How Shipping Containers Took Over the World (then broke it)
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
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The humble shipping container changed our society - it made International shipping cheaper, economies larger and the world much, much smaller. But what did the shipping container replace, how did it take over shipping and where has our dependance on these simple metal boxes led us?
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00:00 - Introduction
1:49 - What did Containers Replace?
4:03 - The Inefficent SS Warrior
8:01 - Malcom McLean: Container Pioneer
10:16 - The Revolutionary Ideal-X
13:45 - Rise & Ruin
15:26 - Standardisation
18:14 - The Container Trade Explodes
20:25 - Containers: A Victim of Their Own Success?
24:38 - The Cap San Diego
27:23 - Waffling on a Bit 
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Is it just me or has the invite link expired?
@@tyotynastic9156 yeah it's a invalid link for me as well.
Expired invite :(
@@tyotynastic9156 whoops! I’ll get a new one through ASAP
Yay, a sponsor that isn’t a cringe mobile game
Something else to consider that really helped the efficiency of containerization was the loss of shrinkage from the dock workers. I remember hearing that sometimes up for 40% of rum bottles were 'dropped and broken' by the longshoremen and never made it to their destination. That stopped when everything was put into nondescript boxes.
Not completely. TRAINS ran an article about Union Pacific and BNSF double stacked container trains being raided by gangs of thieves while halted waiting for a slot in the Alameda Trench expressway for freight trains. Gang associates would tip off the number and location of boxes carrying specific high value consumer goods and then the gangs would go after them while the trains were waiting in the sidings.
@@markfryer9880 I have a family member who was part of a gang in the 1970's that would board trains while they were moving, and then steal engines, transmissions, and tires off brand new cars. WHILE the train was rolling.
@@markfryer9880 In Birmingham also.
Yeah the mobs took shipments
He briefly touched on it around 3:50 in the interview-the theft of cargo as a disadvantage of the older method of shipping.
Jerry cans, floating buoys, battleships, flying homes, and now containers. This is why you're the best, Calum.
Haha thank you, all sorts of niches!
Is this "we didn't start the fire"?
@@npc6817 My first album drop
I feel that floating buoy is redundant. buoy is short for buoyant
It's really nice that you've been able to consistently find experts on your last few subjects, great job Calum! 150k or bust!
Yeah it's been the part of the job I enjoy the most nowadays! Thanks for watching
Was just about to say basically this! Great stuff, Calum - no knock on your other excellent recent work, but that Jerry-can video was absolutely top-notch!
@@FoxMacLeod2501 thanks Fox! Yeah I think some subjects benefit from an interview like this
@@CalumRaasay Also known for falling off the ship
@@CalumRaasay Artists today are like dock workers from 1960. Suddenly technology comes along and makes their trade redundant. We artificial place so much value in how much money we can make. One day we feel valued because our skills are needed. The next day, technology can do our job better than we can.
There's something to be said about that, imo. It's not the artists fault for making a career in art, yet, society blames them for being unemployed when their trade is deemed unnecessary
25 year LCB (licensed customs broker) here. Actually, there were specific requirements based on individual item description. That's why there was barrel, cask, butt, drum, etc. Each one described a different general shape and size. Yes, there was no hard and fast standard, however a drum was almost always 55 US gallons and metallic, while a cask was expected to be less than 20 gallons, and almost always wooden.
Just thought I'd give a little detail on wet carriage standards. But even bales were usually expected sizes. Crates could be anything, and thus almost always had dimensions attached, and actually still do. I did LTL cargo for several years for a consolidator, and it's a bloody nightmare.
Oh, and Longshoremen NEVER worked on a the boat, their job stopped at the rail. The crew took it from there. And lightermen usually handled from warehouse to dock, where longshoremen took over.
I have a lot of respect for presenters who admit they aren't experts, and talk with experts to share their knowledge! I loved having the interview and the voice overs, it was smooth and very informative.
