Sea Containers was a

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

n registered company which operated two main business areas: transport and

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

leasing. It filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

on 16 October 2006. In 2009 its maritime container interests were transferred to a new company SeaCo Ltd.

History

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

graduate and retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

officer

James Sherwood James Blair Sherwood (August 8, 1933 – May 18, 2020) was an American-born, British-based businessman, and the founder of Sea Containers. Early life James Blair Sherwood was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, the son of William Sherwood, a paten ...

founded Sea Containers in 1965, with initial capital of $100,000. It was later listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. In May 1989, UK-based

Tiphook Tiphook PLC was a United Kingdom headquartered transport services company, registered on the London and New York stock markets, which became the world's second largest marine container leasing business in the 1990s. The Company was once a consti ...

launched an unsuccessful takeover bid for the company.Sea Containers grabs at a lifeline
''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' 7 May 2006 Over 40 years, Sherwood expanded Sea Containers from a supplier of leased

cargo containers Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pr ...

, into various shipping companies, as well as expanding the company into luxury hotels and railway trains, including the

Venice-Simplon Orient Express The ''Venice Simplon-Orient-Express'' (VSOE) is a private luxury train service from London to Venice and other European cities. It is currently owned by Belmond, which operates 45 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruises in ...

and the

Great North Eastern Railway Great North Eastern Railway, often referred to as GNER, was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by Sea Containers, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North ...

train operating company. Sherwood's net worth was estimated at £60million in the 2004 ''Sunday Times'' Rich List. In 2005, Sea Containers sold its 25% share in

Orient-Express Hotels Belmond Ltd. (formerly Orient-Express Hotels Ltd) is a hospitality and leisure company that operates luxury hotels, train services and river cruises worldwide. In 2015, the company had 35 deluxe hotels, 7 tourist trains, 3 river cruises and rest ...

. Sherwood resigned from each of his companies in 2006 and was replaced by turnaround specialist Bob Mackenzie, while Ian Durant became senior vice-president of finance.

Chapter 11

Despite selling various businesses and assets, Sea Containers announced in early October 2006 that it was unlikely to be able to pay a $115m (£62m) bond due on 15 October. On 16 October, the company filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection. On 6 November 2006 the

Department for Work & Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...

wrote to Sea Containers that it must pay £143m into its two UK pension schemes if it wanted to wind them up. On 11 February 2009, its maritime container interests were transferred to a new company SeaCo Ltd, with the wind-down and liquidation of the remainder of the group continuing. The major shareholders in the new company were the former Sea Containers Ltd bondholders and two of the group's UK pension funds.

Operations

Ferry services and related businesses

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms. Isle may refer to: Geography * Is ...

: fast and conventional services in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

. Acquired in 1996, sold in 2003. *

Silja Line Silja Line is a Swedish-Finnish cruiseferry brand operated by the Estonian ferry company AS Tallink Grupp, for car, cargo and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden. The former company Silja Oy—today Tallink Silja Oy—is a subsidiary ...

: fast and conventional services in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. In June 2006 Silja Line was purchased by

Tallink Tallink () is an Estonian shipping company operating Baltic Sea cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden to Sweden and Finland to Sweden. It is the largest passenger and cargo shipping company in the Baltic Sea r ...

, a ferry company from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. The fast

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

service SuperSeaCat was separated from Silja Line and operated until 2008 when it went bankrupt. *

: (25% shareholding) sold in 2005 * SeaStreak: following the Sea Containers bankruptcy of 2006, this operation was sold to New England Fast Ferry *SNAV-Hoverspeed: a joint venture with Italian ferry operator

SNAV SNAV (Società Navigazione Alta Velocità) is an Italian company that operates ferry services from Italy to Sardinia, Croatia and Sicily. Routes SNAV operates a large network of routes across the Mediterranean and Adriatic. *Naples - Palerm ...

