SEA HISTORY
8 SEA HISTORY 114, SPRING 2006
The three-masted ship
Mary L. Cushing,
sailing at the turn of
the 19th century, was
a typical example of a
cargo-carrying vessel in
the age of sail.
COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Cargo has always been moved easier by water than over land. Even
today, ninety percent of the world’s commerce moves on the sea.
Throughout history, humans have continually used containers
to move their goods. The Egyptians used straw baskets to load
on ships, along with amphoras to carry liquid cargo. This style
of transportation still exists today in several parts of the world.
The development of wooden crates for shipping, barrels for liquid
products, and bags for grain allowed for increased productivity in
cargo operations, but they were still limited by the power source.
The introduction of material handling equipment accelerated the
cargo process. Motorized hand trucks, such as forklifts, dock tractors,
crane trucks, and powered conveyors radically altered cargo
operations. When these were added to four-foot by four foot
wooden pallets, workers were able to move cargo in a third of the
time. In the years after World War II, the standard stick freighter,
exemplified by the Liberty, Victory, and C-class cargo ships of the
US Maritime Commission, was the most common dry cargo ship
sailing on the world’s oceans. As the demand for cargo increased,
The Container Revolution
by Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano
This illustration printed in Harper’s Weekly (v. 21, no. 1072,
1877) depicts the hard physical labor it took to load and unload
ships in the nineteenth century. Drawing by I.P. Pranishnikoff.
COURTESY APL COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
(right) Only in the
last 50 years has the
burden of loading cargo
onboard ships with
slings been alleviated
with the development
of the container ship
and port facilities.
The transportation of cargo from manufactories around the
world to ports for loading, its movement across the oceans
to points of debarkation, and then its arrival at local loading
docks transpires on a routine, seamless basis. The process is
so smooth that, only after the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, did the nation awaken to learn that only a small percentage
of the more than 23 million containers that arrive yearly in this
country are inspected. While this is clearly a topic lawmakers are
addressing as far as homeland security is concerned, it also points
to the fact that the volume of commerce in and out of the nation,
along with the rest of the world, has increased exponentially since
the end of the Second World War. The reasons for this change are
numerous: globalization, better production techniques, mechanization,
and improved management styles. Perhaps the most significant
factor, and one usually overlooked, is that the capability to
move cargo overseas in large quantities and in a way that allows
for quicker turn-around in port has only been effected in the last
few decades. This style of cargo handling, containerization, has
led to a shipping revolution.
The early movement of cargo on and off ships can best be
described in one word, manpower. Devices magnified this power,
but the use of humans, or sometimes animals, remained a constant
theme throughout most of history. Blocks and tackle mounted
on masts or on shore provided a mechanical advantage for lifting
large weights. The breaking strain of wood required massive
booms and limited the size of the cargo that could be stowed
onboard. The introduction of iron into shipbuilding allowed
for smaller and more capable booms. In addition, this style of
construction permitted the enlarging of cargo deck hatches.
The combination of steam propulsion with iron, and later steel
construction, mechanically-powered winches, electricity, and telegraph
cables revolutionized the shipping industry in the late nineteenth
century and introduced to the world the standard boom
(or stick) freighter. Yet, with all these innovations, the movement
of cargo by sea had changed little since ancient times.
SEA HISTORY 114, SPRING 2006 9
larger freighters were built, such as the thirty-five C-4 Mariner
class in the early 1950s, but they were not the solution. What was
needed was an entirely new way to move cargo, not just bigger
freighters.
In 1955, a North Carolina trucking entrepreneur, Malcolm
McLean, acquired the Pan-American Steamship Company out of
Mobile, Alabama, a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship. Using
a concept developed by Seatrain Lines in the 1930s, he initially
favored the construction of ‘trailerships’—taking trailers from
large trucks and stowing them in a ship’s cargo hold. This method
of stowage, referred to as roll-on/roll-off, was not adopted
because of the large waste in potential cargo space onboard the
vessel, known as broken stowage. Instead, he modified his original
concept into loading just the containers, not the chassis, onto the
ships, hence the designation containership, or “box” ship. In January
1956, he purchased three T-2 tankers and oversaw the construction
of wooden shelter decks, known as Mechano decking.