Indeed. There are far too many who think that, because they have done a crash course on something (or just read a book!), or employ 'researchers', that they ARE experts! My own YT experience started with the fan-boys and enthusiasts and has now whittled itself down to a core of trusted RUclipsrs who actually know their stuff, or who will admit when they don't and bring in an expert. If you read the comments on the non-expert YT videos, they are full of people saying how much they appreciate the 'education' these people provide and how much more interesting it is than school - but all the time they are just being fed interesting tidbits, often completely inaccurate.
As a business professor teaching supply chain management I have assigned Levinson's book The Box to my students -- it's an amazing account. As is this video -- the storytelling, production values, and compelling presentation are off the charts! Thanks, Calum.
Thank you Michael! Marcs newest book, Outside the Box is similarly facinating!
At first I was like ah, Calum has read the box and he's going to be regurgitating it
Then he takes it one step further and actually brings the author on. Kudos.
Haha exactly why I wanted to talk to Marc!
The box was a great book. I just wish the author would have included some pictures and diagrams.
It's funny you mention regurgitate because I pictured him actually regurgitating into that model shipping container he was holding.
You know using it like a barf bag or barf container!
Sorry, my imagination is cringe sometimes.
@@Cacowninja One for the outtakes reel
Interesting side tangent about the first and only attempt at a nuclear cargo ship failing partly out of "You can't dock here" but als because it was one of the last pre-cargo-container vessels.
Good point, that’s what the final page of the book I referenced was all about!
Simon Whistler has a great video on the history of that ship, The Savannah.
Mustard did an excellent video on nuclear powered cruise ships titled _What Happened To The Nuclear Passenger Ship?._ I _think_ he mentioned the cargo aspect (which would make them technically tramps? 🤔), but don't quote me on that. 😉
@@jmchez Oh, interesting. Dpending hor old it was I may have heard of it from him.
The NS Savanah is one of my favorite ships. I toured her when she was part of the Patriots Point museum in Charleston, SC.. She was too expensive to operate. The engineering crew needed to be nuke qualified. Combine the awkward cargo hold configuration and the inability to convert to containers it couldn't overcome the nuclear port limitations.
the shipping container doesn't get enough praise. few things have completely revolutionized an industry the way they have. a marvelous idea and piece of engineering.
My parents used to have a shipping container in their garden. It used to be an office/break room on large construction sites, so it already had a door and two windows, but my parents built an entire kitchen into it, including a big refrigerator, running water, and a table to sit if it rained. And there was still enough room to store our garden furniture, grill, and chairs over night
So few RUclips creators can balance well-researched history with humorous behind-the-scenes narration or, better yet, integrate improved AV production quality while maintaining a light & playful tone. Cheers to you on another highly engaging and equally enjoyable episode!🍻
Thank you! Really, really appreciate that. Takes a long time to get correct, the final project file was close to 400 gigs of failed takes, extra footage and goodness knows what else! Thanks for watching!
@@CalumRaasay Every bit, is appreciated Sir!
Absolutely agree. I really appreciate the approach. Very good production values. And he's talking direct to me - not to 'ALL OF YOU OUT THERE'. Oh, yuk. Thank you.
Btw, the first and only woman to clog the Suez just do happened to be a...
@@CalumRaasay if the failed takes are a whole 400 GB big, how large is your HDD/SSD?
It warms my heart to hear the stakeholders got together to spend 10 years devising a standardized container. They didn't rush it, but made sure to get it right for all future generations.
The shipping container is what I think happened when the first caveman made the first wheel. Not only was it so obvious that "why didn't I think of that?" happened but it was so much better it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything else.
Thats a good companion, especially because the systems around it have become more and more complex but the theory remains the same (round wheel, simple boxed container etc.).
@@CalumRaasay did you mean comparison
To be fair, it probably wasn't a cave man. Prmitive wheels really aren't that useful in the sorts if places where caves are common. On the open stepp in a pastoral society, now that's a different story.
@@horsemumbler1 my favorite kind of pedantry
RUclips recommends came through again. I drive a freezer truck so it's always nice to find more content I can just as easily listen to.
