# Talk:Manchester Liners

I thought I'd take a look at the article as I'd noticed on Malleus' talk page it might be taken to GAN. The lead needs expanding, but it's the last thing that should be done so isn't so important. There are only a few comments I have to make, and nothing major. It seems well written.

"Liverpool owners had claimed that only ships of 350 ft could safely reach Manchester - the City was 467 ft overall": I take it that's the length of the ship? Perhaps the claim could be taken out of brackets and tagged onto the end of the previous sentence eg:"...use the new waterway, disproving the claims of Liverpool owners that only..." It's probably worth implementing the {{convert}} template, for instance GRT could be converted to m2.
"taking two days and stopping at Irlam, to give the crew a rest, as she was by far the largest vessel to venture up the waterway to date": it's not entirely clear why the crew needed a rest, I assume it's because they had to shovel a lot of coal (disclaimer: I know nothing about ships/boats/dinghys/rafts)
Four ships were requestioned during the Boer War, how did this affect ML? Was it reimbursed, did it lose trade to other companies?
When the Merchant was lost, was anyone hurt? Even if no one was, it's worth mentioning.
"...engaged in a running fight with U-boat U 65 before she was sunk": might want to make it clearer that it was the Trader that was sunk. Was anyone hurt?
"An example of the delaying effect...": what is the delaying effect?
I think the decline of the company needs a little more explanation. Was there a national downturn, or factors other than strikes?
Overall, the article looks in very good shape and IMO would stand a very good chance if it was reviewed for GA now. Good work by those involved. Nev1 (talk) 17:21, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I agree with all the points you've made, particularly your last point about the decline of the company. Certainly a major factor in that was the relatively small size of the ships in ML's fleet compared to the very much larger ships operated by their competitors, which meant their unit costs were significantly higher, along with an excess of capacity in the container market. But this all needs to be explained in the article, obviously. --Malleus Fatuorum 17:49, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

This isn't the carving I was looking for, but it's quite nice anyway, I think.  Somewhere there's a carving of the Argo, I just can't remember where.  Mr Stephen (talk) 23:04, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

This is probably a stupid question, and I'll probably wish tomorrow that I'd waited to hear what RuthAS had to say before asking it, but is that a carving of ML's coat of arms? --Malleus Fatuorum 23:46, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
I've checked all my sources for Manchester Liners and found no reference to, or image of, ML having a coat of arms. The carving on the company's former HQ is attractively quaint - but appears to be 'artists licence' !! RuthAS (talk) 12:39, 18 June 2009 (UTC)