Seatrain Lines was a shipping company most responsible^{[citation needed]} for the introduction of the standard international intermodal container, most commonly 8 feet (2.4 m) high by 8 feet wide by 40 feet (12 m) long. This ignited an explosion in world trade, though the ups and downs in that trade made it very difficult for companies to ride the business.

History[link]

Seatrain was initially located in Hoboken, New Jersey, and owned the Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad that connected its facility to other railroads.

In 1929, Seatrain Lines began the innovative practice of hauling rail cars by ship from the port of New York to Havana, Cuba. Their two ships Seatrain New York and Seatrain Havana were each capable of carrying 100 fully loaded railcars on their four decks.^[1] This service continued until the early 1960s when operations to Cuba were discontinued due to rising political tensions. Seatrain tried to shift its ship/rail operations to a New York to Puerto Rico run but this service was severely hampered by the inadequacies of rail transport in Puerto Rico. Following the successful introduction of intermodal container transport by Sea-Land Inc. under Malcom McLean (an unrelated enterprise), Seatrain Lines discontinued the transport of rail cars and utilized the new container technology in its service to Puerto Rico.

Transeastern Associates, a firm created in the early 1950s by Joseph Kahn and Howard Pack, bought Seatrain Lines in 1965 for $8.5 million.^[2] At the time of their purchase, Seatrain operated between New York and ports in Savannah, Georgia, Texas City, Texas, New Orleans and Puerto Rico.^[3] Transeastern was folded into Seatrain in September 1966. At the time, Seatrain had lost more than $500,000 in a four-month period before the merger, while Transeastern's fleet had netted nearly $7 million in a ten-month period.^[4]

Seatrain Shipbuilding[link]

In 1967, Seatrain Lines announced it would establish a new shipyard inside the former New York Naval Shipyard. Seatrain Lines had no shipbuilding experience but planned to build and charter out 5 VLCC's & 7 container ships for themselves. Seatrain Shipbuilding built 4 VLCC's, 8 barges, 1 Ice Breaker Barge. They started work on the burned out hull of the Sea Witch {Newport News finished} turning it into a chemical tanker.

The Federal Government by way of the Economic Development Administration of the US Department of Commerce advanced Seatrain $5 million in direct loans and guaranteed 90% of $82 million in loans from Chase Manhattan Bank. Seatrain Lines injected $38 million of its own money into the project. The union chosen to represent the shipyard production workers was the United Industrial Workers of North America.^[5]

Seatrain built four 220,000-ton Very Large Crude Carriers (supertankers), eight barges, one ice breaker barge and two roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferries. One of the Ro-Ro ferries was never finished and was scrapped. Seatrain Shipbuilding also had a contract to rebuild the burned out hull of the Sea Witch into a chemical tanker.^[6] January 20, 1975 Seatrain Shipbuilding started to lay off half of its 3,200 workers for an indefinite period of time. A few days later, the rest of the shipbuilders would receive their layoff notices, as well. The mass layoff was due to President Gerald Ford's pocket veto of the cargo preference bill. Twenty of the largest shipyards in the U.S. would experience similar layoffs.

The cargo preference bill would have required over time 20% of all the oil transported into the U.S. be transported on U.S. Flagged Tankers. President Ford called the bill inflationary. The cost of a gallon of gas would slowly rise by 20 cents over a few years. A few weeks later President Ford called for a $4 per barrel tax on imported oil. This would have increased the cost of gas and heating oil by over $1 per gallon. New England complained people would no longer be able to afford heating oil. The $4 tax went nowhere!^[7]

Containerization[link]

The key to the revolution was standardized containers, which initially could be stacked five high on board ships. Containerization allowed tremendous cost saving versus so called "break-bulk" where each piece of cargo had to be loaded and unloaded individually. Malcom McLean conceived the concept of containerization while sitting in his truck at the port waiting for a ship to be unloaded. Simply put, his idea was to separate the truck's "box" from its chassis and wheels.

The containers were relatively large since costs tend to be per container and not per tonne, and the dimensions were initially chosen to suit highway limits and rail bridges and tunnels; container sizes have since grown taller which has created problems with some smaller tunnels.

