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Malcom McLean

Also Known As Father of Containerization · Malcolm McLean His birth name was spelled Malcolm; he dropped the second l from his own working spelling, so both spellings are found in sources.
Maritime and Shipping Figures

American trucking entrepreneur who pioneered modern containerized shipping. In April 1956 his converted tanker, the Ideal X, carried 58 truck trailer bodies as standardized containers from Newark, New Jersey to Houston, Texas, showing that freight could move between truck and ship without being unloaded and repacked at each stage. The idea became the basis of the modern global container shipping industry. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Year
1913 1
Death Year
2001 1
Nationality
American 1
FAQs

How much cheaper did containers make it to load a ship?

From $5.86 a ton by hand to 16 cents a ton in containers, a 36-fold saving.

In the account of McLean's career, loading a ship by hand cost $5.86 a ton at the time his container service began, while loading it with containers cost only 16 cents a ton, a 36-fold saving. At that time most cargo was loaded and unloaded by hand by longshore workers. The same account says containerization also greatly reduced the time to load and unload ships, and that McLean based his business on the fact that a ship earns money only when it is at sea.
Connections

Invented

Source Wikipedia: SS Ideal X
Ideal X, Vehicles
Source Wikipedia: SS Ideal X

Pioneered

In the Other Atlases

Nationality

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Source Wikipedia: Malcom McLeanLead sentence 1tier 2
Quote, Lead sentence 1
Malcolm "Malcom" Purcell McLean (November 14, 1913 – May 25, 2001) was an American businessman who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and international trade during the second half of the twentieth century.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Malcom McLean
Wikipedia
  • Overview
  • Containerization section
    On April 26, 1956, with 100 invited dignitaries present, one of the converted tankers, the SS Ideal-X, was loaded and sailed from the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, New Jersey, for the Port of Houston, Texas, carrying 58 35-foot (11 m) Trailer Vans
  • Economic impact
    Hand-loading a ship cost $5.86 a ton at that time. Using containers, it cost only 16 cents a ton to load a ship, 36-fold savings.
  • In Group: Shipping Magnates and Shipowners, Lead sentence
    Malcolm "Malcom" Purcell McLean (November 14, 1913, May 25, 2001) was an American businessman who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and international trade during the second half of the twentieth century.
View the Source
Wikipedia: SS Ideal X
Wikipedia
  • Invented: Ideal X, Overview
  • Invented: Container Ship, Introduction
    SS Ideal X, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker, was the first commercially successful container ship.
View the Source
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