he world of maritime celebrates another anniversary in
2006 — the 50th year of a transportation innovation that
dominates 21st-century global commerce.
Malcom McLean was a North Carolina trucking executive-
turned-ship owner; one day while waiting for his truck to be
unloaded onto a freighter, he realized the task would be simpli-
fied if the entire trailer, including its contents, was lifted onboard
the ship. A standard dock crew of 22 men could handle 16 times
more container tonnage per hour than loose cargo. Loading a ship
by hand took days; dockworkers had to unpack and then carefully
secure separate items down in the hold. Loading a ship with steel
containers took but a fraction of the time, so transportation costs
plummeted.
Not only did cargoes suddenly become a whole lot cheaper
to ship, but vessels could make more trips, and the encased
cargoes were better protected. More everyday items in the typical
American household soon came from overseas; as the trickle of
cheaper, foreign-made goods into the U.S. became a torrent, it
tilted the national balance of trade.
By the mid-1960s, the derelict Inner Harbor had deteriorated
into a public eyesore; Pratt Street’s piers were cracked and left
unpainted. By the 1970s, downtown Baltimore was stagnating,
retailers dying off and tourist revenue almost nil. City fathers,
desperate to burnish Baltimore’s image, again looked to the same
waterfront area where it all began 300 years before, and partnered
with the Rouse Company to build Harborplace. Baltimore became
the urban model;
Time
magazine dubbed it “Renaissance City.”
StructureswhichservedthePortofgenerationspast—anurban
landscape of old warehouses and abandoned industrial sites
— were rehabilitated and gentrified. The Scarlett Place con-
dominiums replaced the old seed emporium; B&O’s Camden
warehouse became the administrative portion of the model
sports palace, the new home of the Baltimore Orioles.
Above: The Maryland Port
Administration is headquartered
at the Inner Harbor’s World
Trade Center, foreground.
Left: Seagirt Marine Terminal
recorded a world-class 47
container “lifts” in March 2006.
MalcomMcLean, inset, invented
the container and revolutionized
the shipping industry. Facing
page: Helen Delich Bentley chris-
tens the
Export Leader
in 1972.
Malcom Mc
L
ean
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