On April 26, 1956, with 100 invited dignitaries on hand, one of the converted tankers, the "SS Ideal-X" (informally dubbed the "SS Maxton" after McLean's hometown in North Carolina), was loaded and sailed from the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, New Jersey, for the Port of Houston, Texas, carrying fifty-eight "Trailer Vans" later called containers, along with a regular load of liquid tank cargo. As the "Ideal-X" left the Port of Newark, Freddy Fields, a top official of the International Longshoremen's Association, was asked what he thought of the newly fitted container ship. Fields replied, ""I'd like to sink that son of a bitch."" McLean flew to Houston to be on hand when the ship safely docked.