Port of Quebec
The Port of Quebec is an inland port located in Quebec City, Canada. It is the oldest port in Canada, the second largest in Quebec after the Port of Montreal. In the 19th century, the Port of Quebec was one of the most important in the world, it played a major role of Canada. In 1863, more than 1,600 ships went through the port, transporting 25,000 sailors, it was during this era that the shipbuilding industry grew in Quebec City. In the 20th century, the dredging of the Saint Lawrence River between Quebec City and Montreal moved major port activities upstream. Today cruise traffic has replaced much of the former freight traffic. Port of Quebec
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada Her Majesty's Government, is the federal administration of Canada. In Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or the Queen-in-Council. In both senses, the current construct was established at Confederation through the Constitution Act, 1867—as a federal constitutional monarchy, wherein the Canadian Crown acts as the core, or "the most basic building block", of its Westminster-style parliamentary democracy; the Crown is thus the foundation of the executive and judicial branches of the Canadian government. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the Canadian Constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, unwritten conventions developed over centuries; the monarch is represented by the Governor General of Canada. The Queen's Privy Council for Canada is the body that advises the sovereign or viceroy on the exercise of executive power. However, in practice, that task is performed only by the Cabinet, a committee within the Privy Council composed of ministers of the Crown, who are drawn from and responsible to the elected House of Commons in parliament.
The Cabinet is headed by the prime minister, appointed by the governor general after securing the confidence of the House of Commons. In Canadian English, the word government is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions that govern the country, to the current political leadership. In federal department press releases, the government has sometimes been referred to by the phrase Government. In late 2010, an informal instruction from the Office of the Prime Minister urged government departments to use in all department communications the term in place of Government of Canada; the same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase Canada's New Government. As per the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political; the Crown is regarded as a corporation sole, with the monarch, vested as she is with all powers of state, at the centre of a construct in which the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority.
The executive is thus formally called the Queen-in-Council, the legislature the Queen-in-Parliament, the courts as the Queen on the Bench. Royal Assent is required to enact laws and, as part of the Royal Prerogative, the royal sign-manual gives authority to letters patent and orders in council, though the authority for these acts stems from the Canadian populace and, within the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, the sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is limited; the Royal Prerogative includes summoning and dissolving parliament in order to call an election, extends to foreign affairs: the negotiation and ratification of treaties, international agreements, declarations of war. The person, monarch of Canada is the monarch of 15 other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, though, he or she reigns separately as King or Queen of Canada, an office, "truly Canadian" and "totally independent from that of the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms".
On the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, the sovereign appoints a federal viceregal representative—the Governor General of Canada —who, since 1947, is permitted to exercise all of the monarch's Royal Prerogative, though there are some duties which must be performed by, or bills that require assent by, the king or queen. The government is defined by the constitution as the Queen acting on the advice of her privy council. However, the Privy Council—consisting of former members of parliament, chief justices of the supreme court, other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full; as the stipulations of responsible government require that those who directly advise the monarch and governor general on how to exercise the Royal Prerogative be accountable to the elected House of Commons, the day-to-day operation of government is guided only by a sub-group of the Privy Council made up of individuals who hold seats in parliament. This body of senior ministers of the Crown is the Cabinet. One of the main duties of the Crown is to ensure that a democratic government is always in place, which means appointing a prime minister to thereafter head the Cabinet.
Thus, the governor general must appoint as prime minister the person who holds the confidence of the House of Commons. Should no party hold a majority in the commons, the leader of one party—either the one with the most seats or one supported by other parties—will be called by the governor general to form a minority government. Once sworn in by the viceroy, the prime minister holds office until he or she resigns or is removed by the governor general, after either a motion of no confidence or his or her party's defeat in a general election; the monarch and governor general follow the near-binding advice of
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Transportation in Thunder Bay, Ontario
Transportation is essential to trade, which has always been the backbone of the economy of Thunder Bay, Canada, beginning with Fort Kaministiquia in 1717. When the area was first settled its many waterways were used by the voyagers and Coureur des bois to trade their goods. Thunder Bay has a central location within Canada, is located in the middle of the Trans-Canada Highway system, crossed by railways, is the location of the largest outbound port on the St. Lawrence Seaway System and the fifth busiest airport in Ontario by aircraft movements. Thunder Bay is located on a unique section of the Trans-Canada Highway system; as a result, a large volume of trans-Canada truck traffic goes through Thunder Bay. Trans-Canada Highway 11/17 originates 1 km east of Nipigon and terminates 45 km west of Thunder Bay; the stretch of Highway from 11/17 in Nipigon to Arthur Street in Thunder Bay is designated as the Terry Fox Courage Highway, between Hodder Avenue and Arthur Street the highway is called the Thunder Bay Expressway.
