Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping<\/em><\/a>, which will be released next month. \u00a0As readers of this journal well know, container shipping is a vital part of the global economy. Goods from all around the world, from vegetables to automobiles, are placed in large metal containers which are transported across the ocean in ships, then loaded onto tractor-trailers and railroad flatbeds. But when and where did this world-changing invention get started?<\/p>\nMy book traces the birth of containerization to Port Newark, New Jersey, when trucker Malcom McLean thought of a brilliant new way to transport cargo. As a truck driver years earlier, McLean had often been frustrated by waiting in line for hours to have his truck unloaded by stevedores, box by box and barrel by barrel, onto the ship at the dock. \u00a0He hated waiting. \u00a0He just wanted to get back home. \u00a0His original idea was just to put the whole truck on the ship. Of course, that was not possible. \u00a0Over time, he refined the idea, and he came up with the capital to implement his plan. He consulted with knowledgeable engineers who figured out how to make it work. \u00a0<\/p>\n
It all got started at Port Newark on April 26, 1956, nearly seventy years ago. \u00a0It was a chilly day, with a high temperature of 48 degrees, with intermittent showers. On a dock outside shed 154, some fifty-eight 33-foot-long containers were swung aboard the SS Ideal X, a converted World War II oil tanker, a 524-foot-long ship, with the previous name of Potero Hills. Previously, oil tankers would carry a profitable load of oil from Houston to Newark, but they would make the return tip with only ballast. Now tons of cargo could be carried on the southbound trip, making both legs of the voyage pay. \u00a0A huge crane placed the containers (they were understandably called \u201ctrailers\u201d at the time) on a metal platform of the tanker, above the pumping machinery. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The average loading time was seven minutes per container. \u00a0The whole ship was loaded in less than eight hours. \u00a0Under normal circumstances, the freight on the ship would have gone to Houston on over-the-road trucks\u2014a trip of about six days. \u00a0It would take the ship same amount of time, but there would be a savings of about thirty percent. It was a breakthrough\u2014the brainchild of one man, Malcom McLean.<\/p>\n
I go on to tell the story of how Port Newark grew rapidly as McLean\u2019s idea was backed by both New York banks and the US military, who used containerization to ship supplies to troops in Vietnam. I take the reader behind the scenes of today\u2019s active container shipping operations in Port Newark, talking to the pilots who guide the ships into port, the Coast Guard personnel who help manage the massive shipping traffic, the crews who unload the containers, and even the chaplains who counsel and support the mariners. Port Newark shines a spotlight on the unsung men and women who help this complex global shipping operation run smoothly.<\/p>\n
Since McLean’s innovation, Port Newark has expanded with the addition of the nearby Elizabeth Marine Terminal. This New Jersey complex now makes up the busiest seaport on the East Coast of the United States. \u00a0Some have even called it \u201cAmerica\u2019s Front Door.\u201d \u00a0My book tells the story of the rapid growth of worldwide containerization, and how Port Newark has adapted to bigger ships with deeper channels and a raised bridge. In the end, there is speculation of the future of this port with ever-increasing automation, artificial intelligence, and automation.<\/p>\n\n
About the Author:<\/strong> Angus Kress Gillespie teaches American Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he has taught courses in maritime history. \u00a0A Fulbright professor and a New York Times best-selling author, he has written on subjects ranging from skyscrapers to superhighways. He is the author of Twin Towers: The Life of New York City\u2019s World Trade Center and the co-author of Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, both published by Rutgers University Press. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nmaritime professional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAn inventor is simply a fellow who doesn\u2019t take his education too seriously.\u201d \u2013Charles Kettering Just for fun, try asking a friend a few questions. \u00a0Who developed the telephone? \u00a0Chances are that your friend will reply, Alexander Graham Bell. \u00a0Who developed the lightbulb? \u00a0That would be Thomas Edison. Who developed the telegraph? \u00a0That would be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/31427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}