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SS Fairland
Fairland as a troopship in New York, during or shortly after WWII
History
Owner
Operator
BuilderGulf Shipbuilding (Chickasaw, AL)
Yard number#3; USMC #472
Refit
  • —as troopship: 1943
  • —as cargo ship: 1946
  • —as container ship: 1957
FateScrapped, 1975
General characteristics
TypeType C2-S-E1 freighter
Tonnage8,932 gross
Length468 ft 8 in
Beam63 ft
Draft27 ft 5 in
Propulsion1 × 6,300 hp steam turbine, single screw
Speed15.5 knots
Range17,640 miles
Troops1,393

SS Fairland was a cargo ship which saw service during World War II as a United States troopship, before being converted in the postwar era into one of the world's first fully containerized ships, later becoming the first such ship to make a transatlantic crossing. The vessel also saw action during the Vietnam War.

Built in Alabama in 1942, Fairland operated briefly as a cargo ship before conversion into a troopship in 1943, in which role she served out the war in the Asiatic-Pacific theater. After the war, she was returned to her original owners and reconverted into a cargo ship, operating in this capacity in the Pacific and along the United States east coast for about ten years.

In 1957, under the ownership of Malcom McLean, founder of Sea-Land Service, Fairland and five other ships in the McLean fleet underwent conversion to fully containerized ships—the first such vessels ever built. Fairland later became the first fully containerized ship to deliver cargo to Puerto Rico, and in May 1966 became the first such vessel to operate in transatlantic trade when she made a crossing from Elizabethport, New Jersey, to Rotterdam, Netherlands.

From 1968, Fairland operated as a supply ship under contract to the U.S. Army in a shuttle service to Vietnam, during which period she was fired upon several times by enemy forces, on one occasion taking rocket damage. She later returned to U.S. coastal service, before being sold to Far Eastern interests in about 1973, and scrapped in 1976.

Construction and design

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Fairland, a Type C2-S-E1 freighter, was built in Chickasaw, Alabama in 1942 by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation,[1] and delivered to her owners, the Waterman Steamship Company, in August of the same year.[2]

When completed, Fairland had an overall length of 468 feet 8 inches, a beam of 63 feet and draft of 27 feet 5 inches. She had a gross tonnage of 8,932 tons.[1] Fairland was powered by a 6,300 hp[3] General Electric geared steam turbine,[4] delivering a service speed of 15.5 knots.[1]

World War II service

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Little information is available concerning Fairland's early career as a freighter for Waterman Steamship, but the vessel is known to have departed Philadelphia in April 1943 on a round-the-world voyage via the Panama Canal to Fremantle, Australia; Bandar Shapur and Basra, Iran; Montevideo, Uruguay and back to New York, arriving September 1943. Shortly thereafter, she was acquired by the War Shipping Administration, and converted in October–December by the Atlantic Basin Iron Works of Brooklyn, New York, for service as a troopship under the direct control of the WSA. Following conversion, the vessel had a capacity of 1,393 troops.[1]

Leaving New York, Fairland proceeded via New Orleans to the Panama Canal and thence to the Pacific, where she would operate for the rest of the war. From Panama, Fairland steamed first to Honolulu, Hawaii; then to Funafuti, Tuvalu; Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea and Brisbane, Australia, before returning in March 1944 to San Francisco.[1]

Following a two-week return voyage to Honolulu, Fairland then departed San Francisco for a second voyage to Milne Bay, also calling at Oro Bay, Papua New Guinea, before returning in June to Los Angeles. Fairland's next voyage would keep her away from the United States for five months, as she was to operate locally from Eniwetok for some weeks in addition to stops at Honolulu, Guam and Saipan. Leaving San Francisco in January 1945, Fairland called again at Hawaii, Eniwetok and Guam before returning to her port of departure in March. This voyage was followed in April by another departure from San Francisco, for Honolulu, Eniwetok, Guam, Okinawa, Ulithi and Midway, including multiple calls at several of these locations, before returning to San Francisco in July.[1]