This was a common practice in World War II for the carriage of
oversized cargo, such as aircraft. The first ship with containers, SS
Ideal X, sailed from Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas,
on 26 April 1956 and opened a new age in cargo transportation.
Shipping firms were slow to embrace McLean’s concept.
The conversion of existing ships provided the first generation
in containerships. Many of these vessels, such as the C-3
freighters altered by Matson Lines in the Pacific, merely added
lashings on deck for the securing of containers. The existing
booms served as the means to load and unload the boxes. Yet,
the addition of containers did not solve the problem of cargo
throughput. A lack of standardization in container length and
height persisted and forced dedicated
service between trucking firms
and shippers, precluding the introduction
of true intermodalism—the
seamless movement of cargo from
shore to ship to shore. McLean’s
new company, Sea-Land, based on
the East Coast, preferred thirty-fivefoot
long containers, while Matson
on the West Coast used twentyfour-
footers. Not until 1961 did the
International Standards Committee
set up formal sizes: the twenty-foot
equivalent unit (TEU = 20’ length
x 8’ width x 8.5’ height) and the
forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU = 40’ x 8’ x 8.5’).
A major technological improvement in the transportation
of containers came with the introduction of cellular construction.
The installation of vertical rails in the holds of ships, known as
cell guides, in conjunction with high-speed shore cranes, made
container handling quicker and more efficient. Yet, the transition
to containerships did not always proceed smoothly. Grace
Lines suffered a severe setback in their trade with the west coast
of South America by introducing containers before the market
could sustain them. In addition, they incurred the wrath of local
labor when stevedores and longshoremen refused to move the
containers for fear of losing their jobs. Many companies also
faced the challenge of vessel replacement. As their war-built fleets
were nearing the end of their service lives, many firms had to
choose what type of ships to build. Some companies went with
larger freighters, some went with barge carrying vessels, others
with roll-on/roll-off ships. Even containerships did not prove to
be the right choice initially. In 1960,
American President Lines constructed
two ships that represented a
transition point from break-bulk
stick freighters to true containerships.
The Searacers provided for a mix of
container transport and break-bulk
cargo. The two conflicting systems
of cargo transportation proved
inefficient and incompatible, but,
nevertheless, symbolic of the crossroads
that the shipping industry
faced in terms of technology.
It was the Vietnam War that demonstrated
the true value of the
SS Ideal X
Malcolm McLean (1914-2001)
In 1955 McLean sold his trucking company and, with the proceeds,
purchased the Pan-American Steamship Company. He renamed
the company Sea-Land and started experimenting with
better ways to load cargo. In 1956, he sent Sea-Land’s SS Ideal
X, which he had adapted to handle trailers (not just the container
but the whole trailer) from Port Newark, NJ, down the coast and
around to Houston, the first “container” shipment ever made.
PAGE 9 PHOTOS COURTESY MAERSK
Loading a container on the deck of SS Ideal X
10 SEA HISTORY 114, SPRING 2006
containership. To deliver the mountains of supplies needed to support
the armed services, the Military Sea Transportation Service
(today known as the Military Sealift Command) contracted with
Malcolm McLean. In April 1966, Sea-Land initiated container
service between the east coast of the United States and Bordeaux,
France, and Hamburg, Germany. McLean assigned five converted
C-2 ships to this route. This expedient only provided partial
relief for his ailing company and, on 29 March 1967, he signed
an agreement with MSTS that opened the door for containers
into Vietnam. The agreement contained provisions for Sea-Land
to transport the containers, not merely to Vietnamese ports, but,
once ashore, to inland depots. This unusual provision was the
backbone of true intermodalism. Because Sea-Land was now
responsible for the ground movement, they were able to track
shipments, retain oversight of the containers, and ensure that the
empty boxes were returned for further use. All told, seven containerships,
along with four making stops at Okinawa and the
Philippines, accounted for ten percent of the entire sustainment
cargo shipped during the course of the Vietnam War. By the end
of the conflict in 1973, eighty percent of all cargo shipped to
Southeast Asia went by container. Malcolm McLean had revolutionized
sealift, and, while the military was slow to realize it, the
commercial sector took the lesson to heart.
Many firms began to place orders for the second generation
of containerships that were purpose-built to carry containers.
