Post #42761 by martiki on Sat, Jul 12, 2003 7:12 PM

On 2003-07-11 17:18, Tiki-bot wrote:

can you please explain how these containers can fall off ships so easily? Aren't they tied down or something?

--cindy

I was wondering that too. Like that scene in "The Perfect Storm" where the containers go overboard - they didn't appear to be fastened down at all. I read this article earlier and the 10,000 number really shocked me. Do they usually sink or just break up?

(sudden wave of excitement as normally worthless info becomes valuable)

Well, it's like this: Here's a picture of a modern container ship- biggest one on the water right now in fact:

Click here to see the image

Containers can get stacked about 5 high above deck. Only the bottom one or two in a stack are lashed to the deck. The rest (up to 50,000lbs each) are held in place by steel "twistlocks" at each corner. They look like this:

There not much bigger than a grapefruit. They work fine as long as the ship doesn't pitch more than about 20 degrees to the side. As big as these ships are, (the one in the picture above is about the same size and displacement as a modern aircraft carrier- if you stood it up on it's stern, it would be taller than the Eiffel Tower), they can still get tossed by strong seas. That's when they topple. Check it out:

Some of them wash ashore....

But- here's the bitch- many of them have enough air trapped inside that they float- about 2 feet under water. Try to imagine what a steel box with 40000 pounds of scrap metal inside can do to your hull when you hit it. And you can't see them coming. That's why large ships count on radar. They're very hard to fish out as well. They try to get most of 'em, especially if they have hazardous cargo inside. But most are fished out, and since 100s of millions ply the seas each year, it could be worse.

Mr. Esoteric Information,

Martin

BTW- The ship (APL China) with the crushed containers actually visits the Port of Oakland regularly. Yay!

[Edited by hanford to change the huge pic to a link]
[ Edited by: martiki6 on 2003-07-12 19:15 ]

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-07-12 19:24 ]