In August 1945, the month of the Japanese surrender marking the end of World War II, Fairland departed the mainland once again for many of the same ports visited in the previous voyage, along with stops at Manila and Aparri, Philippines, before returning to San Francisco in October. The vessel then departed Portland, Oregon, for a two-month tour of Japan, which included visits to Nagasaki, Yokohama and Nagoya.[1]

Returning to the United States, Fairland departed Portland in December 1945 for repairs at Pearl Harbor. This work completed, the vessel continued on to Balboa and Cristóbal, Panama, and finally, in February 1946, to Mobile, Alabama, where she was released from military service.[1]

Merchant service

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Postwar service, 1946–56

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After the war, SS Fairland was reacquired by her original owner, the Waterman Steamship Company, and placed into merchant service as a cargo ship. Through the late 1940s until at least 1951, Fairland appears to have operated between east coast ports, including New York and Baltimore, and various Pacific and Far Eastern destinations, including Honolulu and the Philippines.[5] In January 1947, while Fairland was anchored in Legazpi Harbor, Philippines, her crew witnessed an eruption of Mount Mayon.[6]

On 1 January 1950, while attempting to avoid a boom of logs in Elliott Bay, Seattle, during a fog, Fairland collided with and sank an iron-hulled barge transporting 19 railroad cars, most of which were loaded with lumber. The barge's five-man crew were rescued before it sank by the tug Sandra Foss.[7]

From about 1950, Waterman Steamship appears to have operated Fairland in coastwise service along the United States East Coast, with ports of call including New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;[8] Wilmington, Delaware; Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, South Carolina[9] and Mobile, Alabama.[10] The vessel also made a number of voyages to Puerto Rico.[11][12] On 9 September 1954, after departing Mobile, Alabama, Fairland passed safely through the eye of Hurricane Edna, reporting winds of 120 mph.[10]

Container ship conversion and service, 1957–66

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In January 1955, American trucking magnate Malcom McLean purchased the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship, followed by the leveraged buyout of the Waterman Steamship Company itself in April of the same year.[13] McLean, who had become frustrated early in his career with the time it took to load goods onto ships, had conceived of a type of truck trailer, or container, that could be loaded directly onto a ship without needing to be unpacked.[14]

In 1957, McLean had six of the Type C2 freighters acquired from Waterman Steamship, including SS Fairland, converted into fully containerized ships—the first such vessels built anywhere in the world.[15] After conversion, each ship was capable of carrying 226 containers[16]—66 on deck and 160 below. To accommodate the containers, the ships' beams were widened, from 63 to 72 feet, while GRT for each vessel increased to 9,014 tons.[15] A pair of bridge cranes were also installed on each ship for loading and unloading the containers;[17] these cranes would later be removed after the ships' regular ports of call were installed with larger cranes capable of moving the containers more efficiently. Following her conversion to a container ship, Fairland appears to have returned to service along the United States East Coast under the Pan-Atlantic flag.[18]

In February 1958, McLean attempted to initiate container ship service to Puerto Rico with the SS Bienville, but failed because the United Dock Workers union refused to unload the vessel. After several months of negotiation, McLean successfully persuaded the International Longshoremen's Association to service his vessels in Puerto Rico by increasing stevedoring wages from $1.71 to $2.73 an hour, and by guaranteeing union members a minimum of one full day's wage. With this agreement secured, Fairland departed Newark in late July to become the first ship to successfully operate an offshore container ship service to Puerto Rico, with the delivery of 30 containers to the port of San Juan in August.[19][20] In 1959, McLean changed the name of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company to Sea-Land Service, Inc.[21]

Fairland continued to operate between San Juan and New York, with various ports of call along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, through the early 1960s.[22][23] In February 1964, Fairland and a Belgian cargo ship, Jordaens, were involved in a collision in New York Bay, when Jordaens struck Fairland amidships. Damage to both ships appears to have been relatively minor.[24]