At the intersection of the Harbour Expressway in Thunder Bay, the Trans-Canada designation turns west, with the continuing highway heading south to Minnesota being designated as Highway 61. Other highways in the city are Highway 102, located between the intersection of Highway 11/17 at Red River Road in the east and the community of Kaministiquia in the west. Highway 61 begins at the intersection of the Harbour Expressway and Highway 11/17 and leads south to the United States border, becoming Minnesota State Highway 61. Highway 589 connects Highway 102 to Dog Lake, located in Gorham and Ware Townships, northeast of the city; the Harbour Expressway is a four-lane highway bisecting the city laterally in the Intercity and Balmoral Park areas. The "expressway" designation of both the Thunder Bay and Harbour expressways has been called into question, as both routes feature multiple lighted intersections, are not true expressways. To bypass the urban sprawl in the south end of the city, a new stretch of highway, called the "Shabaqua Highway", was built between 1997 and 2007.
It begins at the intersection of the Thunder Bay and Harbour Expressways in Thunder Bay and travels 13 km west to the intersection of Vibert Road and the Trans-Canada in Paipoonge. Public transit has been present in the Thunder Bay area since 1892. Both Port Arthur and Fort William operated street cars until the late 1940s when they were replaced by electric trolley buses; when the cities amalgamated in 1970, both transit systems were merged into Thunder Bay Transit which has used diesel buses since 1972. Thunder Bay Transit provides 17 routes across the city's urban area with bus frequencies on most routes being between 15 and 45 minutes; the Handicapped Action Group Incorporated operates a door-to-door transit service for seniors and persons who are unable to use City Transit. Users must register with HAGI to use the service, funded by the city of Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay Transit operates two bus terminals, one in each downtown core, Greyhound Canada operates a bus terminal located on Fort William Road in the intercity area through which they provide coach service to regional and national destinations.
Thunder Bay is an important railway hub, served by both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway. The city is intersected in many places by railway lines, most notably the CN line which runs diagonally through Thunder Bay South and Intercity, cutting off traffic along major arterials. Major rail yards are located southwest of the airport and east of downtown Fort William and south of the East End neighbourhood, between the city and the waterfront harbour in the intercity area. Passenger rail service to Thunder Bay ended on 15 January 1990, with the move of Via Rail Canada's The Canadian service to the northern route; the CPR Union Depot remains in Fort William, with the CNR station providing tourism related services in Marina Park. Thunder Bay Port is the westernmost port of the Canadian portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway, it is located over 3000 km from the Atlantic Ocean. The port is capable of handling all types of cargoes, is served by the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways.
It has numerous berths allowing for a quick turn-around time. The main cargoes handled at the port are grain, coal and forest products. Keefer Terminal is the main cargo handling facility, which has 500,000 square metres of indoor storage area and 6.4 hectares of outdoor storage area. Thunder Bay Terminals Ltd. provides a rail and vessel link for the movement of low sulphur bituminous and lignite coal from western Canada, is located on McKeller Island. Thunder Bay is well known for its many grain elevators, dubbed "Castles of Commerce", on its waterfront. Thunder Bay is the second largest grain port in Canada, making it an important part of Canadian grain exports. Sixteen grain elevators are located on the waterfront, however only nine are operational; the nine grain elevators have a capacity of 1.4 million tonnes and are capable of handing wheat, coarse grains, feed grains and crops as well as various grain by-products. Thunder Bay has been a port since the days of the North West Company which maintained a schooner on Lake Superior.
