In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. "The Box" tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.

Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. It recounts how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur, Malcom McLean, turned containerization from an impractical idea into a massive industry that slashed the cost of transporting goods around the world and made the boom in global trade possible.

But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean's success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container's potential.

Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world's workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.

"The Docks" is an eye-opening journey into a giant madhouse of activity that few outsiders ever see: the Port of Los Angeles. In a book woven throughout with riveting novelist detail and illustrated with photographs that capture the frenetic energy of the place, Bill Sharpsteen tells the story of the people who have made this port, the largest in the country, one of the nation's most vital economic enterprises. Among others, we meet a pilot who parks ships, one of the first women longshoremen, union officials and employers at odds over almost everything, an environmental activist fighting air pollution in the 'diesel death zone,' and those with the nearly impossible job of enforcing security. Together these stories paint a compelling picture of a critical entryway for goods coming into the country - the Port of Los Angeles is part of a complex that brings in 40 per cent of all our waterborne cargo and 70 per cent of all Asian imports - yet one that is also extremely vulnerable. "The Docks" is a rare look at a world within our world in which we find a microcosm of the labor, environmental, and security issues we collectively face.

Reeds Introductions: Essential Sensing and Telecommunications for Marine Engineering Applications covers all fundamental and essential theoretical maritime physics principles which underpin modern marine sensors and telecommunications devices as needed by marine users such as: Navy, Coastguard, Merchant Shipping and users of pleasure craft. For safety at sea, it is vital that maritime users have at least a basic understanding of the key concepts upon which many essential modern sea-going sensors and communications devices now operate. Knowledge regarding electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic devices is an established merchant navy sea service requirement, particularly for the Standards in Training and Certification in Watchkeeping (STCW95) qualification in various Maritime Coastguard Agency exams, but it is also a practical matter for the amateur as well. This vital introductory book is written as simply as possible to educate an increasing number of maritime users who wish to become familiar and competent with the latest technologies as well as a growing number of overseas students for whom English is not their first language. This volume provides a comprehensive study of maritime sensors and telecommunications principles and provides a firm foundation prior to reading and studying textbooks in the Reeds Marine Engineering series. Students having read this easy-to-read volume will be better prepared for the more in depth study of that series.

The sea and its relation to human life has always been a subject of fascination for historians. For the first time, this book looks at the field of Maritime History through the prism of identity, looking at how the sea has influenced the formation of identity at a national, local and individual level from the early modern age to the present. It looks at a variety of people who interacted with the sea in different ways, from merchant sailors to naval officers and on land, from dockworkers to the civilians who participated in the sea-based festivals in the Mediterranean port city of Messina. This volume has a cultural focus, with chapters exploring the cultural construction of the 'naval hero' in literature, poetry, music and art, and an appraisal of the Japanese author and journalist Masanori, whose works had such a profound influence on Japanese national identity after the Second World War. A key focus is on the ways the Royal Navy influenced British identity at a national and regional level, but this volume also explores other countries with a strong naval tradition, such as Japan, Italy and Germany. By bringing together a variety of themes related to identity, this book provides the first attempt to thoroughly analyse the ways in which maritime historians have engaged with the question of identity in recent years. In doing so, it provides an important and unique addition to the historiography, which will be essential reading for all scholars of maritime and naval history and those concerned with the question of identity.

Most SASEC countries rely on maritime transport for their international trade and stronger maritime links are crucial for the subregion to achieve its economic growth potential. For example, improved ports and port access will create better connectivity with Southeast Asia, one of the world's fastest growing economic regions. However, enhanced cooperation among the seven SASEC countries is essential to strengthen maritime links. This report provides an overview of the SASEC maritime sector, identifies the key challenges, and identifies priority collaboration initiatives to overcome them.

An Azimuthing Stern Drive (ASD) tug or towboat is a high-performance vessel that is responsive, quick to maneuver and extremely powerful. In the hands of a skilled operator maneuvering these vessels looks effortless and seamless-smoothly spinning around, nimbly shifting position, having pinpoint control, all while the operator's hands move the control handles instinctively and naturally. This book takes the reader through an efficient learning sequence leading to that level of proficiency. Text, illustrations and practice drills create a clear understanding of ASD maneuvering principles and assist the reader in acquiring the intuitive hands-on feel required to operate these vessels. Each chapter covers a basic maneuvering element-steering, managing speed, stopping, hovering, lateral movement-and their application to light boat, barge and ship handling. This book is the first step for a professional mariner adding a new competency to his or her art of towing-driving a Z-drive.

Green Ports: Inland and Seaside Sustainable Transportation Strategies presents the first book to exclusively focus on this important topic that is usually only covered in brief chapters or journal articles that are too theoretical, fragmented or regionally-focused. This book comprehensively and systematically examines the key issues and best practice for understanding green ports and quantifying aspects of their environmental performance. This applied research book will help researchers formulate the needed research questions.

The story of the evolution of the urban freeway, the competing visions that informed it, and the emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation. Urban freeways often cut through the heart of a city, destroying neighborhoods, displacing residents, and reconfiguring street maps. These massive infrastructure projects, costing billions of dollars in transportation funds, have been shaped for the last half century by the ideas of highway engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, and architects-with highway engineers playing the leading role. In Changing Lanes, Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis describe the evolution of the urban freeway in the United States, from its rural parkway precursors through the construction of the interstate highway system to emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation. DiMento and Ellis describe controversies that arose over urban freeway construction, focusing on three cases: Syracuse, which early on embraced freeways through its center; Los Angeles, which rejected some routes and then built I-105, the most expensive urban road of its time; and Memphis, which blocked the construction of I-40 through its core. Finally, they consider the emerging urban highway removal movement and other innovative efforts by cities to re-envision urban transportation.

