When this question came up as a WordPress prompt, the answer was most definitely Malcom McLean, the American trucking entrepreneur widely regarded as the father of modern container shipping..
While I’ve written about McLean several times on Shipping and Freight Resource, this question made me think about the man himself..
- What was going through his mind when he first thought about changing how cargo was transported..??
- What did the people around him think..?? and
- What would it have been like to experience those early years through his eyes..??
Having spent more than 37 years in shipping, freight, logistics, and global trade, I have often wondered what it would have been like to work in this industry before containers became such an integral part of it..
Starting in 1937
As a start, in my mind’s eye, if I were McLean, sitting in that truck in 1937 watching dockworkers handle cotton bales at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, piece by piece transferring them from trucks to the quay and eventually aboard ships, what would I have been thinking..??
- Would I simply be frustrated about losing a day’s earnings, or would I already be thinking about how the entire process could be improved..??
- Would I share my idea with the other truck drivers waiting at the docks, would they think I was onto something, or would they laugh it off as another crazy idea..??
- Would I go home that evening and discuss it with my family, sketching possible solutions or calculating what such a system might cost..??
- And perhaps the question that interests me most is how I would keep that idea alive for almost 20 years before finally putting it into practice, because the first voyage of the Ideal X wouldn’t happen until 1956..
- What would I be doing during those years..?? Would I be constantly thinking about it, discussing it with others, or simply waiting for the right opportunity..??
I would love to experience how that thinking developed..
What would shipping have looked like..??
I would also want to experience the shipping industry of the 1930s and 1940s with ports filled with bags, bales, barrels, crates, and machinery, all being handled individually..
Ships spent days in port while cargo was loaded or discharged.. Documentation prepared manually, cargo tallied piece by piece, and shortages or damages identified through physical checks..
Having worked on both the carrier and freight forwarding sides of the business, I would find that fascinating..
How did shipping agents manage all those shipments..?? How did stevedores know what cargo went where..?? How did they coordinate with truckers, customs officials, and cargo owners..??
And how much of the delays, damage, and costs that we still deal with today existed back then..??
I suspect I would recognise quite a few familiar problems, as a lot of these issues still exist.. 🙂
Jumping to 1955
By the mid-1950s, McLean had built one of America’s largest trucking businesses, having started with a second-hand truck purchased for around $120 in 1934 and growing to more than 1,700 trucks and an established business..
While he could have continued with this lucrative business, he decided to pursue his shipping idea, selling his trucking interests and acquiring a shipping business..
I would love to experience that mind shift..
- What made him decide that this was the right time..?? Had he been discussing the idea with people over the years, waiting for the right opportunity..??
- What did his family think when he decided to leave a successful trucking business and enter shipping, what did his employees think..?? Did anyone try to talk him out of it..??
- And how did he convince financiers to support an idea that would require ships to be modified, containers to be manufactured, and ports to change their operations..??
- Did he ever seriously doubt whether it would work..??
I think those conversations would be fascinating..
I would also want to spend time with Keith Tantlinger, the engineer who played such an important role in developing the container and its handling systems..
How did McLean explain what he wanted..?? Did he understand the engineering challenges involved..?? What happened when the engineers told him something couldn’t be done..??
And how many times did they have to change their plans before arriving at a workable solution..??
And then, 26 April 1956
If I could choose just one day in McLean’s life, it would be 26 April 1956, the day the SS Ideal X, a converted tanker, departed Port Newark carrying 58 containers bound for Houston..
After almost 20 years since that day at the Hoboken docks, his idea was finally being tested in a commercial operation..
I would love to know what was going through his mind as those containers were being lifted aboard..
- Was he nervous..?? Excited..?? Worried about whether the equipment would work as planned..??
- What were the port workers saying..?? Did other shipping companies see the potential, or did they think this was an experiment that would never catch on..??
- And what about the customers..?? Did they understand what McLean was trying to achieve..??
- When the vessel finally sailed, did he feel a sense of achievement, or was he already worrying about what might go wrong during the voyage..??
I would love to have experienced that moment..
What was McLean like as a person..??
While reading about McLean, I came across a wonderful recollection by John D. McCown Jr., who worked closely with McLean during the later years of his career..
In a 2021 interview with Mobile Bay Magazine, McCown recalls sitting in a car with McLean at Port Newark, watching containers being discharged from a vessel..
They were close to where the Ideal X had departed more than 40 years earlier, and it is reported that after watching the operation for a while, McLean turned to McCown and asked:
“So, do you think this new system is going to work?” and according to McCown, they both smiled..
I love that story because it gives us a glimpse of McLean’s personality and sense of humour..
And it makes me wonder what he was like to work with..
Was he patient with people who disagreed with him..?? Did he welcome different opinions..?? Was he someone who enjoyed discussing ideas with his employees..??
Did he ever switch off from work..?? Or was he constantly thinking about the next problem to solve..??
These are things I would love to discover during that week..
What would I take away from being McLean for a week..??
I think the most interesting part of switching lives with McLean would be experiencing how his mind worked and how he made decisions that eventually changed an entire industry..
Would I have recognised the opportunity he saw in 1937..?? Would I have had the patience to carry that idea for almost 20 years, while building a successful trucking business..??
And when the time came, would I have been willing to risk what I had built to pursue something that had never been attempted on that scale..??
I would also be curious about how I would have handled the setbacks, the scepticism, and the people who resisted the changes that containerisation would bring..
Perhaps after that week, I would understand a little better what gave McLean the conviction to pursue his idea and how he dealt with the uncertainties along the way..
Would I have realised, at that moment, just how much the world of shipping was about to change..??
References and further reading
