| There are two excel files: firms.xls contains
basic information about shipyards; vessels.xls record information
about individual vessels. Please remember that this data set covers only
vessels with metal hulls with at least 20 tons displacement.
The variables in the files are as follows: |
|
Firms.xls
|
Key Dates |
|
|
Founding year |
Year company was founded.
This can be many years before entry into iron and steel shipbuilding. |
|
Entry year |
Year first metal vessel
was built. |
|
Last year |
Last year recorded in
dataset |
|
Exit year |
Last year of production in
shipbuilding. |
|
Closing year |
Year company closed. This
can be many years after exit from shipbuilding. |
|
Prior Background |
A set of dummy variables indicating
whether the firm (or its founders) had previously been engaged in any
of the following activities:
foundry work, construction, manufacturer
of steam engines, locomotive manufacture, railroads, naval
engineering, metal shipbuilding (in another firm), wooden
shipbuilding, or shipping. These are not mutually exclusive fields.
The category "unknown" arises when I
essentially know nothing about the firm. |
|
Takeover of yard |
Indicates if firm entered industry by
purchasing an existing shipyard engaged in metal shipbuilding.
|
|
Firm location |
City and state of yard. |
|
Form of Exit |
A set of dummy variables indicated why the
firm exited:
Bankruptcy, into a trust (such as the
American Shipbuilding Corp.), merger, death or retirement of owner,
exited industry but continued activities in other areas, firms was
sold, a miscellaneous (but known) category, and unknown. |
|
|
Vessels. xls
|
The following variables are
self-explanatory: |
Official number, year built, firm name,
vessel type, gross tons, length, breadth, depth, hull material,
propulsion system engine, who the vessel was built for, first home
port |
|
Year withdrawn and reason withdrawn |
This is the year the vessel stops being
registered, and the reason for the end of the registration (e.g.
vessel was scrapped). |
|
As usual, missing data means I don't know. |
|
|
Download the zipped
excel files |
|
Much of the coding in the previous files are the result of subjective
readings of firm histories. The file
text_files.zip is a collection of word files contain the raw
information collected in the process of constructing the data set. The
files consist of items cut and paste from websites, copied from published
histories, notes taken at regional and maritime museums, and so on. I am
not a historian, so these files are rather messy, but they do contain a lot
of information. |
|
Download the zipped
Word files |
|
Further details about the industry, the data and coding decisions are
available in the following paper:
The Iron and Steel Shipbuilding Data Set:, 1825-1914 Sources, Coverage, and Coding
Decisions
|
