Containerisation era....1956 - SS Ideal X becomes the pioneer of container shipping when she makes the first sailing from Port Newark, NJ on Sea-Land's US inter-coastal service.
1959 - Paceco delivers the first A-frame container cranes to Matson Navigation.
1960 - The converted general cargo ship Santa Eliana becomes the first containership in the US-foreign trade when it runs from New York to Venezuela.
1966 - The converted general cargo vessel SS Fairland of Sea-Land inaugurates the first transatlantic container service from New York to Grangemouth and Rotterdam with around 400TEU on board.
1967 - The first purpose-built deep sea container carrier, Atlantic Container Line (ACL)'s 700TEU Atlantic Span, is delivered.
1968 - The first ever fully cellular purpose-built boxship, the United States Lines-owned, 1,200TEU American Lancer, is delivered in May.
1968 - Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK)'s Hakone Maru (700 TEU) becomes Japan's first containership, delivered in August. She undertakes the first transpacific fully containerised service in September between Tokyo and Los Angeles.
1968 - Manchester Challenge is delivered in October this year to Manchester Liners for service between the UK and Canada. Built by Smith's Dock in the UK, she is the first European owned trans-Continental container ship.
1969 - The first fully containerised service between Europe and Australasia is launched by the UK-based liner consortium Overseas Containers Limited (OCL).
1969 - The term TEU or twenty-foot equivalent unit is coined by shipping journalist Richard Gibney.
1971 - The first fully containerised liner service between Europe and Asia is launched by the Trio Consortium. Trio comprises major shipowners from three countries; NYK and Mitsui OSK of Japan, Hapag and Norddeutscher Lloyd of Germany and the UK-based Ben Line and Overseas Containers Ltd.
1972 - Delivered in March, NYK's 2,228TEU Kurama Maru becomes the first containership to be built to full Panamax dimensions.
1979 - The Europe-South Africa trades become fully containerised following the introduction of 10 x 2,200 TEU boxships by the multi-nation liner consortium Southern Africa Europe Container Service Consortium (SAECS).
1984 - Nelcon delivers the first post-Panamax ship-to-shore crane to Europe Combined Terminals (ECT), Rotterdam.
1988 - American President Lines (APL) takes delivery of the first ever post-Panamax containership, the 4,300TEU President Truman, which is built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft of Hamburg.
1995 - The first vessel capable of loading in excess of 5,000TEU, the 5,344 TEU OOCL California, is delivered by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in August.
2002 - Patrick's Fisherman Islands' facility in Brisbane becomes the world's first automated straddle carrier terminal.
2003 - The first boxship in excess of 8,000TEU capacity, the 8,063 TEU OOCL Shenzhen, is delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries in April.
2006 - As we celebrate 50 years of containerisation, the biggest containership plying the world's oceans is the 9,383TEU Costamare-owned Cosco Guangzhou, chartered to Cosco, although China Shipping Container Line's 9,560TEU Xin Los Angeles, will claim this title upon its delivery in August 2006.
2007 - The first containership to smash the 10,000TEU barrier is currently being built by Hyundai and due for delivery to Cosco in October 2007.
