I see ships being overloaded a good problem to have. The more countries trade with eachother, the less reason they have to fight wars with eachother.
Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
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Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#12Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#13Is there a list of what exactly was lost? Does anyone actively seek out and salvage this sunken treasure? I hate to think of another Garfield Phone thing in the future with something more dangerous.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#14I see ships being overloaded a good problem to have. The more countries trade with eachother, the less reason they have to fight wars with eachother.
My sister wrote & defended her PhD thesis disproving this intuitive but wrong connection. Plenty of states happily trade with their enemies during wars. So war does not necessarily stop trade. And thus trade is no prophylactic to war.
States are most likely to cut off trade during war in very long wars - which are no longer possible between nuclear powers.
If you have counter-arguments other than "But, but, but that FEELS wrong", i am sure she'd like to hear them, her email is on the site"
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#15I see ships being overloaded a good problem to have. The more countries trade with eachother, the less reason they have to fight wars with eachother.
Really? The U.S. was founded on a war with its primary trading partner.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#16To anchor discussion, prior to the rise of intermodal shipping containers in the '60s & '70s, cargo was shipped as breakbulk cargo. Losses from theft and damage were considerably reduced by switching from breakbulk cargo to shipping containers. Not the same as losing stuff over the side, but still a regular and somewhat predictable expense. One anecdote I remember from Levinson's book is about a scottish whisky disti…
"The box that changed Britain" is a good BBC documentary on the subject as well if you can find it online.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are quite obviously consequences, but perhaps not for the people who are in a position to ensure the containers don't fall overboard? Somebody is certainly losing money here.
Insurance
So insurance companies are losing money and raising premiums accordingly?
Perhaps nobody is losing enough money to really care about the problem. The graph in the linked article suggests that 11 out of the last 13 years, losses have amounted to around $80 million or less. A lot of money, but perhaps not a lot of money to the shipping industry and/or their insurers?
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#18I see ships being overloaded a good problem to have. The more countries trade with eachother, the less reason they have to fight wars with eachother.
The basis of the modern liberal world order.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#19No mention of recovery. I wonder.. are the containers ever recovered, or is it prohibitively expensive, or, logistically near impossible?
They have a valve that scuttles them after a few hours otherwise they are a big hazard for other boats
My container (used for land-based storage) has obviously seen travel, and has nothing beyond a couple corner air vents. None of the other containers I'm familiar without here (they're quite popular for storage) have anything of the sort. That valve is a nice idea, but doesn't really exist in most of the fleet of containers on the ocean.
They are, indeed, a hazard for other boats, though they generally won't "lurk below the surface." Either they're floating from buoyancy of what's in them, or they sink. The increasing water pressure as you descend makes "floating below the surface" a particularly unstable place.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#20To anchor discussion, prior to the rise of intermodal shipping containers in the '60s & '70s, cargo was shipped as breakbulk cargo. Losses from theft and damage were considerably reduced by switching from breakbulk cargo to shipping containers. Not the same as losing stuff over the side, but still a regular and somewhat predictable expense. One anecdote I remember from Levinson's book is about a scottish whisky disti…
The Box is way more fascinating than it has any right to be. It touches on basically every aspect of post-1950 world economy, history, urban planning, social changes, migration, etc.