CONTAINERSHIPS
There is no argument that the containership has revolutionized the movement of cargo. But pinpointing its origin is a bit tricky.

"During the 1950s, there were many innovative ideas regarding containerships and RO/ROs, and they were all developed about the same time," says George G. Sharp's Charles Barker. "You may get many "firsts' claimed in these two categories, and they are all valid. Some are the first conversion, some are the first newbuild, some, the first vehicle RO/RO," adds Barker.

The father of containerization, Malcom McLean, converted several vessels to containerships in the late 1950s and early 1960s for a shipping line that would eventually become Sea-Land.
Some of the first newbuild containerships under the U.S. flag were the 2,100 dwt M/V Floridian and the M/V New Yorker. The sister ships were designed by George G. Sharp and built at Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.

Since those early days, the container revolution has brought us to the era of the post -Panamax 6,000 TEU containerships, initiated by the Moller Group's Maersk Lines--now Maersk-Sealand.

The tenth delivery in this series from Moller's Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark is the Clifford Maersk with a capacity of 6,600 TEU (twenty-foot containers) which include more than 700 forty-foot reefer containers.

The giant vessel is 347 metres long, 43 metres wide, has a depth of 24 metres and a draft of 14,5 metres when fully loaded.

It is powered by a 12-cylinder MAN-B&W diesel engine developing 74,640 bhp and at 94 rev/min the fully loaded vessel reaches a speed of 25 knots.

O.K., which of your favorite historic ships did we miss?

E-mail us with the details!

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