Significant navigation came after 1855 with the opening of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie which allowed ships coming from the lower lakes to bypass the rapids of the St. Marys River. To facilitate navigation, the federal government dredged the Kaministiquia River from 1873 onwards and built a large breakwater in Thunder Bay beginning in 1884. Thunder Bay Port Authority manages Keefer Terminal built on a 320,000 square metre
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo are goods that must be loaded individually, not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are called general cargo ships; the term break bulk derives from the phrase breaking bulk—the extraction of a portion of the cargo of a ship or the beginning of the unloading process from the ship's holds. These goods may not be in shipping containers. Break bulk cargo is transported in bags, crates, drums, or barrels. Unit loads of items secured to a pallet or skid are used. A break-in-bulk point is a place where goods are transferred from one mode of transport to another, for example the docks where goods transfer from ship to truck. Break bulk was the most common form of cargo for most of the history of shipping. Since the late 1960s the volume of break bulk cargo has declined worldwide as containerization has grown. Moving cargo on and off ship in containers is much more efficient, allowing ships to spend less time in port.
Break bulk cargo suffered from greater theft and damage. Although cargo of this sort can be delivered straight from a truck or train onto a ship, the most common way is for the cargo to be delivered to the dock in advance of the arrival of the ship and for the cargo to be stored in warehouses; when the ship arrives the cargo is taken from the warehouse to the quay and lifted on board by either the ship's gear or by the dockside cranes. The discharge of the ship is the reverse of the loading operation. Loading and discharging by break bulk is labour-intensive; the cargo is brought to the quay next to the ship and each individual item is lifted on board separately. Some items such as sacks or bags can be loaded in batches by using a sling or cargo net and others such as cartons can be loaded onto trays before being lifted on board. Once on board each item must be stowed separately. Before any loading takes place, any signs of the previous cargo are removed; the holds are washed if necessary and any damage to them repaired.
Dunnage is laid ready for the cargo or is just put in bundles ready for the stevedores to lay out as the cargo is loaded. There are many sorts of break bulk cargo but amongst them are: Bagged cargo is stowed on double dunnage and kept clear of the ship's sides and bulkheads. Bags are kept away from stanchions by covering it with matting or waterproof paper. Baled goods are stowed on single dunnage at least 50 mm thick; the bales must be clean with all the bands intact. Stained or oily bales are rejected. All fibres are liable to spontaneous combustion; as a result, they are kept clear of any new paintwork. Bales close to the deckhead are covered to prevent damage by dripping sweat. Wooden barrels are stowed on their sides on "beds" of dunnage which keeps the middle of the side off the deck and they are stowed with the bung at the top. To prevent movement wedges called quoins are put in on top of the "beds". Barrels should be stowed fore and aft and not athwart ships. Once the first tier has been loaded the next tier of barrels fits into the hollows between the barrels, this is known as stowing "bilge and cantline".
Barrels which are known as casks or tuns are use for transporting liquids such as wine, brandy and oil. They are built in spherical shape to make it easier to roll and have less friction when changing direction. Corrugated boxes are kept clear of any moisture. Military and weather resistant grades of corrugated fiberboard are available, they are not overstowed with anything other than similar boxes. They are loaded on pallets to form a unit load. Wooden boxes or crates are stowed on double dunnage in the holds and single dunnage in the'tween decks. Heavy boxes are given bottom stowage; the loading slings are left on to aid discharge. Metal drums are stowed on end with dunnage between tiers, in the longitudinal space of the ship Reels or rolls are stowed on their sides and care is taken to make sure they are not crushed. Automobiles are lifted on board and secured using lashings. A great deal of care is taken to make sure. Vehicles are prepared by ensuring hazardous liquids have been removed; this is in contrast to ro-ro vessels where vehicles are driven on and off the ship under their own power.
