It was 50 years ago that Malcom McLean, an entrepreneur from North Carolina, loaded a ship with 58 35-foot containers and sailed from Newark, N.J., to Houston. He was the first to design a transportation system around the packaging of cargo in huge metal boxes that could be loaded and unloaded by cranes. Container shipping eventually replaced the traditional "break-bulk" method of handling crates, barrels and bags, and stowing them loose in a ship's hold, a system in use since the days of the Phoenicians. Replacing break-bulk with cargo containers dramatically reduced shipping costs, reinvigorating markets and fueling the world economy. McLean, who died in 2001 at 87, shares the credit with Matson Navigation Co. of San Francisco, a longtime force in Pacific shipping.