Liners and Tramps
A ship may also be categorised as to how it is operated.
A liner will have a regular run and operate to a schedule. The scheduled operation requires that such ships are better equipped to deal with causes of potential delay such as bad weather. They are generally higher powered than tramp ships with better seakeeping qualities, thus they are more significantly more expensive to build. Liners are typically built for passenger and container operation though past common uses also included mail and general cargo.
A tramp has no fixed run but will go wherever a suitable cargo takes it. Thus a ship and crew may be chartered from the ship owner to fetch a cargo of grain from Canada to Latvia, the ship may then be required to carry a cargo of coal from Britain to Melanesia. Bulk carriers and cruise ships are examples of ships built to operate in this manner.
Read more about this topic: Ship Transport