Fifty years ago--on April 26, 1956--the freighter Ideal X steamed from
Berth 26 in Port Newark, New Jersey. Flying the flag of the Pan-Atlantic
Steamship Company, she set out for Houston with an unusual cargo: 58
trailer trucks lashed to her top deck.
But they weren't trucks--they were steel containers removed from their
running gear, waiting to be lifted onto empty truck beds when Ideal X
reached Texas. She docked safely, and a revolution was launched--not
only in shipping, but in the way the world trades. Today, the more than
200 million containers shipped every year are the lifeblood of the new
global economy. They sit stacked on thousands of "box boats" that grow
more massive every year.
In this fascinating book, transportation expert Brian Cudahy provides a
vivid, fast-paced account of the container-ship revolution--from the
maiden voyage of the Ideal X to the entrepreneurial vision and
technological breakthroughs that make it possible to ship more goods
more cheaply than every before.
Cudahy tells this complex story easily, starting with Malcom McLean,
Pan-Atlantic's owner who first thought about loading his trucks on
board. His line grew into the container giant Sea-Land Services, and
Cudahy charts
its dramatic evolution into Maersk Sealand, the largest container line
in the world. Along the way, he provides a concise, colorful history of
world shipping--from freighter types to the fortunes of steamship
lines--and explores the spectacular growth of global trade fueled by the
mammoth ships and new seaborne lifelines connecting Asia, Europe, and
the Americas.
Masterful maritime history, Box Boats shows how fleets of these ungainly
ships make the modern world possible--with both positive and negative
effects. It's also a tale of an historic home port, New York, where old
piers lie silent while 40-foot steel boxes of toys and televisions come
ashore by the thousands, across the bay in New Jersey.
