The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger - Second Edition with a new chapter by the author

by Marc Levinson

McLean was not deterred. Pan-Atlantic’s problems, he determined, were rooted in the maritime industry’s passive, slow-moving culture. Domestic ship lines, such as Pan-Atlantic, operated in a highly regulated environment that left little room for entrepreneurial spirit. American-owned lines operating internationally, such as Waterman, were allowed to join international rate-making cartels. U.S.-flag ships, using American crews, had the exclusive right to carry the huge flow of U.S. government shipments, including military cargo, and many lines received government operating subsidies as well. This sheltered culture led to excesses like Waterman’s headquarters building in Mobile, with its revolving globe in the lobby and the lavish executive suite on the sixteenth floor. It did not breed the sorts of creative, aggressive, hungry employees that suited Malcom McLean. McLean decided it was time for a culture change. In June 1958, Pan-Atlantic, which now ran only containerships, moved to a new headquarters in a converted pineapple warehouse near the Newark docks, while Waterman, the traditional breakbulk ship line, was deliberately left behind in Mobile.