Containerized shipping in the First World War

How would early palletized or containerized logistics affect the First World War submarine campaign?

It could make each merchant loss more damaging, but barge-carrier designs and integrated rail and river distribution might also improve survivability and flexibility.

Fewer, larger merchant ships would simplify escort numbers while making each sinking a much larger loss of transport capacity. Yet early infrastructure might favor float-on/float-off barge carriers, whose subdivision could make torpedo sinking difficult and whose cargo could continue inland by river without a modern container terminal. Earlier container ports could also shift the geography of maritime traffic and the coastal sites Britain would need to defend. Ocean-liner and battleship ports already had tugs capable of handling large hulls, while existing railways and imperial river networks could extend the system inland earlier than a modern observer might expect.