This paper is based on a paper for a seminar held in December 2016 by the OECD Shipbuilding Working Party No 6 to mark the 50th year since their foundation. My aim was to provide a historic view as a perspective for a discussion of what might happen in the next 50 years. The future focus is the “digital revolution”. I believe this will call for a major rethink of the way the maritime transport system is organised and this paper aims to demonstrate, by looking back, that revolutions do happen in the shipping industry and they can be very traumatic.
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