The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

by Marc Levinson

In 1954, while still pursuing Loveland, he came upon the Waterman Steamship Corporation in the pages of a Moody’s financial manual. Waterman, based in Mobile, Alabama, was a large, well-established operator sailing to Europe and Asia. Its tiny subsidiary, Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corporation, operated four ships along the coast between Boston and Houston. McLean immediately spotted the companies’ attractions. Pan-Atlantic had been hurt badly by the 1954 longshore strike in New York, completing only 64 voyages the entire year, but it owned valuable operating rights to serve 16 ports. Its parent, Waterman Steamship, was debt-free, with assets including 37 ships and $20 million in cash. McLean made some preliminary soundings and found that Waterman could be bought for $42 million.