Pack n Send Blog

Whether large or small, at one point or another unusual items must travel distances to reach its destination. Shipping companies Houston have seen their fair share of live animals, delicates, and many unique items. Across the history of shipping items, there have been many unsual items sent. Let's now learn of 3 of the most unusual things ever shipped.  

Photo by:  rfduck

Keiko the Killer Whale

The blockbuster movie Free Willy (1993) made an international star of the whale that played Willy, a killer whale living in Mexico named Keiko. Actually, Willy had a few names when he was captured as a youngster in the wild in 1979. The Mexican aquarium that kept Keiko for the majority of his life had substandard equipment for keeping a whale healthy.

Eventually, it was decided to move the six ton whale to a better aquarium in Oregon, and then to a “halfway” home in Norway, where he would be trained to hunt for himself and then released into the wild. Keiko was officially moved by UPS. He flew in a C-130 to Oregon, put on another 1,000 pounds and then was flown in a C-17. The plane suffered over $1 million in damages, but it got the job done and Keiko arrived safely. Sadly, he did not survive living in the wild and died in 2003 at the young age of 27.

London Bridge

Perhaps the ultimate status symbol, the ultra-rich Richard McCullough bought the 131 year old London Bridge for his town of Lake Havasu, Arizona in 1962. The famous bridge was scheduled to be demolished because of how unstable it was becoming. McCullough’s winning bid was $2.46 million. McCullough hoped that London Bridge would draw tourists to the town that he founded. This did not turn out as planned.

The entire bridge had to dismantled, brick by brick, numbered and sent by boat over the Pond to America. The numbered elements helped engineers in Arizona to reassemble the bridge. It cost McCullough another $7 million and nine years to move the historic bridge.  London Bridge did not have to deal with the inclement English weather or the immense loads of London traffic; it has stood safely since its rededication ceremony in October of 1971.

The Statue of Liberty

This famous American icon was created in France as a gift for America’s centennial in 1876. Like most international projects, the Statue of Liberty was not ready in time for the 1876 centennial celebrations. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi made the gigantic copper and iron statue in Paris. The model for Lad Liberty is said to be Bartholdi’s own mother. The finished statue was unveiled on July 4, 1884. After a lot of official fuss, the sculpture was then chopped up into 350 parts, stuck into 214 huge wooden crates and shipped across the Atlantic by ship.

The statue had to wait while a suitable platform was created. Bedloe’s Island, which one housed a prison, was chosen because of its handy location in New York Harbor directly in between the states of New York and New Jersey. After the platform was created, the 450,000 pound statue was carefully reassembled. Finally, President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1885. Time has changed Lady Liberty from a bright copper color to a soft greenish-blue.

Photo by Hand Truck Sentry Systems