Van Bemmel Steamship Company

Van Bemmel Steamship Company was a small U.S.-flag carrier operating only one

vessel on a regular route between the East Coast and Japan via the Panama Canal, with

intermediate stops, in both directions, at San Juan, Long Beach, and Honolulu. Its

approximate route is shown on the map in Case Figure 11–1. A round trip would be New

York, San Juan, Long Beach, Honolulu, Osaka, Honolulu, Long Beach, San Juan, and back to

New York. At each port of call, the vessel spent an entire day discharging and taking on

containers. The vessel’s time at sea between ports (in either direction) was New York–San

Juan, two days; San Juan–Long Beach, five days; Long Beach–Honolulu, four days; and

Honolulu–Osaka, six days. (These days are in addition to the single day spent in each port

whenever the vessel stopped.) The vessel made about nine round trips per year, and it could

carry 1,200 containers, either full or empty. Loaded containers that it picks up at a port were

left off at the previous call.

Case Table 11–1 shows the number of full containers that the Van Bemmel vessel

carried between the ports on its route. At present the firm is attempting to determine its costs

of carrying containers between the different ports it serves.

Questions for Van Bemmel Steamship Company

1. Assume that the Van Bemmel Company wants to use its own containers exclusively. Any

containers it picks up at a port (either full or empty) will have to have been left at the port on

a previous voyage. Using Case Table 11–1, calculate the minimum number of containers the

company must own. Show your work.

2. How much ship space could be saved if, instead of owning its own containers, Van

Bemmel Company leased them for one-way hauls only and therefore carried only containers

loaded with freight?