- Seatrain Lines
SeaTrain Lines was a
shipping company most responsible for the introduction of the standard internationalshipping container , most commonly 8 foot high by 8 foot wide by 40 foot long. This ignited an explosion in world trade, though the ups and downs in that trade made it very difficult for companies to ride the business.History
In 1929 Seatrain Lines began the innovative practice of hauling rail cars by ship from the port of
New York toHavana ,Cuba . Their two ships, Seatrain New York and Seatrain Havana, were each capable of carrying 100 fully loaded railcars on their four decks. This service continued until the early 1960s when operations to Cuba were discontinued due to rising political tensions. Seatrain tried to shift its ship/rail operations to a New York to Puerto Rico run but this service was severely hampered by the inadequacies of the Puerto Rican rail system. Following the successful introduction of intermodal container transport by Sea-Land Inc. under Malcolm McLean (an unrelated enterprise); SeaTrain Lines Inc. discontinued the transport of rail cars and utilized the new container technology in its service to Puerto Rico.The company also engaged in ship building, at the old Brooklyn Navy Yard, but was not successful in that endeavor. Seatrain Lines filed for
bankruptcy underchapter 11 in 1981.Containerization
The key to the revolution was standardized containers, which initially could be stacked five high onboard ships.
Containerization allowed tremendous cost saving versus so called "break-bulk" where each piece of cargo had to be loaded and unloaded individually.Malcom McLean conceived the concept of containerization while sitting in his truck at the port waiting for a ship to be unloaded. Simply put, his idea was to separate the truck's "box" from its chassis and wheels.The containers were relatively large since costs tend to be per container and not per tonne, and the dimensions were initially chosen to suit highway limits and rail bridges and tunnels; container sizes have since grown taller which has created problems with some smaller tunnels.
Today the international standard (
ISO ) allows 20', 40' and 45' length containers, all 8' wide, while individual countries have their own domestic standards. Standard height containers have a maximum height of 8'6" while high-cube containers are 9'6" tall. Modern container ships hold up to almost 15,000 TEU's.Containers are a key component of intermodal transportation. This concept moves he container box from road chassis to train to ship and back again. Intermodal trains carry containers doubled-stacked (2 high) and are over a mile long.
Bankruptcy
The gradual destruction of Seatrain Lines has been attributed to its exploitation by the
Mafia throughlabour unions andracketeering . The Mafia required the company to pay salaries to non-existent employees, who would not turn up to work.Ralph Picardo was masterminding a systematic sabotage, including dumping graphite in to oil supplies, freezing or spoiling cold-sensitive merchandise, container locks were disengaged to create accidents. Seatrain was losing so much money due to sabotage that its executives went to the underworld for help, and were forced to pay money to Ralph Picardo for relief. However, by 1981 the company was bankrupt.References
* "Crime Inc - The True Story of the Mafia, Part 5 - The Mob at Work" (Television documentary)
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