40th anniversary of containershipping

[portagent]

Do you remember ?

MV

[Phil English]

Weren't the Americans shipping containers well before then? To quote America on the Move:

"Malcom McLean, a trucking entrepreneur from North Carolina, acquired a steamship company in 1955 with the idea of using its ships to transport cargo-laden truck trailers. McLean

[David Harrison]

I remember in the early 60s (and seen film) of trailers being loaded by crane aboard ships. Then seeing containers on trailers bound for the docks etc.  Amazing times!
 8-)

[David Duggan]

It seems that the date varies depending who is putting out the info. I have read somewhere(I think !!) that the west australian govt. shipping line was using containerised freight  on its vessels in the early 60,s. The Matson Line website says in part "In 1958 several C-3 freighters were ADAPTED to carry containers on deck. In july 1959 the HAWIIAN CITIZEN was CONVERTED into an all-container ship with a capacity for 436 24foot containers, which was the first all container service on the Pacific".
Elsewhere is written that McLean "started shipping operations in 1955 converting war surplus T2 tankers to accept containers"
It seems that the North Atlantic trade was the first MAJOR deep-sea route to change to boxes from the "conventional" break bulk liner services.
Down under we got our first PURPOSE BUILT box ships on liner service in mid 1969 when OCL began service  with 6 gearless ships of 1900teu.Maybe we have some veterans of those first days on our group.

[onyxman]

Greetings all,
This is my first post here.
I just completed a 1/400 scale model of the Ideal X, considered to be the first containership. In doing research for that project I learned a lot. Malcolm McLean had bought Pan Atlantic Lines, a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship. He fitted two T-2 tankers with spar decks to carry the first 58 containers. The other ship Maxton, was named after his home town. I have no idea where the name Ideal X came from. This wasn

[sandwichma]

Hi,

I am very interested in those old pictures, because they are very rare. Can you email them to me, please?

My adress is [email protected]

Hope to recieve them soon.

Greetings,
Bob

[Mike Cornwall]

This is an interesting thread, I first started working with containers in Tilbury in 1969 and have stayed with it ever since. I love it as it is ever changing, and very interesting.
But what does interest me is the way some people never seen to learn. Working on these ships every day you see some real horror stories in various designs, and also maintenance, but we won't go there.
Brand new vessels coming out with completely impractical layouts for people to work with.
Gear designs so bad that it can slow a ship down by almost a day in port.
Add this up over a ship's lifetime and you are talking big money.
And I do wonder about the longevity of some ships, some are really cheap and nasty.
The 4100's that we see here, only 2/3yrs old, stand at one end and look to the other and the hogging can be seen clearly.
Mr dicky,
Aren't you forgetting the dear old Kooringa of Associated Steamship Pty. From my memory she was the worlds first purpose built container ship, as opposed to a conversion. I think she was built 1965/6  and ran to W.A.. Prior to the arrival of Kanimbla and Manoora in 1970 she used a really oddball length of container, I think it was 16ft 10ins. Not sure, but I think this length had something to do with the railways of the day.
When the two larger new ships arrived she was changed to the now standard 20ft box.

Yes, its a great industry, and one that has really changed the way the world trades.

Rgds/Mike

[portagent]

hi folks,

to those who did not notice the photo :

http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=224994

1966: good old times of general cargo vessels with port stays up to one week ....

[Mike Cornwall]

Hi Klaus,

Great photo there. Sealand certainly had some interesting conversions running around, and were not afraid to think outside the square.
It's also interesting to look back and see just how many diiferant size containers were around before the industry settled on 20 and 40ft boxes.
Here in NZ the Union Co used 14ft 6ins "seafreighters", that were a base with removable sides and a canvas tarpaulen over the top, on their Roro service to Aust and on the NZ coast. This length was derived from the length of rail wagons of the day.
In Aust ASP used to have small boxes that were 4ft long, 8ft high and 8ft wide so that small shippers could take advantage of containers. When receieved at the docks they were then assembled in a group of 10 onto a 40ft frame. This was then lifted on to the vessel as a 40ft unit.


Rgds/Mike

[Rob W]

I would thoroughly recommend a new book which has just been published; Box Ships: How Container Ships Changed the World by Brian J Cudahy. Published