This chapter aims to estimate the amount of work performed by the coastal shipping industry in 1910 in relation to the rail and canal transport counterparts. It examines the services offered by the coastal industry in this period that the railway could not provide - such as ferrying to remote regions such as the Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, and Scottish islands. It compares and contrasts rail, canal, and coastal services by examining freight traffic; coal shipping; bills of entry; the Royal Commission on Canals; steamship company records; and Parliamentary papers to paint an accurate picture of the British transport industry in the pre-war period. It concludes that the shipping distribution in 1910 was fifty-nine percent coastal; thirty-nine percent rail, and two percent canal - and insists that coastal and canal shipping should not be paired together when discussing the rise of the railway as they were fundamentally distinct.
