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

by Marc Levinson

  20. Minutes, MH-5 Van Container Subcommittee #3, December 14, 1961; Tantlinger, “U.S. Containerization.”

  21. Tantlinger, “U.S. Containerization”; letter, M. R. McEvoy, president, Sea-Land Service, to Vincent G. Grey, American Standards Association, January 29, 1963.

  22. Letter, James T. Enzensperger, Pacific American Steamship Association, to Eugene Spector, American Merchant Marine Institute, November 5, 1964; Tantlinger, “U.S. Containerization.”

  23. American Merchant Marine Institute, “Van Containers in Service,” n.d. (circulated January 1965); Pacific American Steamship Association, minutes of containerization committee, January 21, 1965; telegram, K. L. Selby, president, National Castings Co., to R. K. James, executive director, Committee of American Steamship Lines, January 7, 1965.

  24. Pacific American Steamship Association, “SAAM Proposed Cargo Container Standards,” January 20, 1965; Herbert H. Hall, “Facts Concerning the ASA-MH5 Sectional Committee Proposed Van Container Corner Fitting,” June 14, 1965; Memorandum, Tantlinger to W. E. Grace, Fruehauf Corporation, August 12, 1965.

  25. Murray Harding, “Final World Standards Set for Van Freight Containers,” JOC, October 5, 1965; Harlander interview, COHP.

  26. “Is Container Standardization Here?” p. 30.

  27. Various countries’ findings are detailed in letter, Harlander to Martin Rowbotham, chairman, second ad hoc panel on corner fittings, January 13, 1967, and letter, Robotham to panel members, February 1, 1967. Other sources include Grey, “Setting Standards,” p. 41; ISO, “Report of Ad Hoc Panel Convened at London Meeting,” January 1967; and author’s telephone interview with Les Harlander, November 2, 2004. Ship lines’ opposition is reported in the minutes of a meeting of “some members” of the MH-5 Securing and Handling Subcommittee, February 16, 1967. The ISO container and fitting specifications are in Jane’s Freight Containers, 1st ed. (New York 1968), p. 4–11.

  28. Minutes of MH-5 Demountable Container Subcommittee, July 20, 1967; Edward A. Morrow, “Rail Aide Scores Sea Containers,” NYT, September 17, 1967.

  29. ASA-MH-5 committee, cited in L. A. Harlander, “Container System Design Developments over Two Decades,” Marine Technology 19 (1982): 366; Meyers, “The Maritime Industry’s Expensive New Box.”

  30. The possibility of such additional restrictions on nonstandard operators was much discussed at the 1967 hearings of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, reprinted in Cargo Container Dimensions (Washington, DC, 1968).

  31. Minutes of MH-5 Demountable Container Subcommittee, November 9, 1965; memo, L. A. Harlander to S. Powell and others, Matson Navigation Company, November 12, 1965.

  32. Minutes of ASA Group 1 Demountable Container Subcommittee, February 2, 1966; minutes of MH-5 Sectional Committee, June 23, 1966; letter, Hall to Tantlinger, November 1, 1966; Harlander interview, COHP; L. A. Harlander, “The Role of the 24-Foot Container in Intermodal Transportation,” submitted to ASA MH-5 committee, June 1966; Statement of Michael R. McEvoy, president, Sea-Land Service, in House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, Cargo Container Dimensions, p. 130; MH-5 Executive Committee, minutes, June 1, 1967.

  33. Congressional Record, November 6, 1967, pp. 31144–31151; House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, Cargo Container Dimensions, Gulick testimony, October 31, 1967, p. 28; Ralph B. Dewey testimony, November 16, 1967, pp. 162–169.

  34. House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, Cargo Container Dimensions, Powell testimony November 1, 1967, p. 50, and McLean comment November 16, 1967, p. 121.

