containership. To deliver the mountains of supplies needed to support the armed services, the Mi litary Sea Transportatio n Service (today known as the Military Sealifr C ommand) contracted with Malcolm McLean. In April 1966, Sea-Land initiated container service between the east coast of the United States and Bordeaux, France, and Hamburg, Ge rmany. McLean assigned five converted C-2 ships to this route. This ex pedient on ly provided partial relief for his ailing company and, on 29 March 1967, he signed an agreement with MSTS that opened the door for containers into Vietnam . The agreement contained provisions for Sea-Land to transport the containers, not merely to Vietnamese ports, but, once ashore, to inland depots. This unusual provision was the backbon e of true intermodalism. Because Sea-Land was now responsibl e for the ground movem ent, they were able ro track shipments, retain oversight of the containers, and ensure that the empty boxes were returned for furth er use. All to ld, seven containerships, along with four making stops at Okinawa and the Philippines, accounted for ten percent of the entire sustainment cargo shipped during the course of the Vietnam War. By the end of the co nflict in 1973, eighty percent of all cargo shipped to Southeast Asia went by co ntainer. Malcolm McLean had revolutioni zed sealifr, and, whi le the military was slow to realize it, the comm ercial sector took th e lesson to heart. M any firms began to place orders for the second generation of co ntainerships that were purpose-built to carry containers . In 1968 UniLed SLaLes Lines introduced the Lancers. They were inn ovative in that they were totally denuded of any cargo gear, relying instead on shore-side cran es. This all owed for every ava ilable space on the vessel to be devoted to the transportation of 1, 178 TEUs. With a service speed of twenty-two knots, the eight ships in this class allowed United States Lin es to replace twentyfour older first-gen eration ships and still be more productive. Co ntainerships continued to grow in size and capabilities . The th ird-generation vessels all emphasized an increase in the number of containers carried while also reducing fuel consumption and maximizing their size to the very limits of the Panama Canal, referred to as "Panamax." In 1980, Sea-Land introduced the D -9 cl ass, the first in the American merchan t m arine with a slowspeed diesel engin e. The market for such vessels was so demanding that the D -9s underwe nt a jumboization to increase their capacity to 2,472 TEUs. The current ge neration of containerships has pushed the limits of ship design and harbor capabili ties. Similar to the supertankers of the 1970s, containerships are now exceeding original expectations. In the late 1980s, American President Lines began co nstruction of their C- 10 and C-11 classes. The beam of these vessels exceeded the locks of the Panama Canal and introduced the world to post-Panamax containerships. Capable of carrying over 4,000 TEUs, these ships are now being eclipsed by even newer megaships. Las t year, Maersk Lines fielded the new G-class containerships, as demonstrated by the MV Gudrun M aersk, capable of handling 7, 000 TEUs. Plans are in the works for ships capable (photos above) Today, containers carry just about every kind of cargo. of carrying up to 10,000 TEUs. Trucks and trains deliver them to port facilities configured for loading Containerization and imerm odalism have radi cally altered directly onto purpose-built ships, a key featu re in global intermodalism. the movement of cargo. Today's merchant fleet worldwid e consists 10
SEA HJ STORY 114, SPRING 2006