Any long heavy items are stowed aft. If they are stowed athwart ships they are liable to shift if the ship rolls and pierce the side of the ship; the biggest disadvantage with break bulk is that it requires more resources at the wharf at both ends of the transport—longshoremen, loading cranes, transport vehicles—and takes up more dock space due to multiple vessels carrying multiple loads of break bulk cargo. Indeed, the decline of break bulk did not start with containerisation; such tankers and carriers use specialised ships and shore facilities to deliver larger amounts of cargo to the dock and effect faster turnarounds with fewer personnel once the ship arrives. As modernization of ports and shipping fleets spreads across the world, the advantages of using containerization and specialized ships over break-
Containerization
Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers. The containers have standardized dimensions, they can be loaded and unloaded, transported efficiently over long distances, transferred from one mode of transport to another—container ships, rail transport flatcars, semi-trailer trucks—without being opened. The handling system is mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes and special forklift trucks. All containers are tracked using computerized systems. Containerization originated several centuries ago but was not well developed or applied until after World War II, when it reduced the costs of transport, supported the post-war boom in international trade, was a major element in globalization. Containerization did away with the need for warehousing, it displaced many thousands of dock workers who handled break bulk cargo. Containerization reduced congestion in ports shortened shipping time and reduced losses from damage and theft. Containers can be made of weathering steel to minimize maintenance needs.
Before containerization, goods were handled manually as break bulk cargo. Goods would be loaded onto a vehicle from the factory and taken to a port warehouse where they would be offloaded and stored awaiting the next vessel; when the vessel arrived, they would be moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo to be lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers. The ship might call at several other ports before off-loading a given consignment of cargo; each port visit would delay the delivery of other cargo. Delivered cargo might have been offloaded into another warehouse before being picked up and delivered to its destination. Multiple handling and delays made transport costly, time consuming and unreliable. Containerization has its origins in early coal mining regions in England beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat'Starvationer' with 10 wooden containers, to transport coal from Worsley Delph to Manchester by Bridgewater Canal. In 1795, Benjamin Outram opened the Little Eaton Gangway, upon which coal was carried in wagons built at his Butterley Ironwork.
The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the gangway took the form of containers, loaded with coal, could be transshipped from canal barges on the Derby Canal, which Outram had promoted. By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport; the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of these. "Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse-drawn carts by crane." Used for moving coal on and off barges, "loose boxes" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones; the early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. On 17 May 1917, Benjamin Franklin Fitch inaugurated exploitation of the experimental installation for transfer of the containers called the demountable bodies based on his own design in Cincinnati, Ohio in US.
In 1919, his system was extended to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 freight trucks. Prior to the Second World War, many European countries independently developed container systems. In 1919, Stanisław Rodowicz, an engineer, developed the first draft of the container system in Poland. In 1920, he built a prototype of the biaxial wagon; the Polish-Bolshevik War stopped development of the container system in Poland. The US Post Office contracted with the New York Central Railroad to move mail via containers in May 1921. In 1930, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad began shipping containers between Chicago and Milwaukee. However, their efforts ended in the spring of 1931 when the Interstate Commerce Commission wouldn't allow the use of a flat rate for the containers. In 1926, a regular connection of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris, Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or, by Southern Railway and French Northern Railway, began. For transport of passengers' baggage four containers were used.
These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in the UK and "CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL" in France. At the Second World Motor Transport Congress in Rome, September 1928, Italian senator Silvio Crespi proposed the use of containers for road and railway transport systems, using collaboration rather than competition; this would be done under the auspices of an international organ similar to the Sleeping Car Company, which provided international carriage of passengers in sleeping wagons. In 1928 Pennsylvania Railroad started regular container service in the northeast United States. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York and the subsequent Great Depression, many countries were without any means of transport for cargo; the railroads were sought as a possibility to transport cargo, there was an opportunity to bring containers into broader use. Under auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in Venice on September 30, 1931, on one of the platforms of the Maritime Station, practical tests were done to assess the best construction for European containers as part of an international competition.
In the same year, 1931, in USA Benjamin Franklin Fitch designed the two largest and heaviest containers in existence anywhere at the time. One measured 17'6" by 8'0" by 8'0" with a capacity of 30,000 pounds
Nippon Yusen
Nippon Yusen is one of the oldest and largest shipping companies in the world. It is a member of the Mitsubishi keiretsu; the company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Japan and a fleet of about 800 ships, that includes container ships, tankers and woodchip carriers, Ro-Ro car carriers, reefer vessels, LNG carrier and cruise ships. The company traces its history back to the Tsukumo Shokai Shipping company founded by the Tosa clan in 1870. In 1875, as the renamed Mitsubishi Shokai, the company inaugurated Japan's first passenger liner service, with a route from Yokohama to Shanghai. In 1885, a merger with Kyodo Unyu Kaisha led to the adoption of the company's present name; the merged company had a fleet of 58 steamships and expanded its operations first to other Asian ports and worldwide, with a line service to London being inaugurated in 1899. The majority of Japanese merchant ships and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period. Regular services linked Kobe and Yokohama with South America, Melbourne, Cape Town.