  35. Ibid., Powell testimony November 1, 1967, pp. 70–71; Harlander interview, COHP.

  36. Minutes, combined meeting of MH-5 Load and Testing and Handling and Securing Subcommittees, November 30, 1966; Leslie A. Harlander, “Intermodal Compatibility Requires Flexibility of Standards,” Container News, January 1970, p. 20; Minutes of MH-5 committee, January 29 and May 20–21, 1970; L. A. Harlander, “Container System Design Developments,” p. 368.

  37. Marad, “Intermodal Container Services Offered by U.S. Flag Operators,” January 1973 (unpaginated).

  Chapter 8

  Takeoff

  1. New York figure estimated from PNYA data; West Coast figure taken from Hartman, Collective Bargaining, p. 160.

  2. Ernest W. Williams, Jr., The Regulation of Rail-Motor Rate Competition (New York, 1958), p. 208; Werner Bamberger, “Containers Cited as Shipping ‘Must,’” NYT, January 21, 1959, and “Industry Is Exhibiting Caution on Containerization of Fleet,” NYT, December 4, 1960. Military freight accounted for one-fifth of the revenues of U.S.-flag international ship lines in 1964; see Werner Bamberger, “Lines Ask Rule on Cargo Bidding,” NYT, July 14, 1966.

  3. McLean Industries, Annual Reports, 1957–60; Werner Bamberger, “Lukenbach Buys 3 of 5 Vessels Needed for Containership Fleet,” NYT, November 26, 1960; George Horne, “Luckenbach Ends Domestic Service,” NYT, February 21, 1961; “Ship Line Drops Florida Service,” NYT, March 2, 1961; “Grace Initiates Seatainer Service,” Marine Engineering/Log (1960), p. 55; Niven, American President Lines, p. 211.

  4. “Coast Carriers Win Rate Ruling,” NYT, January 5, 1961.

  5. United Cargo Corporation, a freight forwarder, offered container service from the United States to Europe as early as 1959, but the service involved boxes only 10½ feet long, which were carried in ships’ holds along with other freight. Jacques Nevard, “Container Line Plans Extension,” NYT; June 6, 1959.

  6. Census Bureau, Historical Statistics, pp. 711 and 732; Beverly Duncan and Stanley Lieberson, Metropolis and Region in Transition (Beverly Hills, 1970), pp. 229–245.

  7. Census Bureau, Historical Statistics, pp. 732–733; ICC, Transport Economics, July 1956, p. 10.

  8. For information on piggyback operations prior to 1950, see Kenneth Johnson Holcomb, “History, Description and Economic Analysis of Trailer-on-Flatcar (Piggyback) Transportation” (Ph.D. diss., University of Arkansas, 1962), pp. 9–13.

  9. Movement of Highway Trailers by Rail, 293 ICC 93 (1954).

  10. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract 1957, Table 705, p. 564; Wallin, “The Development, Economics, and Impact,” p. 220; ICC Bureau of Economics, “Piggyback Traffic Characteristics,” December 1966, p. 6. On Teamster opposition, see Irving Kovarsky, “State Piggyback Statutes and Federalism,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 18, no. 1 (1964): 45.

  11. Curtis D. Buford, Trailer Train Company: A Unique Force in the Railroad Industry (New York, 1982); Comments of Roy L. Hayes, “Panel Presentations: Railroad Commercial Panel,” Transportation Law Journal 28, no. 2 (2001): 516; Walter W. Patchell, “Research and Development,” in Management for Tomorrow, ed. Nicholas A. Glaskowsky, Jr. (Stanford, 1958), pp. 31–34; Shott, Piggyback and the Future of Freight Transportation, p. 7.

  12. Comments of Richard Steiner, “Panel Presentations: Railroad Commercial Panel”; Holcomb, “History, Description and Economic Analysis,” pp. 43–44; Eric Rath, Container Systems (New York, 1973), p. 33.

  13. Holcomb, “History, Description and Economic Analysis,” pp. 54–67; Rath, Container Systems, p. 33.

  14. Details here are taken from the ensuing U.S. District Court decision, New York, New Haven and Harford v. ICC, 199 F. Supp 635.

