J3678 : 'Emstal' loading in Belfast

taken 17 years ago, 3 km from Holywood, Co Down, Northern Ireland

'Emstal' loading in Belfast
'Emstal' loading in Belfast
The container vessel 'Emstal' loading in Belfast docks.
Shipping containers

The idea and creation of the modern shipping container can be credited to American businessman (and former trucking company owner) Malcolm McLean in 1955. Rather than wait days for ships to be loaded and unloaded he devised a simple system where goods could be packed into standardised, rugged containers - these could then be carried by road or rail but also loaded, locked and stacked securely on board ships for transport across the globe and easily unloaded at the other end. The system revolutionised modern transportation of goods, increasing efficiency, lowering costs but also costing thousands of jobs across ports around the world. Today around 90% of non-bulk cargo is carried via shipping containers. In the UK, enormous ships that can carry over 14,000 containers arrive into ports such as Felixstowe and Harwich or nearby Rotterdam. Containers are then unloaded and moved across the country by road, rail or onto smaller 'feeder' ships that can navigate other ports around the country. To understand more about the process see the BBC Box project at LinkExternal link which tracked the route of a shipping container across the globe or the excellent programme 'The Box that Changed Britain' - frequently repeated on BBC4 and thus available on the iPlayer at LinkExternal link .

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Loading map... (JavaScript required)
Grid Square
J3678, 80 images   (more nearby search)
Photographer
Date Taken
Tuesday, 10 July, 2007   (more nearby)
Submitted
Wednesday, 11 July, 2007
Category
Boat or ship > Container ship   (more nearby)
Subject Location
Irish: geotagged! J 367 781 [100m precision]
WGS84: 54:37.9845N 5:52.9726W
Camera Location
Irish: geotagged! J 372 781
View Direction
WEST (about 270 degrees)
Clickable map
+


Image classification(about): Supplemental image
This page has been viewed about 178 times.
View this location: KML (Google Earth) · Google MapsExternal link · Bing MapsExternal link · Geograph Coverage Map · geotagged! More Links for this image
Background for photo viewing: White / /
NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
thumbs up icon
[Mark
You are not logged in login | register