesex, United Kingdom

The hotels in South Africa are, for the most part, unsatisfactory. The attendance is bad, and the conveniences few. The number of patients going to South Africa is comparatively small, and quite inadequate to fill the various competing health resorts. It would be well if the patients could be all concentrated in one or two, and an enterprising hotel manager, willing to lay out capital in order to provide the necessary comforts, could be found.

At Grahamstown and King William's Town (called " King") the comforts and luxuries of life are as fully attainable as in any other part of the Colony, except the suburbs of Cape Town (which are too humid in winter), or in Kimberley. As regards the class of clerks, warehousemen, journeyman tailors, etc. it is difficult to promise employment. As to professional men whether architects, engineers, lawyers, doctors, or clergymen there is always scope everywhere for really able men. Those who have held their own in the midst of the competition of the Old Country are sure to make a position for themselves in a community where the number of really eminent men is necessarily limited.

Open-air occupations are at present few, but as the unhealthy mania for gambling in gold and diamond shares, which is the curse of South Africa, is replaced by patient plodding work on the land, the country will speedily change its aspect. A friend and patient of mine Mr. Irvine, of King William's Town showed what care and wise outlay could do in converting a desert into a model farm full of flourishing fields, plantations, gardens and thus setting an example which might be advantageously followed throughout a great extent of barren country.

A View near Roode Sand Pass at the Cape of Good Hope. Engraved by J. Bluck Henry Salt

Such efforts as these increase the value of South Africa as a health resort by reducing the excessive dryness of the air and soil, and by giving something for the eye gratefully to rest upon, and thus rendering those contented who, without anything of beauty to look at, would soon escape to more attractive lands.

January 29, 1896, Echo, London, United Kingdom

GOLF AT BULUWAYO

Golf is played under difficulties at Buluwayo, Africa, as the natives have taken a fancy to the balls, and lie in wait for them in the bush near by. They pierce a hole through the balls and string them with the beads of their necklaces.

October 9, 1898, New York Times, New York, New York, USA

The South African Muddle.

That a lesson was administered some fortnight ago in Berlin by Von Derenthall, the Under Secretary of the Foreign Office, to the Transvaal storm bird, Dr. Leyds, is now denied by the indignant Boer emissary. But it is none the less a fact that he received a severe snubbing, with a quick, stern warning not to stir up anti-English feeling in the German press.

1888 Johannesburg Gold-Fields Transvaal. President Kruger. Pretoria, South Africa

The wounds of the unlucky doctor appear to heal so slowly that Von Billow himself, that courteous dispenser of the nastiest medicine in the sweetest form, has spoken a sting of pretty word,. though without repealing his subordinate's direct commands or minimizing his warning. Much allowance may be made for Leyds, who has been considerably outwitted at his own game. The cards were so heavily against him that he could scarcely have hoped to win the Delagoa Bay trick, but it is hard lines on him that his audience with the Kaiser should be announced on the same day as the practical concession of the bay, railways, and other rights, to England.

Nothing, as I have often said, could have stopped this happening, though a threatened war with Germany might have deferred It. This fact the Boers will not, or seemingly cannot, see, for they are adopting, reprisals in a form of commingling regulations, exacting service from the English settlers in the Transvaal, who in all other respects are being treated as aliens. The, to ease matters, Kruger is shaking hands ostentatiously across the border with the Orange Free State. The one chance is that the Kaiser may put things so plainly and bluntly before Leyds that he will rush back and stop the obstinate President from pushing matters to that extreme limit where even a conceding Tory Ministry has to fight or go.

December 23, 1899, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, USA

SOME WHO REGARD ENGLAND AS A BULLY

Boer War Interrogation. British interrogate a Boer farmer's wife, held by two natives whose manhandling has caused her blouse to slip.

PARIS. December 21: The war In South Africa has all but monopolised public attention tills week. The best Paris Journals, the Temps, Figaro and Journal des Debats, have throughout discussed the pros and cons cf the dispute with an evident desire to be impartial. A large section of the press of the lower standing but wider circulation has beenpresistently reveling in Anglophobia. This sentiment is apparently shared by a majority of Frenchman, who regard England as, a bully attacking a small, plucky state, and who are bitter against England because of her unsparing and often unjust criticism of France during the Dreyfus trial.

Boers received supplies by way of Lourenzo Marquez on Delagoa Bay, which is connected by the Netherlands Railroad Company's line via Komati Poort with Pretoria.

The serious reverses of England had led to the impression here that she might yield and accept mediation. But the absence of despondency on the part of the Britons generally and their apparent determination to fight to a finish came an a surprise to most Frenchmen and evoked admiration for England's coolness and self-confidence from all but the most Anglophobe organs.

Portugal is undoubtedly doing her utmost to check the transit of war material for the Boers through Delagoa Bay, although Great Britain would do well to make a demand for greater watchfulness. Portugar, however, is in constant terror of a Boer raid on her African possessions and cannot stop the passage of volunteers for the Transvaal.

Boer War Cartoon, 1899 During the Boer Wars, Britain was engaged in a scramble for African colonies with France and Germany.

