SeaLand, a division of the

Maersk Group (), also known simply as Maersk (), is a Danish shipping company, active in ocean and inland freight transportation and associated services, such as supply chain management and port operation. Maersk was the largest container shipping line a ...

, is an American intra-regional container

shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

headquartered in

Miramar, Florida Miramar is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 134,721. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which is home to approximately six million people. History Miramar wa ...

with representation in 29 countries across the Americas. The company offers ocean and intermodal services using

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

s, trucks, and rail serving customers between North and South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

History

The original SeaLand was founded by

Malcom McLean Malcolm Purcell McLean (November 14, 1913 – May 25, 2001; later known as Malcom McLean) was an American businessman. He was a transport entrepreneur who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and inte ...

, an American trucking entrepreneur who revolutionized the shipping industry by packing goods in uniform containers (

containerization 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 pro ...

) which could be transported quickly and seamlessly between different modes of transportation. This process offered companies significant time and cost savings that facilitated distribution and expanded international trade. On April 26, 1956, McLean introduced the world's first container ship, , which sailed from Newark, New Jersey to Houston, Texas with 58 aluminum trailers (containers) on its deck. In April 1960, the company name was changed from Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corporation to SeaLand Service, Inc., an American international shipping company. From 1967 to 1973, SeaLand became notable for delivering 1,200 containers a month to the

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

peninsula during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, resulting in $450 million in revenues from the U.S. Defense Department. From January 1969 to 1999, SeaLand was owned by R.J. Reynolds Co.,

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. T ...

and others.

Recent history

In March 1999,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

separated SeaLand into three entities: an international shipping company, a domestic shipping company, and a terminal operator. In December 1999, Maersk Line's parent company A.P. Moller – Maersk acquired the international container shipping business while retaining the SeaLand name. In 2000, Maersk Line changed its commercial name globally to "Maersk SeaLand" as a result of SeaLand’s acquisition in the previous year. In 2003, the

Carlisle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...

bought the domestic shipping line from CSX and changed the name to

Horizon Lines Horizon Lines, Inc. was an American domestic ocean shipping and logistics company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the largest Jones Act maritime shipping and logistics company and accounted for approximately 37% of all US contai ...

. In 2006, the commercial name SeaLand ceased to exist when the then-known "Maersk SeaLand", changed its name to "Maersk Line" after the purchase of

Royal P&O Nedlloyd P&O Nedlloyd Container Line Limited was an Anglo-Dutch worldwide ocean-going container shipping line, with dual headquarters in London and Rotterdam. The company was formed in 1997 by the merger of the container-shipping interests of Dutch trans ...

. In January 2014, due to the strong brand recognition throughout the intra-Americas region, the Maersk Group announced the revival of the SeaLand brand as a specialized intra-regional carrier, taking over the existing Maersk Line network for intra-Americas trade starting January 2015. In January 2015, SeaLand started operations as the standalone carrier of the Americas for Maersk Group. In 2017, the corporate historian for A.P. Moller-Maersk in Copenhagen commissioned a former employee to catalog the historical archives of Sea-Land Service. The archive had been created at the time of Maersk’s acquisition of Sea-Land Service in December 1999. The archived materials were collected and sequestered in Maersk’s Charlotte, North Carolina office that had been Sea-Land’s global headquarters. The archives consisted of business documents, marketing materials, photo collections, internal communications, newsletters, videos, speech transcripts, etc. going back to McLean Trucking, owned by Malcom McLean, the founder of Sea-Land Service. It included diagrams of McLean’s original idea of loading trailers into vessel cargo holds. The idea of loading removable boxes (containers) onto ships was a refinement of his original concept. The archives were donated to the United States Merchant Marine Academy Museum in Kings Point, New York.

Management

In 2014, Craig Mygatt was named CEO of SeaLand. Others joining the former Maersk Line veteran on the executive management team include: * Shane Sawyer - Chief Financial Officer * Todd Pigeon - Chief Commercial Officer * Tim Child - Chief Operations Officer * Thiago Covre - Chief Line Officer * Don Francey - Head of Key Clients

References

* *

External links

Historia de Sea-Land
via ''www.mgar.net''
Containers: The Early Years , Some Personal reminiscences of Thomas A. Ewig, Chairman/CEO, Martec International
via ''container50.org.uk''
The Rise of Maritime Containerization in the Port of Oakland 1950 to 1970 , Author: Mark Rosenstein
via ''www.apparent-wind.com''
History of Sea-Land, CSX Lines, and Horizon Lines Timeline (1956-Present)
via ''www.horizon-lines.com'' *

List of largest container shipping companies Several shipping lines are involved in intermodal freight transport as part of international trade. List of largest container shipping companies This is a list of the 30 largest container shipping companies as of 11 August 2022, according to '' ...

{{Container shipping companies Container shipping companies Transatlantic shipping companies Container shipping companies of the United States American companies established in 1960 Transport companies established in 1960 Maersk