Overseas Containers
of London.
1965 August 27th. Formed. Ocean Steamship Co, British and Commonwealth Holdings, Furness, Withy and P&O formed Overseas Containers Limited to exploit the introduction of containerization.
1965 September. 'The P and O group and three other British shipping companies have formed a company deal with containerisation and unit loads in ocean liner trades Sir Andre Crichton managing director of P and O announced to-day. He is chairman of the new firm - Overseas Containers Ltd. Sir Andrew said: “We are trying to be pioneers here. As far as I know there is no other such organisation anywhere in the world”. The firm comprises P and O group, Alfred Holt and Co, British and Commonwealth Shipping Co Ltd, Furness Withy and Co Ltd. The new firm will direct and control examination planning and execution of any steps the four companies may take individually or collectively in the field of containerisation and unit loads in ocean liner trading'[1]
OCL ordered a fleet of six vessels of 27,000 gross register tons (GRT) and 1300 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) capacity for the UK/Europe to Australia route from Hamburg Container Ship Consortium (Germany).
The first voyage to Australia was by Encounter Bay which undertook her maiden voyage in early 1969. This initiated a regular overseas container service for Australia.
OCL overcame initial heavy losses to become centre stage in the world’s leading container lines.
1974 Their offices at Beagle House, Aldgate was London's first purpose built office block using the "Integrated Environment Design (IED)".[2]