Port Elizabeth

The Bristol Times and Mirror

The Figaro has warned Frenchmen against the Idea that Great Britain would accopt the mediation of Germany, Russia or even the United States at the present stage of the war.

"In the United States Congress," says the Figaro, "there is much more freedom than in European Legislatures, and such questions might be discussed there, but even though Congress was to adopt resolutions requesting the President to take the first step on such delicate ground.

April 3, 1897

THE FREE STATE AND THE TRANSVAAL

Capetown, Wednesday

Petitions are being extensively signed in the Orange Free State against the agreement for closer union with the Transvaal, concluded at the recent conference at the Bloemfonteiu. —Reuter.

Cape Colony, Africa.
Pinkerton Mapmaker. 1804

The Mayor of Port Elizabeth has sent the following telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:

"At a large enthusiastic public meeting last night, I was directed by unanimous vote to cable you the following resolution 'That the inhabitants of Port Elizabeth, in public meeting assembled, declare their confidence in the present Imperial Government, and urge the strict maintenance of the convention with the Transvaal, and further they sympathise entirely with the Uitlanders under the tyrannous and corrupt Government of Pretoria. They entirely repudiate Mr. Schreiner's suggestion of arbitration and his evidence as to British feeling in South Africa, and this meeting also declares that, according to the cable version of Mr. Schreiner's evidence, he does not represent loyal South Africans.—Mayor"

Pretoria/Johannesburg

Founded in 1855 and declared the capital of the South African Republic, which was the Boer republic in Transvaal. The president of the republic, Marthinus Pretorius, named it after his father, Andries Pretorius, who had become the national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulu kingdom in the famous battle at Blood River. The founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic marked the end of the Boers' settlement movements of the Groot Trek.

The Boer Lilliputian. The British Gulliver.

The largest gold resources in the world were found in the area of the Witwatersrand at the beginning of 1885, making South Africa one of the world leaders in gold mining. Johannesburg's other name, "Egoli" means City of Gold. The gold-bearing stone is mined at considerable depth. The Western Deep Level Mine, with its shafts of depths to 3900 m, is one of the deepest in the world. Because of this discovery, the University of the Witwatersrand was founded in Kimberley in 1896 as the "South African School of Mines."

The Boer War was the name given to the South African Wars of 1880-1 and 1899-1902 fought between the British and the descendants of the Dutch settlers (Boers) in Africa. After the first Boer War, William Gladstone granted the Boers self-government in the Transvaal. The Boers, under the leadership of Paul Kruger, resented the colonial policy of Joseph Chamberlain and Alfred Milner which they feared would deprive the Transvaal of its independence. After receiving military equipment from Germany, the Boers had a series of successes on the borders of Cape Colony and Natal between October 1899 and January 1900.

Although the Boers only had 88,000 soldiers, outstanding soldiers such as Louis Botha, and Jan Smuts led to successful defeat of British garrisons at Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley.

Army reinforcements arrived in South Africa in 1900 and counter-offences relieved the garrisons and enabled the British to take control of the Boer capital, Pretoria, on June 5, 1900. For the next two years groups of Boer commandos raided isolated British units in South Africa. Lord Kitchener, the Chief of Staff in South Africa, reacted to this by destroying Boer farms and moving civilians into concentration camps.

The British action in South Africa was strongly opposed by many leading Liberal politicians and most of the Independent Labour Party as an example of the worst excesses of imperialism.

March 21, 1896, Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, U.S.A.

THE SUPPLY OF GOLD

ENORMOUS INCREASE IN THE
PRODUCTIVENESS OF FOREIGN FIELDS.
A Deluge of Gold In Prospect--
The Output for 1895 Breaks All Records--
The Developments of Science Largely
Responsible For the Increase

It may be some consolation to Uncle Sam to reflect that although he has not a very firm grip on what little gold John Bull has left him, the supply is all the time increasing. If it were diminishing he might well look with alarm on every steamer that sails for Europe gold laden.

The gold famine, which a few years ago was confidently predicted, is now an improbability. A veritable deluge of gold is what is promised.

Gold Prospectors Flooding Into South Africa. In 1896, Rutherford Harris went to London to champion Cecil Ehodos' cause, says that the South African goldfields are already producing $40,000,000 in gold annually.

In 1895 the world's production of gold was the greatest since the mining of the yellow metal was begun. From the bowels of the earth was taken gold to the value of $203,000,000. In 1885 only $10,000,000 worth of gold was mined. Last year's production was greater than in the famous Comstock days and greater by a dozen times than that of any year down to the discovery of gold in California.

Rutherford Harris, who recently went to London to champion Cecil Ehodos' cause, says that the South African goldfields are already producing $40,000,000 in gold annually and that by the end of the century the development of the deep levels will increase this output to the enormous sum of $100,000,000 a year. This rate, he thinks, will bo maintained for 80 or 40 years after it is reached. He says the Transvaal will furnish in the near future nearly two-thirds of all the gold mined in the world. But perhaps he has reckoned without taking into account the wonderful developments of the Cripple Creek district, where the ground is said to be fairly reeking with gold.