Historic transatlantic crossing, 1966

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Having initiated fully containerized transport along the U.S. east coast and to Puerto Rico, McLean next turned his attention to the establishment of a transatlantic containership service. This entailed a long process of establishing a network of agents in Europe as well as the negotiation of agreements with a number of major European ports. By early 1966, these preparations were complete, and on 23 April, Fairland departed Elizabethport, New Jersey for Rotterdam, Netherlands, arriving 4 May, after which the vessel continued on to the ports of Bremen, West Germany, and Grangemouth, Scotland, before returning to the United States. Though not the first container ship to make a transatlantic crossing—a distinction which went to a competitor, SS American Racer, just 36 days earlier—Fairland was the first fully containerized ship to do so, as well as being the first container ship to establish a regular service between the two continents. Her voyage is thereby considered the more historically significant.[25][26]

While Fairland's outbound cargo for this historic voyage included "everything from cameras to safety razors to components for prefabricated houses",[25] it has been suggested that the vessel's loading of a number of bulk-liquid containers at Grangemouth with wholesale Scotch whiskey for bottling in the United States made the greatest impression on the transportation industry, as McLean's ability to capture part of the lucrative whiskey trade clearly demonstrated the viability of container ships in international trade.[25] Of broader importance for the future of the industry, however, was the rapid unloading and distribution in Europe of Fairland's containers, which slashed delivery times to the continent by up to four weeks.[27]

Fairland continued in transatlantic service until at least March 1967.[28][29][30] By July, she had returned to the Puerto Rican route.[31]

Vietnam War service, 1967-68

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By 1966, McLean had become aware of the logistical difficulties experienced by the U.S. armed forces in its military buildup for the Vietnam War. Vietnamese ports were lacking in infrastructure, and the Army was also experiencing a substantial degree of pilfering during the unloading of conventional break-bulk cargoes. McLean was able to persuade the Army that containerization could help solve both these problems, and in early 1966 he secured an Army contract for transportation of supplies to the Vietnam theater. McLean assigned a total of seven vessels to the Vietnam venture, favoring his converted C2 and T3 freighters such as Fairland, whose onboard cranes could substitute for the shortage of such equipment in Vietnamese ports.[32]

In Puget Sound on 20 September 1967, while en route to Oakland, California with 41 containers bound for Vietnam, Fairland collided in heavy fog with the freighter Silver Shelton, inbound to Tacoma.[33] After the collision, Silver Shelton, with a "huge gash" in her hull and listing severely, was taken in tow by the tug Goliath and beached,[34] while Fairland was able to dock under her own power at Pier 3, Seattle.[33] Damage to Silver Shelton was later estimated to be in excess of a million dollars.[34]

By 1968, Fairland was operating in a shuttle service to Vietnamese ports. In May of the same year, Fairland was subject to several attacks in Vietnamese waters by enemy forces. The worst of these attacks occurred near the entrance of the Saigon River on 10 May,[35][36] when Fairland was hit by six rockets, one of which destroyed the boatswain's quarters while another exploded in the engine room. No-one was injured in the attack. That same day, Fairland was subject to another rocket attack further upstream, but on this occasion the rockets missed. According to Fairland's captain, Lee "Lucky" Luciano, he became so incensed after the second attack that he fired back with a grenade launcher borrowed from an M.P. Fairland was again attacked, by machine-gun fire, while docked at Saigon on 19 May.[36]

In spite of the difficulties, Sea-Land's containerized service to Vietnam proved an outstanding success, with the company's seven vessels, comprising only two percent of the logistical fleet, delivering fully ten percent of the Army's Vietnam-bound cargoes.[37]

Later history

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By the early 1970s, Fairland had returned to service on the U.S. east coast. In September 1972, the vessel is known to have been operating on the Hampton Roads—New York—Boston route.[38] Fairland was sold to Far Eastern interests in 1973, and scrapped in Hong Kong in 1975–76.[39]

