SS Ideal X
 Plan of the SS Ideal X | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ideal X, ex-Potrero Hills, ex-Capt. John D.P., ex-Elemir[1] |
| Owner | Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company[2] |
| Port of registry | United States |
| Builder | Rebuilt as container ship at Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, MD.[1] |
| Launched | 30 December 1944 |
| Completed | January 1945 |
| Out of service | Sold for scrapping, 1965.[3] |
| Identification | Official number: 247155[4] |
| Fate | Scrapped in Japan, 1967.[3] |
| Notes | Former T2 tanker. Originally built by Marinship Corp. in Sausalito, California as yard number 158 in 1945.[4] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | T2-SE-A1 |
| Tonnage | 16,460 GRT[4] |
| Length | 524 ft (160 m)[1] |
| Beam | 30 ft (9.1 m)[1] |
| Height | 68 ft (21 m)[1] |
| Propulsion | Elliot Company steam turbine, electric propulsion.[4] |
| Capacity | |
 The Ideal X was originally constructed as a T2 tanker, similar to the Hat Creek shown here in August 1943. | |
SS Ideal X, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker, was the first commercially successful container ship.
Built by The Marinship Corporation during World War II as Potrero Hills, she was later purchased by Malcom McLean's Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company.[5][6][7] In 1955, the ship was modified to carry shipping containers and rechristened Ideal X. During her first voyage in her new configuration, on 26 April 1956,[8] the Ideal X carried 58 containers from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Port of Houston, Texas, where 58 trucks were waiting to be loaded with the containers.[9] It was not the first purpose built container ship: the Clifford J. Rodgers, operated by the White Pass and Yukon Route, had made its debut in 1955.[10]
In 1959, the vessel was acquired by Bulgarian owners, who rechristened her Elemir. The Elemir suffered extensive damage during heavy weather on 8 February 1964, and was sold in turn to Japanese breakers. She was finally scrapped on 20 October 1964, in Hirao, Japan.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Cudahy, 2004, p. 31.
- ^ Cudahy, 2004, p. 30.
- ^ a b Cudahy, 2004, p. 312.
- ^ a b c d e Cudahy, 2004, p. 290.
- ^ "Marinship".
- ^ "THe JoC: 175 Years of Change". Archived from the original on 15 September 2007.
- ^ Cudahy, 2006.
- ^ "The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – Press Release".
- ^ Levinson, 2006, p. 1.
- ^ Network, MI News (21 March 2019). "Clifford J. Rodgers: The World's First Purpose Built Container Ship". Marine Insight. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
References
[edit]- Cudahy, Brian J. (2006). Box boats: how container ships changed the world. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2568-2.
- Cudahy, Brian J. (September–October 2006). "The Containership Revolution: Malcom McLean's 1956 Innovation Goes Global" (PDF). TR News. 246. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board of the National Academies: 5–9. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- Levinson, Marc (2006). The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. pp. 1. ISBN 0-691-12324-1.
External links
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