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

The first of these new vessels was American Lancer, owned by United States Lines, Sea-Land’s biggest competitor across the North Atlantic. The Lancer, which made its maiden voyage between Newark and Rotterdam, London, and Hamburg in May 1968, was far bigger than any other containership on the seas. It could carry 1,210 20-foot containers at a speed of 23 knots—half again as fast as the reconstructed ships in Sea-Land’s fleet. In August 1968, United States Lines asked the Maritime Administration for a $95 million subsidy to build six more such behemoths. Other American, European, and Japanese companies raced to place their orders. Almost always, a ship was designed with a specific route in mind. Atlantic vessels usually held 1,000–1,200 containers, because too large a ship meant too much port time after a relatively short voyage. Ships meant for the Asia trades were typically larger, carrying 1,300–1,600 20-foot containers, because the relatively long ocean voyages from Europe or America to Japan generated enough additional revenue to cover the added construction cost.4