The first modern title to cover the varied and complex world of ship management in the 21st century. Ship management has constantly had to evolve to take into account the advancements in technology as well as the demands of the shipping industry. Having internet access and email on board ship has meant that the ship manager has to possess certain sets of skills to function effectively in the post, including computer literacy. The emergence of large multi-national ship management companies has also changed how business is conducted, and this in turn means that the ship manager and tiers of management within the organization have had to evolve to cope with the demands of working with a multi-national workforce. Furthermore, since the mid-1980s there has been an ever expanding raft of legislation that is more restrictive for companies to meet, and a shrinking of profit margins has seen a shift in how companies are required to operate to survive. This book addresses the demands of 21st century ship management with the focus of the book as much on the people who manage ships as on the theory and practice of ship management.

In the 1960s, an era of widespread social turbulence, the shipping industry in the Great Lakes was on the threshold of Immense change. Developed during World War II, the US merchant fleet faced threatening competition from the newer Canadian fleet. The demand for iron ore skyrocketed as baby boomers matured in the age of auto and appliance buying. To meet the increasing need, there was talk of expanding the size of the Soo Locks to accommodate larger vessels and even of lengthening the shipping season. It was glaringly obvious that a time of change was upon the aging US ships and even more so upon the men who sailed them. Eight Steamboats chronicles Patrick Livingston's adventures on eight shipping vessels - only one of which survives - during the 1960s. Told from the perspective of a writer who sails rather than a sailor who writes, the tales are spiced with connections between shore and sea. While the city of Detroit burned in 1967, Livingston served milkshakes to passengers on the South American of the Georgian Bay Lines. Later, Livingston sailed with the notorious George ""Bughouse"" Schultz on the III-starred tanker Mercury. When financial need forced him to forgo a trip to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he sailed Lake Michigan instead. In subsequent years, he dropped out of school to catch the mailboat to his ships as they transited the Detroit River. With lively dialogue, Livingston details his experiences up to his signing off the Champlain in 1972 and then setting sail for landlocked Nepal to work with the Peace Corps. Both maritime and Great Lakes enthusiasts will enjoy this voyage back to an earlier era in the Great Lakes shipping industry.

Hard Down! Hard Down! describes the eventful life of a Shetland man in pursuit of his ambitions - to reach the top in his profession, to find a wife, to cherish a family, to do his job well and to be respected by his peers. The account is enlivened by extracts from numerous well-chosen family letters, diaries and postcards revealing the minutiae of shipboard and family life 120 years ago. These include a bachelor night out in 'Frisco, buying slippers in Dantzig and a captain who changed his underclothes at midweek because he could not remember which weekend his wife had suggested! After four years as a fisherman in the stormy waters around Shetland, John Isbester chose to spend his next forty years in large square-rigged sailing ships from Liverpool at a time when shipping casualties were all too common. Remarkable feats of survival and tragic deaths are described with clarity and detail. Happier times are also remembered with picnics in Sydney harbour with captain, family and friends transported in the ship's longboat, rowed by the eight apprentices. John Isbester's wife, and sometimes their children, sailed with him on several year-long voyages accompanied by her upright piano. Her letters provide an extra dimension, describing conditions ashore in Sydney, 'Frisco, Antwerp and La Rochelle. She also describes the birth aboard ship of her ninth child! Extracts from the diary of an observant young Scots solicitor on a voyage from Liverpool to Sydney provide many insights into the nature of life aboard a large square-rigged sailing ship on a long voyage. The author, also a professional mariner, has compiled a record of the life of his grandfather from diligent research of shipping records held in the many parts of the world to which John Isbester sailed. Technical issues are illustrated with numerous diagrams for the reader and there are new insights into the loss of the Dalgonar and the acclaimed saving of 26 of the crew.

This book deals with various aspects concerning the design and fabrication of vessels for maritime transportation, namely, hydrodynamics, structures, machinery and propulsion systems, control systems, vessel design and shipyard technology, maintenance and repair. These volumes bring together an extensive collection of papers reflecting a number of fundamental areas of the exploitation of ocean and coastal resources. Subjects include the marine environment; fisheries and aquaculture; maritime transportation and port operation; coastal and offshore development; safety and reliability; and protection of the environment.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of son of a gun, flotsam and jetsam, or hunky-dory? Youll find the nautical derivation of these expressions and more than 250 others in this collection of nautical metaphors and colloquialisms. In addition, this book includes thought-provoking and entertaining examples of these words drawn from literature, movies, and song, and contains sections of legends of the sea and weather lore. Fascinating reading for sailors and language enthusiasts alike.

Heres the scuttlebutt: Barge right in and swallow the anchor, and lets chew the fat and splice the main brace til were three sheets to the wind. Listen, you son of a sea cook, Im tired of minding my Ps and Qs. I tell you, Im all at sea, and this is the bitter end. Nothing I can do will keep this ship on an even keel. Hells bells! You think I didnt tell it to the old man? Delivered a broadside, I did, but he just called me a loose cannon. Maybe I caught him between wind and water. Listen, mate. Youd better bootleg a bible aboard. Were sailing under false colors, and where were headed its cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Its Davy Jones locker Im talking about. The crew was scraped from the bottom of the barrel. They dont know the ropes, and anyway theyre deserting like rats from a sinking ship. Its time to fish or cut bait, mate, or therell be the devil to pay. No use flogging a dead horse. Lets stay armed to the teeth and look for any port in a storm. Therell be nothing but flotsam and jetsam when this tub goes down the hatch.