Portainer

A Portainer crane is a very large crane used to load and unload container ships, and only seen at container ports. They have a special lifting clamp adapted for the twistlocks in the corners of containers. The boom of the crane allows containers to be lifted from the hold and moved toward the centre of the crane, then lowered to the dockside below. The whole crane runs on two railways so that it can traverse along the harbourside.

The driver sits directly over the container being lifted, and runs on an overhead rail that carries him and the cargo from ship to shore.

Lorries and containerlifters can manuever underneath the base of the portainer crane, and collect the 'boxes'. They are designed to allow rapid cargo operations.