SS Ideal X

SS Ideal X, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker, was the first commercially successful container ship.

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	58 33-foot containers 10,572 DWT[4]
The Ideal X was originally constructed as a T2 tanker, similar to the Hat Creek shown here in August 1943.

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

1. Cudahy, 2004, p. 31.
2. Cudahy, 2004, p. 30.
3. Cudahy, 2004, p. 312.
4. Cudahy, 2004, p. 290.
5. "Marinship".
6. "THe JoC: 175 Years of Change". Archived from the original on 15 September 2007.
7. Cudahy, 2006.
8. "The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – Press Release".
9. Levinson, 2006, p. 1.
10. Network, MI News (21 March 2019). "Clifford J. Rodgers: The World's First Purpose Built Container Ship". Marine Insight. Retrieved 4 January 2023.

References

• 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

• Vessel data at Dept. of Transportation^{[dead link‍]}
• 26 April 1956: The Container Ship's Maiden Voyage