Thanks Ryan! Hope you enjoy :D
Just an honest to God box enthusiast. Tremendous respect.
Gotta love box
Why? You like watching labor destroyed, historical ports ruined, the additional concentrations of wealth, and everything turned into the same thing?
@@johnstrawb3521 It was a joke about.... uh something else, john.
Aren't we all...
@@AtlasJotun everyone but John 😐
Oh this is gonna be a treat! I helped my old boss convert a shipping container into a storage/workshop type thing, installing fans, lights, electricity and such. Great use for them.
Also love that tiny Maersk container, I want one!
You need 80mm styrofoam sheets in the walls and roof if the box is sitting in the Sun.
In some climates. One problem with shipping containers is the complete lack of insulation - it's just a metal shell. You have to either add a whole lot of insulation (shrinking the already-cramped space within) or make do with the uncontrollable temperature.
@@vylbird8014 Yeah you have to know what to put in them, even here in scotland they can get proper hot inside, and then plunge to really low temps. I might shutter mine and built a wee shed around it in the future.
Although the global economic impact of containerisation is crucial to the economic and political history of the world, it would have been nice to have more on the engineering design decisions that go into a container - the tolerances of the welds, lifting capacity etc. of the containers, and the stability of the ships. I was hoping for more of the engineering insight that went into the gerrycan video, where the impact of the alternative engineering decisions was discussed, between German, British and US implementations of the same thing - presumably this happened, perhaps in those long 10 years that the committee was making its standardisation decisions - did they get anything badly wrong in those decisions, what could have been done better?
Quick note; Container Express was shortened to conex, not contex, and in fact the term conex is widely used in the construction industry to refer to a shipping container that is being used for tool or material storage or even used as an office or break room when air conditioning is added to it.
Hey, Octan is the gas station brand from Lego sets! 19:16
Shipping containers are great for shipping and storage but not so good as a base for a house. A metal box is like reverse-isolated: in warm weather they transfer heat inside, in winter they leak heat outside and create condensation inside.
You can spend money to try and fix it and fight the mould but at some point there are better options for cheap builds. It will be interesting to see how your workshop holds up when you have ambient temperature and ventilation with the door open.
Yeah from my experience once you get to the point of framing, insulating etc. then it starts to become a bit silly to not just build a frame from scratch.
@@CalumRaasay Not sure how much coping with hot weather is going to affect you up there!
You can just pile dirt around it with an excavator for insulation. Just leave enough room to open the doors enough
@@CalumRaasay A lot of portable buildings (for worksites/hire) in Australia are now based off containers since they're much easier to move around rather than transporting halves of buildings by trucks.
@@speedemon81 that’s funny considering Australia and New Zealand’s heritage with corrugated iron as a building material. Containers are the modern day wrinkly tin!
I've always had a fascination with containers and containerization, I read Marc's book when it came out SEVENTEEN years ago and I love the fact that you and many other people still reach out to him to help tell the tale of Containers, they really are an unsung hero of our global economy. And now I have to read this new book of his!
One of the most important things that the container brought to global trade wasn't just cheap transits of cargo, but guaranteed timely transist of cargo. So much so that shipping timetables were so well known from port to port anyone in any business could know when a container would be going from point A and arriving at point B that "just in time" manufacturing was available for everyone - so much so that when you start to get hiccups like COVID or the Evergiven it really ripples far and wide.
I imagine costs of storage imposed by governments may be a part of it as well.
That opening bit was fantastic! The composition of the shot, the cutaway of the container, the small cuts for you to move... excellent work.
Thank you!! Really appreciate that- took a while to get right 😮💨
I would like to hear what happened to the longshoremen that were replaced by the containers. I can remember my grandfather coming home from work as a longshoreman and almost always having something in his pocket from broken cartons or sacks. He always had pepper corns, coffee beans, bananas, and sometimes a toy for us. I also remember the Guarantee that the current workers, at that time, got to allow their jobs to disappear. This was that they were Guaranteed their wages and benefits as long as they came in to work, signed in and if no work they can go home. My uncle did this in the early 1970's.