  15. The relevant sentence in the Transportation Act of 1958 reads, “Rates of a carrier shall not be held up to a particular level to protect the traffic of any other mode of transportation, giving due consideration to the objectives of the national transportation policy declared in this Act.” “Coast Carriers Win Rate Ruling,” NYT, January 5, 1961; Robert W. Harbeson, “Recent Trends in the Regulation of Intermodal Rate Competition in Transportation,” Land Economics 42, no. 3 (1966). The case was finally decided in the railroads’ favor by a unanimous Supreme Court, ICC v. New York, New Haven & Hartford, 372 U.S. 744, April 22, 1963. The dubious economics of determining a railroad’s “fully-distributed cost” of carrying a particular load are, fortunately, beyond the scope of this book.<
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  16. Holcomb, “History, Description and Economic Analysis,” p. 220; Bernard J. McCarney, “Oligopoly Theory and Intermodal Transport Price Competition: Some Empirical Findings,” Land Economics 46, no. 4 (1970): 476.

  17. Five of the ten leading users of the New York Central’s Flexi-Van service were freight forwarders, but four leading manufacturers and the Montgomery Ward department-store chain also were on the list; see memo, R. L. Milbourne, New York Central, to managers, July 10, 1964, in Penn Central Archives, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware, Accession 1810/Box B-1872/Folder 15. Alexander Lyall Morton, “Intermodal Competition for the Intercity Transport of Manufactures,” Land Economics 48, no. 4 (1972): 360.

  18. ICC, “Piggyback Traffic Characteristics,” pp. 6 and 58–60; Forgash, “Transport Revolution at the Last Frontier,” p. 63; Robert E. Bedingfield, “Personality: Champion of the Iron Horse,” NYT, February 22, 1959; “Trains and Trucks Take to the Ocean,” Via—Port of New York, Special Issue: Transatlantic Transport Preview (1965), p. 26; ICC, Transport Statistics in the United States, Part 9: Private Car Lines, Table 5, various years.

  19. ICC, “Piggyback Traffic Characteristics,” p. 28. Canada’s piggyback carloadings from 1959 through 1961 were about one-third those of the United States, despite a much smaller economy. Containers, no. 35 (June 1966): 33.

  20. Edward A. Morrow, “3-Way Piggyback Introduced Here,” NYT, August 10, 1960; Robert E. Bedingfield, “PiggyBack Vans Span Ocean Now,” NYT, March 12, 1961; Containers, no. 31 (June 1964): 25.

  21. Author’s interview with Bernard Czachowski, New York, January 24, 1992.

  22. PNYA, Annual Reports, various years; Hartman, Collective Bargaining, p. 270; McLean Industries, Annual Report, 1965.

  23. U.S. Department of Commerce, Marad, “United States Flag Containerships,” April 25, 1969.

  24. “Operators Uneasy on New Ships; Fear of Rapid Obsolescence Cited,” NYT, May 24, 1959. On 1964 discussions about entering the transatlantic trade, see Scott Morrison interview, COHP.

  25. Hall interview; George Home, “Intercoastal Trade,” NYT, January 29, 1961, “Line Will Renew U.S. Coastal Run,” NYT, February 23, 1961, and “U.S. Aid Is Denied for Coastal Runs,” NYT, May 13, 1961. Some of the details here are from Jerry Shields, The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig (Boston, 1986), p. 224.

  26. Earl Hall interview, October 2, 1992; Sea-Land, Annual Report, 1965.

  27. Morrison interview, COHP.

  28. Ibid.; Werner Bamberger, “Rules on Cargo Boxes Revised to Spur Use and Ease Shipping,” NYT, March 17, 1966; Edward Cowan, “Container Service on Atlantic Begins,” NYT, April 24, 1966.

