The new ships demand a new kind of port, to capitalize on their ability to move large cargoes fast. Here is an SL-7 at Sea-Land's containerport in Oakland, California.
cargo liners operating between New York and southern ports, in 1955. Their first containership was a converted tanker. Her operation was dubbed a success, and in 1956 they rebuilt several T-2 tanker hulls to begin volume movement of freight in containers lifted aboard directly from trucks or railway cars. The T-2s were lengthened 60 feet to carry 240 containers. In 1958 they began work on a giant containerport, suited to the new cargo-handling mode, at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. This opened in 1962, in time to serve a new fleet of T-3 tanker "jumbos"-vessels with new mid-sections added, and lengthened fully 127 feet to carry 476 containers, with no loss in the vessel's speed. The next step was the concept of going first-class with giant ships travelling faster than all but one ocean liner had ever travelled before, and that is what produced the SL-7s. One is reminded of Bully Waterman sailing converted cotton packets to China in the 1840s, until his owners decided to take the plunge and built him Sea Witch as our first outand-out clipper. And in the SL-7s one sees the same dynamics at work that led to the clipper revolution: a concept of shipping economics that drastically cuts cargo transit time by high investment. Today American ships are more costly to sail then those of other nations . So were our sailing clippers. But they sailed with short turnaround and full cargoes, and they captured the top of the ocean shipping market. The clippers were succeded by Fullerbodied Down Easters," as steam service made their extreme speed increasingly irrelevant. But, interestingly, the Down Easters were faster ships and sailed more agressively than other sailing ships of their era. "It was notorious that you ate better but worked harder under the American flag at sea. Vessel replacement and acqms1t1on programs continue at Sea-Land today. The first of four new D-6 containerships built in 1978 for the Company was recently launched at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Kobe, Japan. Named Leader, Pacer, Pioneer and Adventurer, the new ships will fly the American flag and be manned by US crews. They are powered by energy-efficient six cylinder diesel engines, and will carry 595 containers. They are fitted with shipboard gantry cranes, for flexibility in serving
ports not fully developed for container to move into markets as our resources service. The first two vessels will be permitted and a lot faster then the typical assigned to Sea-Land's direct service American carrier." between Europe and the Mid-East. The Essentially Sea-Land is dedicated to the real economics of fast, reliable last two ships will be placed into Seafreight movement. They grew to world land's direct service between the Far leadership in containerized shipping by East and the Mid-East, across the Indian investing fully to achieve that concept in Ocean. And Sea-Land reports that they are market after market, studying the marnow evaluating construction bids for 12 ket in each case, and actually changing new linehaul containerships. the market with the impact of their serWhat of the future? Sea-Land is well . vice. They currently look to continued aware of the problems faced by American improvement and continued expansion ships competing on world trade routes in their worldwide system, viewing that against heavily subsidized foreign vessels. as the way to meet all competition. "I Running a completely unsubisdized don't mean that our cost economics operation themselves, they feel their own would be as low as those of a foreign 22-year history of success holds lessons state-owned carrier,'' says Hiltzheimer. for their future. "We had the flexibility "But our total resources, and our total to determine what trades we would serve capacity would enable us to withstand and in what fashion," notes Chariman C. just about any kind of intrusion by I. Hiltzheimer. "We generally were able anyone." .t
The grace of an utterly functional hull is apparent in this aerial view of a giant SL-7, the Sea-Land Galloway, cutting across a calm sea on one of her weekly transatlantic runs.
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1978
31