Over the next three decades, the company branched into various other markets, leading to the creation of the Orient-Express Hotels chain, hovercraft, and the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service.

Sea Containers was established in 1965 by Yale University graduate and retired United States Navy officer James Sherwood; it had an initial capital of $100,000.

Shareholders ultimately backed Sherwood's position, who had proposed asset sales and a restructuring to win favour, leading to Tiphook failing to acquire the company.

[10] In March 1996, Sea Containers was announced as the winner, being awarded a seven-year franchise upon the ECML via a newly created subsidiary Great North Eastern Railway (GNER).

[11] During January 1997, Sherwood announced that GNER intended to procure a pair of two new-build tilting trains which were claimed to enable the London-Edinburgh journey to be reduced to only 3 hours and 30 minutes.

[12][13] The new franchise's terms were quite different from that of the original period; instead of GNER receiving subsidies, it would be instead paying the British state for the privilege of operating; there was reportedly concerns over the financial viability of such an arrangement from the onset.

[10] During his leadership of Sea Containers, Sherwood accumulated substantial personal wealth; his net worth was estimated at £60million in the 2004 Sunday Times Rich List.

[1] Shortly thereafter, it was announced that the company lost a lucrative contract to provide back-up services to its container leasing operations, which by then it had been running as a joint venture with GE Capital.

[14] MacKenzie sought to reduce the business' high debt burden via further sales, which he viewed as critical to any prospective rebuilding of the core enterprise; these efforts led to the rapid divestiture of 14,000 containers amongst other company assets.

[17][14] Following this filing, Sherwood's role in the collapse, particularly his $2 million (£1 million) severance payment and $250,000 annual payout from his Sea Containers pension, was criticised; in response, he denied personal responsibility and attributed Sea Containers' fate to several factors, including elevated fuel prices, the 7 July 2005 London bombings, and incorrect assumptions in contract terms stipulated by the British government.