I will always remember the big metal hook on the floor of my grandfathers car.
Always a great video, thx.
They work as lashing gang now. They secure containers to the deck fittings of the lashing bridge/hatchcover in order to minimize movement during underway to the next port of discharge.
I was a 71N in ROK in 1972 stationed among other places at the Port of Inchon. The harbor has giant tides so vessels anchor offshore and cargo moved ashore aboard lighters. In 1970 that was done by the 202nd Transportation Battalion, 5 boat companies, 1,000 stevedores. By 1972 the operation used containers, and army personnel there amounted to 8 MPs, 5 guys from Long Lines, and 5 people from movement control which included 2 KGS (Koreans employed by the US Army). The lighters, cranes, and loading was handled by a couple of hundred contractors, and if the lead seal on a container was broken their employer bought the contents, which never happened. One has to wonder how much cargo got looted prior to containers.
They are still mostly criminals associated with mobs, but there are fewer and they steal less.
"The Box" is way more entertaining than it has any right to be. Such a great look at this piece of history
Great job finding and editing all the footage on breakbulk shipping. The details on the existing problems helps all the young people understand the history of shipping.
I'd love to see a follow-on to this one dealing with what happens to containers after their shipping life - reuse, recycle, etc.
I know, it’s a huge topic! Maybe building a house from them!
@@CalumRaasay RUclips presenters AMBITION STRIKES has several episodes starring their new very used shipping container for their off grid solar electrical centre (they are in Idaho, USA, so "center," 🤗).
@@CalumRaasay as someone has already mentioned in the comments, the box is the antithesis of what a thermally efficient house should be.
this is a very good example we don't need TV anymore. One guy sitting in his home can create so good documentary that i haven't seen in big televisions for years! Thanks:)
Don't forget one of the best parts of these containers is they make great props in action movies 😄
fantastic video as always. as a trucker myself it was particularly cool to find out that a trucking mogul was responsible for effectively starting the whole container industry. also, a short video on the inflatable pig would definitely cause me to subscribe to your Patreon 😁
Your videos feel like the opposite of what RUclips wants to push creators towards.
Long and well researched you know.
Love it.
I appreciate that! I do sort of buck the trend to what most youtube content is about, but I can't complain too much, I've had a lot of luck and success!
Shorts are a terrible idea
Standardization of containers & ports has REVOLUTIONIZED cargo shipping so much that it is dominating cargo movements inland & abroad in a COST EFFECTIVE manner-hats off human ingenuity!!
Had this video on my list for a while. Now I'm finally watching it not too long after that 300 meter long ship taking down the Baltimore bridge
Fascinating as always .. i used to volunteer at a preserved railway & the general maintenance shed was 4 containers , 2 either side of a siding , with a pitched roof joining them .. such a simple , quick & cost - effective solution to secure storage & weather-proof work space
Containers are the new corrugated iron in terms of cheap and easy building materials!
@@CalumRaasay Well they were until the Pandemic and a certain wayward container ship screwed up the whole world's logistics network. Container shipping rates are only just beginning to trend downward along with the hire rates for container ships.
I love the topics you make videos about. I think the interview section worked great, really made the whole video feel that extra bit professional.
I wonder if the container industry will have to adapt to space travel or if we'll see regular containers on the moon and mars in the future (and as improvised boarding vessels ala The Expanse)
Should have put that Expanse reference in there. I was thiking that though, what would a lightweight 'space container' look like?
@@CalumRaasay Probably the same. they are already optimised for slightly more than 1g. I have done a fair bit of work on drill rigs, we used "minis" which are pretty short. basically a cube cut off the end with a permanently affixed lifting sling and no twistlocks, they are also a bit more robustly built. I had one in my garden of a rented house with built in workbenches and storage. It was craned straight over the house for a few hundred bucks. Back to space applications, have a look at the Starship being built in boca chica, that is like to dictate the first commercial space containers. I would also look at the general aviation boxes they slide into 747s which have one bevelled corner.