Other routes connected local Chinese cabotage vessels on upper Yangtze. Ocean routes went east from Japan to Seattle. Another way was to stop in Hawaii, continue to San Francisco and the Panama Canal; the next commercial routes were south from Japan, across the East China Sea. These went to South East Asia, the China coasts, towards India and the Indian Ocean, to Europe or Batavia, or Australia and New Zealand; the fastest services took ten days from Yokohama to Seattle, one month to Europe. Local sea routes connected 78 home seaports. Yokohama and Osaka had the greatest importance for trading with Japan; these ports had the third and eighth place in net tonnage registered in the world. Coal passed from Moji to Yokohama. Karafuto timber represented a third part of local trade. Soy bean products from Dairen and Ryojun arrived at Yokohama; the sugar cane of the South Pacific Mandate and Formosa, cotton and minerals represented other important parts of these transport transactions. In 1926 Toyo Kisen Line, with its fleet of nine ships, merged with NYK.
The current funnel livery was introduced in 1929. The company ran services connecting metropolitan Japan to its exterior provinces of the Empire. From 1924 all new cargo ships for NYK were motor ships. NYK introduced its first passenger motor ships in 1929 but continued to buy a mixture of steam and motor passenger ships till 1939. In World War II the NYK Line provided military transport and hospital ships for the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Many vessels were sunk by the Allied navies, installations and ports were attacked from the air. Only 37 NYK ships survived the war; the company lost 185 ships in support of military operations in the Pacific. Before the war NYK had 36 passenger ships. NYK's surviving vessels and equipment were confiscated by the Allied authorities as reparations, or taken by liberated Asian states in 1945-46. SCAJAP requisitioned Hikawa Maru as a transport ship to repatriate Japanese soldiers and civilians from territories, liberated from Japanese occupation; the NYK fleet expanded in bursts, responding to changed economic conditions and perceived changes in the market for passenger liner travel.
The evolution of the fleet mirrors some of those developments. In the following lists, the dates of maiden voyages are indicated with each ship's name. Amongst the many ships in the early NYK fleet, some names comprise serial categories; some ships were named after Shinto shrines, others were named after ancient provinces of Japan, cities of Japan, mountains of Japan or islands of Japan. Some ships had explicitly non-Japanese names, such as ships named after cities. By the mid-1950s NYK ships were again seen around the world; as the demand for passenger ships dwindled in the 1960s, NYK expanded its cargo operation, running Japan's first container ship Hakone Maru on a route to California in 1968 and soon establishing container ship routes to many other ports. NYK became a partner in Nippon Cargo Airlines in 1978, in 1985, added United States container train service in cooperation with Southern Pacific. NYK revived its passenger ship business in 1989 with cruise ships operated by its newly formed subsidiary Crystal Cruises.
In 1990 NYK resumed passenger services under its own name when MS Asuka entered service on the Japanese cruise market. In 2006 Asuka was replaced by the much larger Asuka II Crystal Cruises' Crystal Harmony. At the end of March 2008, the NYK Group was operating about 776 major ocean vessels, as well as fleets of planes and trucks; the company's shipping fleet includes around 155 containerships, 286 bulk carriers, 55 woodchip carriers, 113 car carriers, 21 reefer carriers, 78 tankers, 30 LNG carriers, three cruise ships. NYK's revenue in fiscal 2007 was about US$26 billion, as a group NYK employs about 55,000 people worldwide; the company has offices in 240 places in 27 countries, warehouses on nearly every continent, harbor operations in Asia, North America, Europe. NYK head office is based in Tokyo, has regional headquarters in London, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, São Paulo. During the first decade of 2000s, NYK reached a remarkable position within the Liner ranking, as one of top twelve companies in the number of containers carried, number one RO
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Canadian ports