. Used the former ''Seacat Danmark'' as ''Zara Jet.'' *

Aegean Speed Lines Aegean Speed Lines is an inactive Greek ferry company that was operating high-speed ferry services between Piraeus and the Cyclades. History Aegean Speed Lines were formed in 2005 as a joint venture between Sea Containers and the Eugenides Gr ...

: a joint venture in Greece with the Eugenides Group. The service uses the former ''

Hoverspeed Great Britain HSC ''High Speed Jet'' is a ocean-going catamaran built in 1990 by Incat for Hoverspeed and currently owned by Seajets. In 1990, as ''Hoverspeed Great Britain'', she took the Hales Trophy for the fastest eastbound transatlantic journey, making ...

'' as ''Speedrunner 1'', which operated in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

and held the

Hales Trophy The Hales Trophy (officially the North Atlantic Blue Riband Challenge Trophy) is an award for the fastest Atlantic crossing by a commercial passenger vessel. The award was created in 1935 when Harold K. Hales, a British politician and owner of Ha ...

and

Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. T ...

for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic. *

Hoverspeed Hoverspeed was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd. Its last owners were Sea Containers; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed SeaCa ...

: English Channel services ceased in 2005 *

SeaCat Seacat may refer to: * Seacat missile, a short-range surface-to-air missile system * SeaCat (1992–2004), ferry company formerly operating from between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England * The Sea-Cat, an imaginary monster from Flann O'Brien's ...

: (

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O Ferrie ...

Other maritime

*Hart Fenton: a naval architecture and marine engineering company, sold to Houlder in 2006 *Sea Containers Chartering

Rail

GNER Great North Eastern Railway, often referred to as GNER, was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by Sea Containers, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North ...

: a

train operating company A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating Passenger Trains, passenger trains on the Rail transport in Great Britain, railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the Privatisation ...

that commenced operating the

InterCity East Coast InterCity East Coast is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom from London King's Cross to Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. It was fo ...

franchise in April 1996. After winning a further 10-year extension when re-tendered in 2005, GNER ran into financial difficulties with Sea Containers handing back the franchise in December 2007. It also bid for the

South Western franchise South Western is a Rail franchising in Great Britain, railway franchise for the provision of passenger services from London Waterloo railway station, London Waterloo to destinations in Surrey, Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset, Berkshire, Wiltshire a ...

in 2001 and

South Eastern franchise The South Eastern franchise, also known as the Integrated Kent franchise, is a railway franchise for the provision of passenger services between London and Kent in South East England. History The South Eastern franchise was formed as a shadow ...

in 2006.

Containers

The company's container leasing business was conducted mainly through GE SeaCo, a joint venture with

GE Capital GE Capital is the financial services division of General Electric. The company currently only runs one division, GE Energy Financial Services. It had provided additional services in the past; however, those units were sold between 2013 and 2018 ...

formed in 1998. GE SeaCo was sold to the

HNA Group HNA Group Co., Ltd., is a Chinese conglomerate headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. Founded in 2000, it was involved in numerous industries including aviation, real estate, financial services, tourism, logistics, and more. It is a part owner ...

for approximately $1 billion on 15 December 2011 and now operates as

Seaco Seaco Srl is a company that sells and leases marine containers. It was formed as GE SeaCo in 1998 as a joint venture between General Electric and Sea Containers. Sea Containers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006, and its interests ...

.HNA completes acquisition of GE SeaCo
''Seatrade Maritime News'' 19 December 2011

Other former activities

*Sea Containers Property Services Ltd – property development, property asset management. *

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

Group (ILNG) – publishing *Fruit farming – Sea Containers owned plantations in West Africa and South America *Fairways & Swinford – UK-based business travel agency

Former internet property of Sea Containers Ltd

In March 2016 the domain of seacontainers.com was acquired b
World Sea Containers

References

{{reflist Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Defunct companies of Bermuda Shipping companies of Bermuda Container shipping companies Transport companies established in 1965 1965 establishments in Bermuda