[SJB]

When the history of ships are recounted here this often includes a lot of diferent owners, sometimes there are but a few moths betwen one and the next. And this goes way back in the times before the telegraph. So how did a potential buyer and-buyer searching owner get in touch? How did the eventual shipbroker operate in, say 1860? Did they send letters around, did they post the information on a blackboard in the captain's club in the big ports? In short - were there an organized marketplace?