First cellular container ship

Malcolm McLean sold his trucking business in 1955 to buy the Pan-Atlantic SS Corp and then its principal Waterman Steamship Corp. He set about converting six of the latter’s C-2 type war-built freighters into fixed-guide cellular containerships. Sponsons were fitted to accommodate two travelling gantry cranes and the first ship to be completed by Mobile Ship Repair was the 10,565 tons deadweight Gateway City which left Newark for Miami on 4 October 1957 carrying 226 35 ft containers. Sister ship Fairland inaugurated the first transatlantic container service to Rotterdam in April 1966.