To achieve fast loading and unloading of containers from a container ship, quick suppression of the remaining sway motion of the container at the end of each trolley stroke is crucial. Due to the pendulum motion of the container and disturbances like sind, residual sway always exists at the end of trolley movement. In this paper, the sway-control problem of a container crane is investigated. A two-stage control is proposed. The first stage is a time optimal controlfor the purpose of fast trolley traveling. The second stage is a nonlinear control for the quick suppression of residual sway, which starts right after the first stage while lowering the container. The nonlinear control is investigated in the perspective of controlling an underatuated mechanical system, which combines partial feedback linearization to account for the known nonlinearities as much as possible, and variable structure control to account for the unmodeled dynamics and disturbances. Simulation and experimental results are provided.