The standard 20 foot shipping container would be too heavy and therefore too expensive to launch into space. Having said that, if we humans are to develop permanent human habitats in space then we will need to develop a range of Space Containers for the efficient movement and storage of all of the various things that are going to be needed for a successful space colony.
@@markfryer9880 3D printing in space may become a more efficient way of doing things.
I now want scale models of shipping containers. They’ll brighten up my cubicle at work. Conversations regarding them will spontaneously start with my coworkers. It will be glorious.
19:09 Love the usage of the fictional Lego oil brand "Octan". :D
Congratulations Calum on the 150k subs. You definitely deserve it. There are very few channels that present information on overlooked subjects such as yours.
Thank you Cas! Really appreciate that
What do you think of my container workshop?
Also, I highly recommend his book "The Box" for more on the subject!
Amazon UK: amzn.to/3Cdjmd2
Amazon US: amzn.to/3rxUGqT
Honestly I like the look of ships of the pre-container era.
Great job on making a mundane subject very interesting. I'm just a regular guy who worked for a small company and developed an excel spreadsheet for ordering and managing inventory that they imported in containers, and eventually it grew into a monster, tracking 40 containers at any given time, over their 3 month journey from manufacture order to arrival to us! I feel proud to have played a small part in this amazingly efficient system that has benefited so many people being able to buy all kinds of goods very cheaply, that people never thought possible only a few decades ago!
I love the "Octan" container in your graphics.
Haha it was a lot of fun finding companies to put on the containers!
When I was in the AF we always received SeaLands and Conex's in our compound. I was always interested in the Maritime industry so much so that I joined the Coast Guard after Vietnam and retired as a Senior Chief Storekeeper. This was a very informative video which brought back memories. Thank-you for this content.
Thank you for your service ! May God watch over and keep you safe !!
I can't believe I'm rewatching a video about the history of containers and enjoying it again.
I appreciate it!
As a truck driver I’ve delivered, loaded, n unloaded containers since the late 80’s. I now have three 40’s that I’m gonna make my home out of. They have been and will b a big part of my life, and I just love the darn things.
Great content as always Calum. So well produced and you're a great story teller.
Much appreciated! Thank you for watching!
Very high quality content. Well researched and put together video. Enjoyed having the author speak, thanks for going the extra mile. Archive footage well used also
In the late 1990's I was asked by a large computer manufacturer to review their offshoring plans. They had totally omitted risk in their calculations and when I reworked their numbers per accepted financial practices, it did not pay to offshore. Their fix to their wrong plannings/miscalculations was to never ask me to review their plans again.
I just had the thought. The idea of standardized contaner cargo shipping came from thinking outside the box, and fairly quickly the idea actually became the box itself. Literally. This video is about the box.
It is interesting how containerships work in opposite to breakbulk ships, because now they are more like a bus route. Where the containers are like the passengers. almost like mini metro, hop on hop off. great video
Don't give them ideas. They may start shipping people around like containers.
Well, for what it's worth I thought it was cool that the model was specifically an internationally-recognized Maersk.
Container workshop/trinket trove? I'll take two!
9:24 Octan container at left of screen. That would be the Lego oil company. I had the helicopter as well as the semi-tractor & tanker-trailer combination when I was a kid. Business must be good if they have their own containers these days ;)
Anyway the list at that part of the video, starting with that
I was wondering if anyone else picked up on the Octan reference! Is Octan still a thing in modern lego kits?
@@Boyinabox Yup
Another cracking video from Calum about revolutionary, rectangular steel receptacles. 🤣
Another great historical documentary from Calum! Great job as only you can do. One thing, I think the popularity of the rescue buoy video is the fascination with being stranded on the ocean and finding a comfortable haven with shelter, food, water, warmth, and even alcohol for the weary survivor. It is like a dream come true at a difficult time. I can still imagine myself or my shipmates finding one after days or weeks of desperation on the ocean.