In May 1976, the tenth anniversary of Fairland's historic transatlantic crossing was observed in New York with an exhibition at No. 6 World Trade Center. The exhibition featured items previously donated to the New York State Maritime Museum, including Fairland's bell, her name board and photos of the vessel taken during the voyage.[39]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Charles, p. 190.
  2. ^ "Halter Marine - Chickasaw, Chickasaw AL and Madisonville LA". Shipbuildinghistory.com.
  3. ^ "Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940–1945: Maritime Commission Types. Hyperwar website.
  4. ^ Cudahy, p. 258.
  5. ^ No Title, The Baltimore Sun, 1951-12-03 (ppv).
  6. ^ "Filipinos Flee Oozing Lava". The Milwaukee Sentinel, p. 3. 1947-01-13.
  7. ^ "Ship Sinks a Barge in Seattle Harbor". The New York Times. 1950-01-02.
  8. ^ "Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1950-06-14.
  9. ^ "Ships That Departed Yesterday". The New York Times. 1950-09-23.
  10. ^ a b "Carolinas Alerted as Hurricane Edna Nears". Schenectady Gazette"], p. 1. 1954-09-10.
  11. ^ "Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1950-09-12.
  12. ^ "Freighters and Tankers Due Today". The New York Times. 1950-04-19.
  13. ^ Cudahy, p. 24.
  14. ^ Cudahy, pp. 10, 27–28.
  15. ^ a b Cudahy, p. 37.
  16. ^ Cudahy, p. 91.
  17. ^ Cudahy, pp. 33–34.
  18. ^ "Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1957-11-12.
  19. ^ Cudahy, pp. 72-73.
  20. ^ Harold J. Lidin (13 August 1958). "Puerto Rico Docks Restive Though Trailerships Unload". The Miami News. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  21. ^ Rosenstein, p. 31.
  22. ^ "Shipping—Mails: Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1962-10-29.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  23. ^ "Shipping—Mails: Ships That Departed Yesterday". The New York Times. 3 May 1963.
  24. ^ "U.S. Freighter, Belgian Ship Collide In N.Y.". Deseret News. 1964-02-28.
  25. ^ a b c Cudahy, pp. 87–88.
  26. ^ Loyen et al, p. 117.
  27. ^ Loyen et al, p. 118.
  28. ^ "Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1966-12-28 (ppv).
  29. ^ "Ships That Departed Yesterday". The New York Times. 1967-02-01.
  30. ^ "Outgoing Passenger and Mail Ships". The New York Times. 1967-03-30.
  31. ^ "Ships That Arrived Yesterday". The New York Times. 1967-07-19.
  32. ^ Cudahy, pp. 106–108.
  33. ^ a b "2 Vessel Collisions Reported off Coast". The New York Times (ppv). 1967-09-21.
  34. ^ a b "Ship Master Praises Pilot". Spokane Daily Chronicle. 1967-10-03.
  35. ^ Cudahy, pp. 110-111.
  36. ^ a b "'Lucky' Vietnam Survivor Describes Viet Cong Attack". The News and Courier. P. 14. 1968-12-05.
  37. ^ Cudahy, p. 108.
  38. ^ Cudahy, p. 114.
  39. ^ a b Bamberger, Werner (May 2, 1976). "Tennis Is Making a Comeback on the Cruise Liners". The New York Times.

Bibliography

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  • Charles, Roland W. (1947). Troopships of World War II. Washington, D.C.: The Army Transportation Association. p. 190.
  • Cudahy, Brian (2006). Box Boats: How Container Ships Changed the World. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 9780823225682.
  • Loyen, Reginald; Buyst, Erik; Devos, Greta, eds. (2002). Struggling for Leadership: Antwerp–Rotterdam Port Competition 1870–2000 (1 ed.). Physica-Verlag HD. pp. 117–118. ISBN 978-3790815245.
  • Rosenstein, Mark (2000). The Rise of Maritime Containerization in the Port of Oakland: 1950 to 1970. New York University. p. 31.
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