FLYING CLIPPER, loading cargo, 1948

safety negative

PHOTOGRAPHS - SOFT NEGATIVES
Rosenfeld and Sons
USA, NY
1948-10-3
Kodak safety film
overall: 4 x 5 in.; 10.16 x 12.7 cm

4 x 5 Kodak safety negative taken by Rosenfeld and Sons on October 3, 1948. Consigned from India to Philadelphia, bales of what appears to be cotton are hoisted out of the number four hold on the Isbrandtsen Steamship Company vessel, FLYING CLIPPER. To the photographer's right, on the cabin deck aft of the ship's superstructure, the winchman watches for signals from a man in the hold and another on the wharf to transfer the cargo safely from ship to shore. The other winchman for this hatch peers over the rail as the longshoremen below fill his slings. In the hold, which is divided into two cargo decks, a couple of longshoremen can be seen beside the tightly stowed bales. This time-consuming, labor-intensive form of cargo handling would soon disappear: Within ten years of this photograph, Sea-Land on the Atlantic and Matson Line on the Pacific had introduced standardized, trailer-truck-sized containers, that could be loaded at the point of production, stacked by crane on shipboard, and off-loaded onto wheels for delivery to the point of distribution. Some old C2 cargo ships would be converted to carry containers, but by the end of the 1960s these break-bulk freighters-and the longshoremen who handled their cargoes--were obsolete. [Log of Mystic Seaport, Autumn 1998, Volume 50, No.2, page 53]. Typed on original negative sleeve: "121916F / 10/3-4/48 / Isbrandtsen S/S Co / S/S Flying Clipper Story / 5030".

1984.187.121916F

Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection