Overseas Containers Limited
Encyclopedia
Overseas Containers Limited (OCL) was a container shipping company formed by a consortium
of British shipping companies in 1965. It is not to be confused with Orient Overseas Container Line
(OOCL).
considerable investment was still required in the necessary infrastructure to transport and handle shipping containers, and many shipping companies formed consortia to ease the financial burden. OCL was formed in 1969 by four British companies: British and Commonwealth Shipping, Furness Withy
, P&O
and the Ocean Steamship Company
. Between 1969 and 1970 OCL took delivery of its first ships, a fleet of six vessels of and capacity for the UK
/Europe
to Australia
route. Initially operating from a set of offices in Bevis Marks, London, OCL later moved to custom built offices a few hundred yards away on a traffic island at the end of Commercial Road. The service was inaugurated on the 6th March 1969 by ss Encounter Bay undertaking her maiden voyage, and OCL overcame heavy losses in the first years of operations to become one of the world's leading container lines.
The first trade route was the Australia/UK one followed later by the Far East/UK route. Initial arrivals in Europe intended for the UK had to be diverted and transhipped via Rotterdam, because of unresolved industrial disputes in UK ports.
OCL played a leading role in the development of CAMEL - the standardised format for electronic manifests.
By 1982 OCL was Europe's largest container through transport operator with a fleet of 20 containerships and more than 60,000 container units. It served more than 50 major ports and, in 1980, transported more than a quarter of a million container loads of import and export cargo on a route network linking locations throughout four continents. One company, P&O, gradually increased its share of the consortium until in 1986 it bought the remaining 53% held by Ocean Transport and Trading
(as The Ocean Steamship Company was by then known) and British & Commonwealth. On the 1st January 1987 the name OCL ceased to exist, the operation becoming known as P&O Containers Ltd (P&OCL). In 1996 P&O Containers merged with Nedlloyd
to form P&O Nedlloyd
. August 2005 saw the completion of a buyout of P&O Nedlloyd by the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
and in February 2006 the name Maersk Line was adopted for the combined fleets.
s sailing for the company under the OCL banner were characterised by their green hulls with white topping, white superstructure and green funnels bearing the initials OCL in white letters. All OCL ships' names ended in Bay, such as Encounter Bay, Tokyo Bay, Liverpool Bay, Resolution Bay
and Mairangi Bay
. Subsidiary operations such as the Australia- Japan Container Line did not follow this trend, instead having names such as Arafura and Aotea. When OCL became P&OCL, there was a slight modification to the ships' colour scheme, the hulls becoming completely green and the OCL logo on the funnels being replaced with the P&O logo. The naming convention was retained, and in June 2006 there were still a couple of Bay ships in the Maersk Line fleet.
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of British shipping companies in 1965. It is not to be confused with Orient Overseas Container Line
Orient Overseas Container Line
Orient Overseas Container Line is a Hong Kong-based container shipping and logistics service company.OOCL is one of the world's largest shipping and logistics companies with more than 280 offices in 55 countries around the world, providing 78 services covering international trading markets with a...
(OOCL).
History
In the early days of containerisationContainerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
considerable investment was still required in the necessary infrastructure to transport and handle shipping containers, and many shipping companies formed consortia to ease the financial burden. OCL was formed in 1969 by four British companies: British and Commonwealth Shipping, Furness Withy
Furness Withy
Furness Withy was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The Company was founded by Christopher Furness and Henry Withy in 1891 in Hartlepool. This was achieved by the amalgamation of the Furness Line of steamers with the business of Edward Withy and...
, P&O
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
and the Ocean Steamship Company
Ocean Group plc
Ocean Group plc was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
. Between 1969 and 1970 OCL took delivery of its first ships, a fleet of six vessels of and capacity for the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
/Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
route. Initially operating from a set of offices in Bevis Marks, London, OCL later moved to custom built offices a few hundred yards away on a traffic island at the end of Commercial Road. The service was inaugurated on the 6th March 1969 by ss Encounter Bay undertaking her maiden voyage, and OCL overcame heavy losses in the first years of operations to become one of the world's leading container lines.
The first trade route was the Australia/UK one followed later by the Far East/UK route. Initial arrivals in Europe intended for the UK had to be diverted and transhipped via Rotterdam, because of unresolved industrial disputes in UK ports.
OCL played a leading role in the development of CAMEL - the standardised format for electronic manifests.
By 1982 OCL was Europe's largest container through transport operator with a fleet of 20 containerships and more than 60,000 container units. It served more than 50 major ports and, in 1980, transported more than a quarter of a million container loads of import and export cargo on a route network linking locations throughout four continents. One company, P&O, gradually increased its share of the consortium until in 1986 it bought the remaining 53% held by Ocean Transport and Trading
Ocean Group plc
Ocean Group plc was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
(as The Ocean Steamship Company was by then known) and British & Commonwealth. On the 1st January 1987 the name OCL ceased to exist, the operation becoming known as P&O Containers Ltd (P&OCL). In 1996 P&O Containers merged with Nedlloyd
Nedlloyd
Nedlloyd was a Dutch shipping company, formed in 1970 as the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie in a merger of several shipping lines:*Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland *Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd...
to form P&O Nedlloyd
P&O Nedlloyd
P&O Nedlloyd Container Line Limited was an Anglo-Dutch worldwide ocean-going container shipping line, with dual headquarters in London and Rotterdam. The company was formed in 1997 by the merger of the container-shipping interests of the leading Dutch transportation company Royal Nedlloyd and the...
. August 2005 saw the completion of a buyout of P&O Nedlloyd by the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
A.P. Moller – Maersk Group , also known as Maersk , is a Danish business conglomerate. A.P. Moller – Maersk Group has activities in a variety of business sectors, primarily within the transportation and energy sectors. It is the largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator in the...
and in February 2006 the name Maersk Line was adopted for the combined fleets.
The Ships
Container shipContainer ship
Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...
s sailing for the company under the OCL banner were characterised by their green hulls with white topping, white superstructure and green funnels bearing the initials OCL in white letters. All OCL ships' names ended in Bay, such as Encounter Bay, Tokyo Bay, Liverpool Bay, Resolution Bay
MV Resolution Bay
The MV Resolution Bay was a container ship owned by Overseas Containers Limited .- History :Resolution Bay was launched and delivered to OCL in 1977, and was scrapped in 2002...
and Mairangi Bay
MV Mairangi Bay
The mv Mairangi Bay was a container ship owned by Overseas Containers Limited .- History :Mairangi Bay was launched and delivered to OCL in 1978, and was scrapped in 2002 in China. The ship was one of two identical sisters built by Bremer Vulkan shipyard in West Germany, the other being the MV...
. Subsidiary operations such as the Australia- Japan Container Line did not follow this trend, instead having names such as Arafura and Aotea. When OCL became P&OCL, there was a slight modification to the ships' colour scheme, the hulls becoming completely green and the OCL logo on the funnels being replaced with the P&O logo. The naming convention was retained, and in June 2006 there were still a couple of Bay ships in the Maersk Line fleet.
External links
- Maersk Line Fleet List website