Editing Container ship (section)

===Cargo cranes===
{{see also|Lift-on/lift-off}}
[[File:US Navy 110303-M-0074F-169 A crane offloads a beach landing module from USNS Sgt. William Button (T-AK 3012) near Camp Pendleton, Calif., during Pa.jpg|thumb|Cargo cranes on a US navy container ship]]

A major characteristic of a container ship is whether it has cranes installed for handling its cargo.  Those that have cargo cranes are called ''geared'' and those that do not are called ''ungeared'' or ''gearless''.  The earliest purpose-built container ships in the 1970s were all gearless.<ref name="unctad32">UNCTAD, 2010, p. 32.</ref>  Since then, the percentage of geared newbuilds has fluctuated widely, but has been decreasing overall, with only 7.5% of the container ship capacity in 2009 being equipped with cranes.<ref name="unctad32"/>

While geared container ships are more flexible in that they can visit ports that are not equipped with pierside [[container crane]]s, they suffer from several drawbacks.<ref name="unctad32"/>  To begin with, geared ships will cost more to purchase than a gearless ship.<ref name="unctad32"/>  Geared ships also incur greater recurring expenses, such as maintenance and fuel costs.<ref name="unctad32"/>  The United Nations Council on Trade and Development characterizes geared ships as a "niche market only appropriate for those ports where low cargo volumes do not justify investment in port cranes or where the public sector does not have the financial resources for such investment".<ref name="unctad32"/>

Instead of the rotary cranes, some geared ships have [[gantry crane]]s installed.<ref name="con249">Conrad, 1989, p. 249.</ref>  These cranes, specialized for container work, are able to roll forward and aft on rails.<ref name="con249"/>  In addition to the additional capital expense and maintenance costs, these cranes generally load and discharge containers much more slowly than their shoreside counterparts.<ref name="con249"/>

The introduction and improvement of shoreside [[container crane]]s have been a key to the success of the container ship.<ref name="con249"/>  The first crane that was specifically designed for container work was built in California's Port of Alameda in 1959.<ref name="con249"/>  By the 1980s, shoreside gantry cranes were capable of moving containers on a 3-minute-cycle, or up to 400 tons per hour.<ref name="con249"/> In March 2010, at [[Port Klang]] in Malaysia, a new world record was set when 734 container moves were made in a single hour.<ref name="unctad100">UNCTAD, 2010, p. 100.</ref> The record was achieved using 9 cranes to simultaneously load and unload {{MV|CSCL Pusan}}, a ship with a capacity of 9,600 TEU.<ref name="unctad100"/>

Vessels in the 1,500–2,499 TEU range are the most likely size class to have cranes, with more than 60% of this category being geared ships.<ref name="unctad32"/>  Slightly less than a third of the very smallest ships (from 100–499 TEU) are geared, and almost no ships with a capacity of over 4,000 TEU are geared.<ref name="unctad32"/>

[[File:Containerladeräume Schiff retouched.jpg|thumb|A view into the holds of a container ship. The vertical cell guides organize containers [[athwartships]].]]