In this chapter we apply conventional graph-theoretical and complex network methods to a sample of port and inter-port shipping flows at and amongst the top 50 European ports in 2017 to detect the main topological and geographic structures of this network. Main results confirm earlier works by physicists about liner shipping network but our approach based on dry cargo and liquid cargo goes further with a mix of novelty and confirmation on how maritime networks and the European backbone in particular is driven by which forces.