All at sea

摘要

IN APRIL 1956 the world's first container ship-the Ideal X-set sail from New Jersey. A year later in Seattle the world's first commercially successful airliner, Boeing's 707, made its maiden flight. Both developments slashed the cost of moving cargo and people. Boeing still makes half the world's airliners. But America's shipping fleet, 17% of the global total in 1960, accounts for just 0.4% today.