Ocean Containers: A Half-Century of Logistics Excellence
It has been 50 years since the introduction of the shipping container, which revolutionized the ocean freight industry. The father of this remarkable invention was North Carolina native Malcom McLean. His humble beginnings in the shipping industry eventually brought him from the trucking industry to the world of sea transport, forever uniting the two businesses and giving birth to the intermodal age. McLean developed the idea of using ships to carry portable truck bodies from semi-trailers on board ship. His ideas stemmed from long, frustrating hours spent waiting in his truck cab for his cargo to be loaded aboard a ship in Hoboken. From this problem was borne the concept of coordinating sea and land transport around these portable units.
The container age began alongside a berth at Newark, New Jersey, when the first T-2 tanker, "Ideal X," loaded 58 containers for her maiden voyage to Texas. Three sister ships were later pressed into service, resulting in a successful and far more cost effective method of transport than was previously thought possible.
The use of tankers for container transport was only a temporary effort, and the development of containerships able to carry boxes below decks soon followed, along with rail mounted cranes specially designed to load and unload the containers. The eventual creation of the Sea-Land Shipping company led the way for others to develop what is now a multi-national, highly efficient shipping method, which we now take for granted. Along the way, McLain's transport philosophies were later embraced by the U.S. Military and have since revolutionized how America prepares for and goes to war.
McLean died in 2001 at the age of 88, after compiling a record of enterprise and shipping innovation which may never again be matched. His accomplishments far eclipsed his fame as the inventor of the modern container, and McLean will always be remembered as one of the primary architects of today's efficient world trade and logistics excellence.