In 1968 United States Lines introduced the Lancers. They were
innovative in that they were totally denuded of any cargo gear,
relying instead on shore-side cranes. This allowed for every available
space on the vessel to be devoted to the transportation of
1,178 TEUs. With a service speed of twenty-two knots, the eight
ships in this class allowed United States Lines to replace twentyfour
older first-generation ships and still be more productive.
Containerships continued to grow in size and capabilities. The
third-generation vessels all emphasized an increase in the number
of containers carried while also reducing fuel consumption and
maximizing their size to the very limits of the Panama Canal,
referred to as “Panamax.” In 1980, Sea-Land introduced the D-9
class, the first in the American merchant marine with a slowspeed
diesel engine. The market for such vessels was so demanding
that the D-9s underwent a jumboization to increase their capacity
to 2,472 TEUs.
The current generation of containerships has pushed the
limits of ship design and harbor capabilities. Similar to the supertankers
of the 1970s, containerships are now exceeding original
expectations. In the late 1980s, American President Lines began
construction of their C-10 and C-11 classes. The beam of these
vessels exceeded the locks of the Panama Canal and introduced the
world to post-Panamax containerships. Capable of carrying over
4,000 TEUs, these ships are now being eclipsed by even newer
megaships. Last year, Maersk Lines fielded the new G-class containerships,
as demonstrated by the MV Gudrun Maersk, capable
of handling 7,000 TEUs. Plans are in the works for ships capable
of carrying up to 10,000 TEUs.
Containerization and intermodalism have radically altered
the movement of cargo. Today’s merchant fleet worldwide consists COURTESY MAERSK COURTESY MAERSK COURTESY MAERSK COURTESY WIKIPEDIA.COM
(photos above) Today, containers carry just about every kind of cargo.
Trucks and trains deliver them to port facilities configured for loading
directly onto purpose-built ships, a key feature in global intermodalism.
SEA HISTORY 114, SPRING 2006 11
of 3,375 containerships with a capacity
of 7.2 million TEUs. They are divided
into four distinct categories: “feeder”
ships, those that carry less than a thousand
TEUs and are designed to shuttle
containers to and from small ports to
larger ports; “handy-size” vessels of one
to three thousand TEUs; “Panamax”
ships of up to four thousand TEUs;
and finally, “post-Panamax.” Their impact
on the world’s trade is significant.
In 1983 the total US foreign oceanborne
commerce was 694.4 million
metric tons; ten years later, this had
increased to 884.4. Ten years after that,
it had magnified to 1,167.9 million metric
tons, nearly doubling in just twenty
years. Growth of this magnitude is only
possible through the use of containers.
Before containerization, a typical
freighter could handle only 10,000 tons
and took nearly two weeks to load/unload. In 2004 the port of
Los Angeles/Long Beach alone accounted for 8.6 million containers,
or thirty-six percent of the more than twenty-three
million containers that moved in and out of the United States.
That translates to over 23,000 containers per day, with each TEU
capable of carrying up to twenty tons of cargo—equal to loading/
offloading approximately forty-five freighters daily.
Malcolm McLean passed away on 25
May 2001 at the age of 87 with little
fanfare. The Harvard Business School
has acknowledged him as one of the
greatest business leaders of the twentieth
century. Though his name may not
be as well known in the maritime field
as such innovators as Robert Fulton,
Samuel Cunard, Ismbard Kingdom
Brunel, Donald McKay, or Henry J.
Kaiser, it is clear that his contribution
to the industry was extraordinary.
Born in the small rural town of Maxton,
North Carolina, he was a product
of the Depression. Yet this truck driver
reinvented ocean shipping, and his
vision of containerizing cargo has
transformed the world’s oceans into a
true global highway.
Salvatore R. Mercogliano is an assistant
professor of history at the United States Military Academy at West
Point. He earned a BS in Marine Transportation from SUNY Maritime
College and worked for seven years as a deck officer in the merchant
marine, in the employ of the Military Sealift Command. He
went on to East Carolina University for an MA in Maritime History
and Nautical Archeology and earned a PhD in Military and Naval
History from the University of Alabama.
(background photo) “Panamax” ships are built to the
dimensions of the Panama Canal locks.
Malcolm McLean (1914-2001)
PHOTO BY STAN SHEB, COURTESY WIKIPEDIA