Bankruptcy[link]

Seatrain filed for protection on February 11, 1981, under Chapter 11 with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Seatrain's creditors filed $800 million dollars of claims but the amount was reduced by negotiation. The final figure was in the area of $515 million dollars. Seatrain's largest unsecured creditors were the pension and welfare fund of the New York Shipping Association-International Longshoremen's Association, the US Economic Development Administration, and Union Carbide Corporation.^[8]

In popular culture[link]

In the 1971 Hawaii Five-O episode "For A Million, Why Not?", the means of transport out of Hawaii for a stolen armored truck was a Seatrain container.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Mohowski, Robert E. (2012). "Seatrain: Railroad or steamship line?". Classic Trains Magazine (Spring 2011) (Kalmbach) 12 (1): 64–73. 

External links[link]

• "Salt Water Rail Road" Popular Mechanics, October 1947

Peter Rowan
Peter Rowan (left) performing with Tony Rice on November 7, 2008.
Background information
Born	(1942-07-04) July 4, 1942 (age 69) in Boston, Massachusetts
Genres	Bluegrass, Progressive bluegrass, Folk, Country, Country rock, Folk rock, Psychedelic, Tex-Mex
Occupations	Musician, Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, Vocals, Mandolin
Years active	1963–present
Labels	Rounder, Flying Fish, Sugar Hill
Website	Official site

Peter Rowan (b. July 4, 1942, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings.

Biography[link]

From an early age, Rowan had an interest in music and eventually learned to play the guitar. At the age of twelve he heard Elvis Presley for the first time and later, in junior high school, he formed a rockabilly band, the Cupids.^[1][2] Influenced by the blues musician Eric Von Schmidt, Rowan traded his electric guitar for an acoustic and began to play the blues. He was also influenced by the folk sound of Joan Baez. In college he discovered bluegrass after hearing The Country Gentlemen and The Stanley Brothers. He soon discovered the music of Bill Monroe and with some help from banjo player Bill Keith, he was to audition for Monroe who invited him to Nashville.^[1] Accompanied by Keith, Rowan went to Nashville and was hired in March 1965 as guitarist and lead vocalist of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.^[3] His recording debut as a "bluegrass boy" took place on October 14, 1966 and he recorded a total of fourteen songs with Monroe before his tenure ended in the spring of 1967.^[4]

Rowan teamed up with David Grisman in 1967 forming the band Earth Opera which frequently opened for The Doors. In 1969, Rowan joined Seatrain, along with Richard Greene.^[5] In 1973, Rowan, together with Greene, Grisman, Bill Keith, and Clarence White formed the bluegrass band Muleskinner. The band released one album.^[6] The same year, (1973), Rowan and Grisman formed Old and in the Way with Greene, Jerry Garcia, and John Kahn.^[7] Greene was later replaced by Vassar Clements.^[8] Old and In the Way disbanded in 1974 and Rowan joined a rock band led by his brothers. Three years later, in 1977, he left his brother's rock band. For a time, he was touring with Richard Greene in Japan and playing clubs with fiddler Tex Logan. He also formed the Green Grass Gringos.^[6]

Rowan has been part of Mother Bay State Entertainers and played mandolin on their record of 1963, The String Band Project. He has recorded and performed with his brothers, Lorin and Chris, at various times, starting in 1972. Since then, he has been involved in many group and solo projects, including Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Airforce, and continues to tour. He composed songs performed by New Riders of the Purple Sage, including "Panama Red," "Midnight Moonlight" and "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy."

Rowan also features on In No Sense? Nonsense! an album by UK band The art of noise. His the voice (yodel) on One Earth the last song of the album. It was recorded 1987 and it was released by China records and Chrysalis records Ltd. that same year.

Rowan's released "Quartet" (2007), the second collaboration with guitarist and bluegrass musician Tony Rice. His most recent disc as the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band is "Legacy," (2010) on Compass Records.

Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Airforce at DelFest 2009

Discography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Goldsmith, Thomas (2004), The Bluegrass Reader, University of Illinois Press
• Jackson, Blair (), Garcia: An American Life, Penguin
• Rosenberg, Neil V. - Wolfe, Charles (1991), Booklet: Bill Monroe, Bluegrass 1959-1969, Bear Family BCD 15529
• Von Schmidt, Eric - Rooney, Jim (1994), Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, University of Massachusetts Press

External links[link]

• Official site