It is not so much the discovery of new goldfields, however, to which this increased production is due as to the discoveries of science. By the new methods of mining which are now in use ore which would formerly have been thrown away as useless is now made to yield up its precious metal and is mined at a profit. Science has made the "crushings of the Rand" worth the crushing. In three sections of the world has there been a great increase in the output. The activity in the Colorado mines in 1894 put the United States at the head of the gold producing countries with a yearly output of nearly $41,000,000. In 1893, the United States produced $35,960,000 in gold.

Last year Australia held second place as a gold country because of the remarkable find of gold in the Coolgardie district. South Africa stood third in 1894, but next year will undoubtedly rank first.

Chinese Workers sign on at South African Gold Mines

The gold output of the Transvaal is all due to the fact that by the next processes of mining the low grade ores which these mines produce can be treated with profit. A forty-niner with his pick, shovel and cradle could not earn his salt in the Witwatersrand today. If he had struck such poor dirt in his early prospecting days in California, he would have turned from it in disgust. He would have had to shovel a ton of crushed rock into his sieve and when it was all washed out he would have found less than half an ounce of gold, or about $10 worth.

The South African miner of today requires a capital of many thousands of dollars before he can begin work at all. He must build big buildings, fitted with expensive machinery.

The ordinary method of gold mining which was in use up to a few years ago was to crush the ore to a fine powder and run this over amalgam plates of quicksilver. The gold was precipitated on the plates and afterward scraped off. But this means only about half the gold was saved. The rest went off in a kind of slime called "tailings."

Just here the cyanide process hegius. The "tailings" are gathered up and put in a great vat containing a weak solution of cyanide of potassium. This chemical has a peculiar affinity for gold and takes it up just as water does sugar. The gold laden liquid is then run through a filter made of zinc filings. This precipitates the gold, which is afterward washed off with clear water. Without cyanide the South African goldfields would be practically worthless.

But besides this improved process all supplies which are used by miners are much cheaper now than in the days when the gold fever was at its height in his country.

Giant powder, which used to sell at $1 a pound, is now delivered at the mines at 12 and 14 cents a pound.

Other mining necessities are cheaper in a like proportion, so that mines which were once abandoned as having run out can now be worked.

The increase in the world's output of gold for the last five years has averaged 12 per cent for each year. If the rate of increase for the' next five years is only 10 per cent, still the total for 1900 will be the stupendous amount of $320,000, 000. With this great quantity of gold being poured out every year we may look forward to a deluge of gold. It is not an alarming prospect.

C. J. BOWDEN.

Bringing Ivory to the Wagons in South Africa. Thomas Baines.

Saldanha

In 1503, Antonio de Saldanha was forced by a storm into Table Bay. During his visit he traded an ox and two sheep from the local Khoikoi, but when De Saldanha went on land the second time, he was ambushed and wounded in his arm.

Saldanha Bay. South Africa. Cape Colony. 1885.

The place would later be known as "Aguada de Saldanha" (the water collecting place of Saldanha) where two mountain streams flowed into the sea. He never visited the current Saldanha Bay, which has the best natural harbour on the African coast.

In 1601 a European Dutch explorer named Van Spilbergen sailed in; but Saldanha s potential as a deep sea harbour stayed dormant for a long time due to the lack of fresh water. By 1658 Free Burghers from the newly settled Cape Colony established themselves at Saldanha. The primary industries at that time were sealing, seabird egg collection, whaling, fishing and agriculture. Industrial development was based mainly on seal hunting until the 1840 s when large scale guano stripping began on Malgas Island and the other islands. A sizeable industry for the harvesting of penguin eggs also developed in the last quarter of the 19th century and whaling flourished for a while.

In the African Pilot of 1901 it was stated that ". . . Saldanha Bay, from its natural formation is admirably adopted for commercial purposes and for easy ingress of ships requiring to repair damages sustained at sea; indeed, it may be said to be the only safe harbour on this portion of the coast . . ."

---

1899. World's Fleet. Boston Daily Globe

Lloyds Register of Shipping gives the entire fleet of the world as 28,180 steamers and sailing vessels, with a total tonnage of 27,673,628, of which 39 perent are British.

Great Britain	10,990 vessels, total tonnage of 10,792,714
United States	3,010 vessels, total tonnage of 2,405,887
Norway	2,528 vessels, tonnage of 1,604,230
Germany	1,676 vessels, with a tonnage of 2,453,334, in which are included her particularly large ships.
Sweden	1,408 vessels with a tonnage of 643, 527
Italy	1,150 vessels
France	1,182 vessels

For Historical Comparison
Top 10 Maritime Nations Ranked by Value (2017)

	Country	# of Vessels	Gross Tonnage (m)	Total Value (USDbn)
1	Greece	4,453	206.47	$88.0
2	Japan	4,317	150.26	$79.8
3	China	4,938	159.71	$71.7
4	USA	2,399	55.92	$46.5
5	Singapore	2,662	64.03	$41.7
6	Norway	1,668	39.68	$41.1
7	Germany	2,923	81.17	$30.3
8	UK	883	28.78	$24.3
9	Denmark	1,040	36.17	$23.4
10	South Korea	1,484	49.88	$20.1
Total		26,767	87.21	$466.9