  29. Cowan, “Container Service”; Edward A. Morrow, “New Stage Nears in Container Race,” NYT, March 28, 1966; A. D. Little, “Containerisation on the North Atlantic” (London, 1967), p. 14.

  30. On whiskey, see Morrison interview, COHP. The estimate of Sea-Land’s military cargo comes from memorandum, B. P. O’Connor, director of international freight sales, to J. R. Sullivan, Weehawken division superintendent, New York Central Railroad, April 27, 1966, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/8. On competitive bidding, see OAB/NHC, Post 1946 Command Files, MSTS, Box 889, Folder 1/1966; U.S. Department of Defense, news release No. 750–66, August 31, 1966; “US Is Firm on Its Plan for Bidding,” JOC, June 29, 1966.

  31. PNYA, Annual Reports; “ The 1970 Outlook for Deep Sea Container Services,” p. 2; Edward Cowan, “Container Service on Atlantic Begins,” NYT, April 24, 1966.

  32. Wallin, “The Development, Economics, and Impact,” p. 16; PNYA, Container Shipping: Full Ahead; “ Countdown on for Container Ships,” Via—Port of New York, Special Issue: Transatlantic Transport Preview (1965), p. 8; Werner Bamberger, “A Danger Is Seen in Container Rise,” NYT, September 9, 1967; “Containerization Comes of Age,” Distribution Manager, October 1968.

  33. “Containers Widen Their World,” Business Week, January 7, 1967; Frank Broeze, The Globalisation of the Oceans: Containerisation from the 1950s to the Present (St. Johns, NF, 2002), p. 41.

  34. Statement of Lester K. Kloss, A. T. Kearney & Co., in U.S. House of Representatives, Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, Container Cargo Dimensions, November 16, 1967, p. 183; “Containerization Comes of Age”; comment by U.S. Navy Capt. D. G. Bryce, “MSTS Area Commanders’ Conference,” March 4–7, 1969, OAB/NHC, Command Histories, Box 193, Folder 2/1989, p. 137.

  35. Press release, German Federal Railroad, July 26, 1967, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/6.

  36. Letter, J. R. Sullivan, New York Central, to H. W. Large, Vice President-Traffic, Pennsylvania Railroad, April 11, 1966, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/8.

  37. Aaron Cohen, “Report on Containerization in Export-Import Trade,” Traffic Executive Association-Eastern Railroads, April 20, 1966, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/9. Charges for empty containers are discussed in statement of James A. Hoyt, Grace Line, to Traffic Executive Association Eastern Railroads, January 30, 1967, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/10. On the Whirlpool proposal, see letter, Harold E. Bentsen, manager, international distribution, Whirlpool Corp., to B. P. O’Connor, director, international freight sales, New York Central Railroad, June 28, 1967 and letter, O’Connor to Bentsen, July 6, 1967, Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/8; on Matson, see memo, D. L. Werby to W. R. Brooks, New York Central, July 20, 1967, Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/10.

  38. Letter, John A. Daily to J. R. Sullivan, New York Central, February 6, 1967, in Penn Central Archives, 1810/B-1675/10.

  39. Kenneth Younger interview, December 16, 1991.

  40. “A Railroader on Containerization,” Distribution Manager, October 1968; ICC, Transport Statistics.

  Chapter 9

  Vietnam

  1. The formal decision to expand the war was communicated in National Security Action Memorandum No. 328, April 6, 1965.

  2. Command History 1964, Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), Record Group (RG) 472, NACP; Edward J. Marolda and Oscar P. Fitzgerald, The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict, vol. 2, From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959–1965 (Washington, DC, 1986), pp. 357–358; Sealift 1 5, no.6 (1965): 5.

  3. Memorandum for the Commander in Chief, Pacific. Terms of reference for Honolulu conference, April 8, 1965, Historians Background Material Files, 1965, MACV, RG 472, NACP. Information on backups is in MACV Fact Sheet, June 19, 1965, Mission Council Action Memorandums, Historians Background Material Files 1965, MACV, RG 472, NACP.

