I'm glad they did a sidebar story on
Malcom McLean. Not many people can claim to have changed the world, but that's what's happened with
containerization.
For our purposes, if you happen to see a vessel in a photo, there are a different routes to a solution. You can try the world
map, which also lists talls ships, cruise ships and yachts: it
sometimes lists past positions, but since it's on the honor system it's only as accurate as the data the skipper gives up. If all you have is an image, try to make a guess at a shipping line: it makes slogging through photo databases like
this a lot easier (the color schemes are more individual than you might think). If you know the port this
site provides arrivals (no archive) as well as port details and maps; also, the port itself might have a website. Your best bet for past schedules would be the shipping line itself: for example, this is
Maersk and this is
Evergreen. If you're lucky enough to have a container number, you could try one of the links
here.
