Modern containerships are perhaps the most spectacular ship type developed in maritime history.
These ships have no 'forest' of masts and derricks. The silhouette is dominated by many containers in front of and sometimes behind the small superstructure containing the bridge. These ships are constructed to carry thousands and thousands of boxes, all the same size, whose content nobody can see. These ships appear in ports all over the world, stopping only for one or two days, quickly loading and unloading full or empty containers and sail on to arrive dead on time at the next port. During the Second World War and the Korean and Vietnam wars the Americans used container-like giant packing cases to transport and warehouse supplies.