Agreed, it scratrches a niche of that sort of wilderness home and place to live/survive and also was just an aspect of WWII that very few people had heard of!
Man, I love your work. Incredible attention to detail and passion for what you do.
Thank you so much!
Thanks, Calum. I remember (as a young teen) the arrival of containerisation in Auckland, NZ, and the ructions at the port between the watersiders and management/business/government. Quite a stir. And now I know a bit about it's early development - very interesting! Cheers, man!
In Sydney, NSW, the dockers went on strike. Their actual public demand was that they wanted extra pay because it would be so easy to steal goods in transit any more..
@@jonathanj8303 🙂Ha! Aussies, eh? Yeah our wharfies were good to know if you wanted cheap stuff, too.
Did the dockers got their pay increase?
@@MrPossumeyes to be fair, I'm not sure. There was a bit of public outcry. And this is Australia, if you ask folks what they want, the answer is "No." Took two or three attempts to change the pub hours so they could open after 6pm, even though everyone wanted it...
Watching freight trains passig around, it always amazed me how many different sizes and types of shipping containers there are
Here's a good one, Calum - do a video about the T2 Oil Tankers, their history and design, the propensity of some of them to break half in two in cold water, how they were irresponsibly modified and used for 30+ years after they should have been turned into razor blades (see the Marine Electric disaster). The T2 plus all the WWII Liberty Ships that comprised a huge portion of the US cargo ship fleet served well into the 1980s, decades longer than they were ever meant to be in service, decades after they should have been scrapped.
I'm not sure what it is about your videos Calum. Your voice? Your energy? The approach? But I sat here, smiling, after that novel intro and then through the whole thing. I quite-enjoyed the interview aspect, it was well done.
I'd love to see a video of your build process on the container you turned into your shop - is your recording done in there as well?
Thank you so much! Really appreciate that. I’ll maybe put a behind the scenes container video up at some point! But no currently do all my recording in my office, container isn’t great for acoustics
Yes, I would like to watch the full interview if it isn't too much trouble to post it to Patreon. I have dealt a bit with international shipping by sea, less than a full container, and was overwhelmed by encountering the businesses behind the container industry.
I'll try and get it edited and uploaded to Patreon ASAP Bill! Marc is a facinating guy, amazing insights into an industry I knew little about.
@@CalumRaasay No rush. Thank you for your efforts.
I've been subscribed since shortly after you released your "Snow Cruiser" video, and I was hoping you'd be able to replicate the level of interest and excitement. Pleasantly surprised to see that you have stayed true to that form while covering different subjects. I've still thoroughly enjoyed the videos across some more well picked subjects. Keep it up brother
I read the first edition of this book, The Box, years ago. What I remember the most is the market disruption, the massive loss of jobs from an entire industry, the making and losing of fortunes, and the massive number of tax dollars spent to deepen ports, gambles that not always paid off. One of my favorite books. I live a few hours from the Panama Canal, which was recently widened to accommodate larger ships. I live in a shipping container house and have plans to build a new one!
Well its Tonnes(Metric) and Tons(US and Imperial are named the same but are very very slightly different).
Funny, I still hear US service members call shipping containers Conexs
Ah interesting I was wondering if the term was still in use
I've heard the term Conex used for them a fair bit, never related to soldiers specifically.
I started hauling "pigs" (piggyback semi trailers) out of the south side of Shicago in about 1986. The yard in Bedford Park was called Seaboard at that time. Through the years we pulled less and less pigs and more and more containers. We thought way back then that the containers made a whole lot more sense.
I started watching this video a month ago then stopped to buy and read the book mentioned before continuing. Both you and the author knocked it out of the park!
You might be able to go to your local library and access the standards for free. I'm in NZ and we have that ability for our local libraries. We can download them too for private reading. Been helpful when wanting to renovate. It does seem to be standards referenced within NZ, but I'm sure that could help in many cases as ISO is referenced in so many different standards.
