Historical perspective
Short sea shipping is the modern equivalent of coastal shipping. The ‘old fashioned’ notion was determined by a geographical fact: the vessels sailed ‘along the coast’ to Denmark, Spain or Portugal. Over the years, the sector developed, because of which the notion ‘coastal shipping’ became no longer appropriate. For starters, larger vessels were deployed, and the sector became familiar with the container as means of transport. (The first containers arrived in Rotterdam in 1965.)
Short sea shipping is also literary called ‘short sea’, although this notion cannot be understood that the sector only covers short distances. It has a historical background. In former days vessels were subdivided according measurements. Coastal shipping was respected as ‘small merchant services’, which was understandable knowing that only small vessels were deployed for coastal or shortsea operations.
These relatively smaller vessels are still operational, but today all involved in the shortsea sector determine the area to be serviced, in particular, to define whether a service is ‘deepsea’ or ‘shortsea’. It is the distance that counts: deepsea sails the oceans and shortsea the European waters. In this respect, measurements of vessels deployed are irrelevant. Fact is that at relatively longer distances – for example to Greece – larger vessels are deployed, than at short distances, such as between the Netherlands and Scandinavia.