Feature, Freight News, Sea

Half a century of whisky – and more

[ May 6, 2016   //   Chris ]

A little-known fact is that the first UK port to handle a regular container was not, as one might expect, London or Southampton, but Grangemouth, in Scotland. Now Scotland’s largest port, Grangemouth is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the day when the Sea-land freight service called into the port on 7 May 1966 as part of the Europe and North American shipping route transporting mostly Scotch whisky for onward travel to the US.

Sea-land launched the transatlantic container ship route in April 1966 with four ships in service, each carrying 226 containers with cargoes of cameras, safety razors and pre-fab housing complements.

Crucially, the weekly route was the first transatlantic ship carrying only containers and called at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Baltimore, Maryland, in the US, then Rotterdam, Bremen and Grangemouth,  the only UK port in the rotation.

Tags: Forth Ports, Grangemouth