I doubt Calum is in Australia but we can't access them over here in the public library system (at least in NSW) - the public libraries here sometimes buy e-resources (databases) like that in a consortium with the state libraries' support and a couple of years back (i.e. since at least 2019) the access at the state library got suspended with a since-disappeared note about "misuse" (which I think were allegations by SAI Global, the people who own the database, and not by the librarians) and it hasn't come back since. (The same goes for the national library, by the way.)
Which isn't to say that you can't get ahold of standards - I have access through TAFE (my local public vocational college) and the layperson who isn't procrastinating their way through a diploma can probably ask said local library to get a copy via interlibrary loan (fees may vary; however contacting a librarian will be somewhat inevitable). But libraries! Give it a go anyway! (Conflict of interest note: if it isn't obvious, the diploma is in library studies haha)
I congratulate you Calum for another documentary absolutely well done. Thank you for sharing it.
While studying in the uni, in Navigation and aeronautical law, I came to a detail that blew my mind:
This race to hold more cargo turned to surpass the capability of the Panama Canal, and then, of the Suez Channel, and there are plans to build ships that can't traverse the Strait of Malacca.
A succes that can cause a drawback in cost and fares.
Naturally, the Panama Canal Authority ended enlarging the channel, the same The Suez Canal.
And then, the pandemic hit the global trade.
And all started beacuse a guy wanted to buil a box of metal =D
Many of my male relatives worked as stevedores in the docks here in the days before containerisation. It was a specialist job to get the cargo stowed and trimmed effectively and they were proud of the distinction that put them a step or two as they saw it above the plain "dock labourers".
I think your video on German Rescue Buoys did so well because it had not been done by plenty others. I mean, most of your videos are about stuff that is truly new in that depth even to people like me who watch far too many YT videos 😅
I think I encountered you first on the arctic trucks, and that topic has since been covered by a few _ahem_ band-wagoneers…
The nature of these things is that there are fewer and fewer to ‘uncover’ and the containers are clearly not new to anyone. But you have now got a following and have honed your presenting skills so it is still interesting to watch.
incorporating those non-internet sources since they set you apart! Thanks for the video, and may the last days of autumn be lovely before winter is back up there!
yeah I'd say a good chunk of the comments were from people who had never known they existed!
I SAW THAT OCTAN REFERENCE! absolutely love that!
Excellent video. I read The Ship as a teenager and it's something that's always stayed with me.
This video collaboration was simply top notch throughout. Calum, my friend, I will watch any video you ever produce as they are as informative as they are professionally produced.
Thank you Brian, really appreciate that. I was a bit worried about how well the interview would work but I'm very pleased with the results.
What a brilliant video man, I love how you come at this from a curiosity perspective. I don't even remember how i found out about your channel, if it was through your videos getting recommended to me or through some random twitter post but I just love how you approach the topic mixing your life experiences and telling the story of how it grabbed your interest in the first place, and the bits with your house in it, then explore what's been said about it. And pretty epic that people are agreeing to talk to you about the thing they spent a ton of time working on, like with the luxury helicopter video. I love it. Also it's a killer intro, loved the editing on that
Before this, there was quite a system of wooden cargo casks/barrels that was used for all kinds of bulk shipping. It was the increase in bulk shipping beyond the scale of what could be packed in a wooden cask that caused a lot of the confusing mess that it took these container systems to solve.
Incidentally, the 55 gallon drum was originally related to this system.
Bulk shipping or cargo is the term for stuff that can’t be efficiently carried in containers. Stuff like oil, grain, coal, ore and the like. These are carried in ships that are called bulk carriers.
Thank you for this fantastic video. Read 'The Box' years ago, and still can't get enough of this content. Your vids are always the best.
Fantastic video Calum. Most informative. You go to great depths. This one in particular highlights how one practically simple solution in itself created so many ripples around the globe.
(I adore your videos). 🧐
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching, really pleased with how this video turned up.
One place where I worked had a diesel generator housed in a shipping container the generator had cables and fixtures inside to supply power to the surrounding buildings. The container was grounded with 4 copper rods driven deep into the ground and inner doors were affixed inside the outer container doors. This container was a back up power for an EMP event at the military contractor where I worked. The engine was run for 1 hour hour month to keep the seals and engine in ready function.
