See if we ever let you get any Toyotas sent up to the Bay Area.
Certainly as others have said it has taken all the fun out of being a seafarer. Turnaround times are too low to see anything of the ports you visit, and anyway, you are usually a long way from town. Which ties in with the OP: it used to be that cities were often built around a port. Now, because of the land that container handling yards require, they are typically miles from anywhere.
I’m not so sure about third world ports being badly affected. Containers are used mostly for the type of stuff (manufactured goods) that third world nations don’t import or export very much.
It’s probably true to say that smaller ports don’t get used for general cargo (containerised or otherwise) as much as they used to, but I suspect that is more because of the development of road and rail, which tends to be cheaper (at least in first world countries) than coastal trade.
But there are plenty of small container vessels, often geared (ie have their own cranes) which can get in and out of small ports and load/discharge their own containers or whatever.
What has tended to happen with the advent of containers is the shape of cargo services has changed. As anyone in transport will tell you, the expense is always in the handling of cargo, not the carriage. It is cheaper to take an item of cargo around the world than it is to load it on a ship, take it a mile, and then discharge it. So that leads to loop services, picking up at the port of origin and dropping off at destination, with no transshipment.
But containers are so standardised and efficient to swap around that the balance has shifted somewhat. Now it is worthwhile for the major container consortiums to have some hub-and-spoke services, with feeder vessels taking cargo to and from smaller ports, feeding it into massive terminals such as Los Angeles, Singapore and Rotterdam, and then utilizing massive +4500 TEU (transport economic unit) vessels plying between.
So in fact most ports in the world are not super ports like LA.
I seem to have rambled on a bit here, sorry…
I believe that there was a massive, communist-inspired longshoremen’s strike at the port of SF. This took place in 1943, I think. I wonder if the militancy of the dock worker’s union may have convinced the Navy (and the big shipping lines) to relocate elsewhere.
Sure, SF was the only port in the US with a union.
What are the biggest ports in the world, anyways? Anyone have a list?
Is Willy Brown still mayor of SF? I met him years ago at a reception-he is a very nice, very personable guy, and a sharp dresser!
I like politicians like Brown-they add some pizzazz to a city!
yes, willy is still with us (and has just about worn out his welcome - another story)
the strike was in 1934 - the largest (if not only) general strike in US history.
yes, the longshoremen had a very powererful (and corrupt) union - see “harry bridges” - they cheered kruschov (sp) during his visit.
the 1943 incident (I think it was '43) was at port chicago - black sailors were ordered to handle munitions under extremely unsafe conditions - they were court-martialed for refusing. another ugly little story is race relatons in the US.
Depends how you measure it. By sheer tonnage some of the big coal and oil ports are ahead I think. If you are talking about throughput of TEU, (containers) off the top of my head I think it’s Singapore, Rotterdam and Long Beach. I’ll come across a list sooner or later and post it.
The Port Chicago incident was in 1944. Two ammunition ships blew up while being loaded. Some 300 were killed and the vicinity was devastated. The site I used makes the navy’s handling of the aftermath look better than it probably should.
The Port Chicago Muntiny is outlined on this site.
My wife and I went through Port Chicago on the train to San Francisco from Merced less than a week after the blast. The tallest things around were the boxcars still standing on sidings a couple of miles from the docks. They were all wrecked with the side facing the port blown off and rows of bombs and shells sitting there. Everything else in the vicinity was leveled.
At least the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are interesting enough to serve as the backdrop for numerous films.
Especially The Usual Suspects
Recently, the parts of Los Angeles that contain the port, San Pedro and Wilmington tried to secede from the city of Los Angeles (as the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood are trying). However, those areas would not have had the port included in their city. The port would still belong to Los Angeles. That just would have left San Pedro and Wilmington without a significant source of revenue.
San Pedro is a nice old town. Wilmington is well … Wilmington.
Actually I think I’ve missed a biggie: Hong Kong
So the girl says to me, she says, “Kiss me where it stinks!”
So I drove her to Wilmington. rimshot
I work with a woman who lives in San Pedro. It annoys her when people call her town “San PAY-dro”. “Everyone” knows it’s “San PEE-dro”.