General Cargo Ship

A general cargo ship, also called a break-bulk carrier, is a cargo vessel designed to carry mixed, unstandardized freight such as crates, sacks, drums, bales and machinery, loaded and unloaded piece by piece using shipboard cranes or derricks and dockside labor. The dominant form of ocean freight transport for most of the twentieth century, the type was largely displaced from mainstream trade routes by the container ship from the 1960s onward, though general cargo ships remain in use for irregular or oversized freight that does not fit standard shipping containers.