I’m old now, (42) but I remember rarely seeing many shipping containers. Crazy now they are everywhere.
definitely love that little Octan reference you put in there at 19:18!
Standardization is like a cheat code for humanity. If everyone in the world can agree on a standard design, like the container, we all benefit greatly.
Haha thats a great way of putting it Alex!
Another home run Calum.
You are an amazing creator, thank you so much.
love the miniature container
Being a sailor back then was a lot more interesting, staying a week in ports all over the world while the stevadors did their thing.
Interesting , Thank You . I am glad that You were able to talk to a founder , Real knowlege is so important
I started on the docks in Los Angeles in 1959 & after 43 years I retired in Washington state and this video encapsulates everything I saw over the years, from packing bananas and throwing hides in the holds of old ships to the crazy robots moving containers on the modern waterfront. There have been enormous changes over the years & I’m sure there will be even more, progress just keeps on moving & all you can do is adapt …
THANK YOU for giving us the real name behind the U.S. Army CONEX box [16:30]. In 1969-1970 in the former Republic of Vietnam (RVN) they were everywhere used for all sorts of creative uses. We used them for ammunition & weapon storage bunkers, instead of building out-buildings and even as an attempt to create a buried septic tank for the up scaled Officers' latrine. [Our Officers had flush toilets, we lowly Enlisted personnel had cut-down 55 gallon drums, which required fecal matter dehydration technologists to burn the waste with MoGas and diesel mix.] I never knew what CONEX stood for.
Also, thank you for touching on the drastic fallout to globalization. The quest for "cheaper is better" has dislocated and disrupted so many millions of people around the world. Thank you.
I’m glad you used Mark. Yes, big history is hard to talk about.
Absolutely love that book! So cool you were able to interview Marc
Perhaps you could do a video about the port operations, and how the shipping costs have skyrocketed since the start of COVID. Further, how the ports are refusing to unload until enough time passes, and they are able to charge higher fees to the trucking industry, thus creating our rapidly rising prices for goods and our ubiquitous “supply chain problems “.
So happy i found this channel, your content is so irregular but fascinating, like my teachers at school couldn't keep my attention for 5 minutes about anything yet you can leave me wanting more after talking about shipping containers for 30 minutes. 10/10 will probably watch again.
Thank you! I really appreciate that Jensen, I suffer for a pretty short attention span as well so I think I tailor my videos well for that audience 😂
I like how you talk about the New York docks and then show footage with the Swedish for "smoking prohibited" on a wall, probably from Gothenburg, Sweden.. :)
Great video as always!
Calum, you have done it again with an amazingly well researched and executed video. Keep it up and thank you!
Thanks Calum Working in the container/port industry as an Operations Controller here in NZ, i was very interesting to see the history of the Shipping Container. Another interesting part of the industry is how they containers are numbered, as you will probably know. Great work 😀
That intro was pretty clever there Calum 😂
It doesn't seem that long ago that you could book passage on a freighter. Funnily enough, I remember a programme about a career as an international courier. In the days before perceived secure communications, many organisations would send documents across continents by giving them to a person who would then get on a plane and carry them to their final destination.
It’s amazing how relatively few subscribers you have for the incredible quality of uploads, keep up the great work! Thanks for the amazing and interesting content!
Haha thank you, although I can’t complain - I’ve had some pretty great responses to my videos!
I think that subscriber count is going to keep rising - and even more quickly - as he produces content like this!
Great video. Loved the Dune easter egg at 0:45
Haha glad you caught that!
What an amazing oversight in this really important change in industry!
Thoroughly enjoying the content you are producing. You seem to have a knack for conveying your love for learning the nuance of a subject to your viewer. I feel very lucky I've stumbled on your channel so early on! Keep up the great work mate.
Thank you Ryan, really appreciate that!
The best show Ive ever watched. Nothing to live for now.