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.
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