  4. Command History 1966, MACV, pp. 709–715, RG 472, NACP; “No Congestion at Saigon Port,” Vietnam Feature Service, Record 154933, VVA, Texas Tech University; Memorandum from W. S. Post Jr., Acting Commander, MSTS, to Secretary of Navy, Monthly Background Reports 1964–65, MSTS Command File, Box 895, OAB/NHC, Washington, DC; William D. Irvin, “Reminiscences of Rear Admiral William D. Irvin” (Annapolis, 1980), p. 634.

  5. On the push system, see interview with Lt. Col. Dolan, transportation officer, 1st Logistics Command, by Maj. John F. Hummer, March 30, 1966, in Classified Organizational History Files, 1966, 1st Logistics Command, U.S. Army Pacific, RG 550, NACP. Quotation is from Joseph M. Heiser, Jr., A Soldier Supporting Soldiers (Washington, DC, 1991), p. 104.

  6. Edwin B. Hooper, Mobility Support Endurance: A Story of Naval Operational Logistics in the Vietnam War, 1965–1968 (Washington, DC, 1972), p. 62; General Frank S. Besson Jr., speech to Council on World Affairs, Dallas, TX, May 7, 1968, in Oral History Program Former Commanders—Frank S. Besson, Jr., Historical Office, Headquarters, U.S. Army Materiel Command, 1986. James F. Warnock, Jr., “Recorded Recollections of Lt. Col. James F. Warnock Jr., Executive Officer, 29th Quartermaster Group, 1st Logistics Command, 9 April 1966,” Port Study, April 29, 1966, Classified Organizational History Files, 1st Logistics Command, Records of US Army Pacific, RG 550, NACP; Logistics Summary for the week ending July 30, 1965, General Records, Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics, MACV, RG 472, NACP.

  7. Westmoreland and
Killen memorandum to the ambassador, March 12, 1965, Historians Background Material Files, MACV, RG 472, NACP; Joint Chiefs of Staff, Historical Division, The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960–1968, Part II, pp. 21–23 and 21–28, Historical Division, Joint Secretariat, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Record 33179, VVA; Command History 1965, MACV, pp. 107–108 and 409.

  8. Quarterly Command Report, Second Quarter, FY 1966, Classified Organizational History Files, 1st Logistical Command, Records of U.S. Army Pacific, RG 550, NACP; “MACV Fact Sheet,” June 19, 1965; MACV, Historians Background Material Files, Minutes of Mission Council Meetings of June 28, 1965, July 6, 1965, and July 13, 1965, NACP 472/270/75/33/03, Box 20; The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960–1968, Part II, p. 21–25; telegram, Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Vietnam Coordinating Committee, August 8, 1965, in Mission Council Action Memorandums, 1965, Historians Background Material Files, MACV, RG 472, NACP; Talking Paper-End of Year Press Conference—Engineer Effort in Vietnam, December 21, 1965; Miscellaneous Memoranda, Historians Background Material Files 1965, MACV, RG 472, NACP.

  9. Briefing for Secretary McNamara, Ambassador Lodge, General Wheeler, November 28, 1965, Historians Background Material Files, MACV, RG 472, NACP. The Military Sea Transportation Service had declared Vietnam to be a “danger area” on May 11, which entitled seamen to double pay for each day there plus additional bonuses if their ship was attacked or if a harbor was attacked while their ship was in port; see memorandum, Glynn Donaho, Commander, MSTS, to Secretary of Navy, May 11, 1965, in Monthly Reports, MSTS Command File, 1964–65, OAB/NHC. Ship diversions to Philippines from author’s telephone interview with Milton Stickles, June 1, 2004. Quotation about second-class ports from MACV Command History 1965, p. 118; congressional visit in MACV, Historians Background Material Files, 1965, NACP 472/270/75/33/1–2, box 8.