Having worked for a forklift company that made a lot of container handling equipment, I can tell you what I recall.
5 lost containers per ship is probably not a bad guess at the average. Although it is not 5 containers off every ship, it is more the case of 100 containers off every 20th ship or 200 off every 40th. Anyhow that represents a really small percentage of containers shipped – maybe around 1 container lost is every 1 or 2 thousand shipped Container do sink – eventually. It depends on what is in them. Containers of hardware or machinery goes down in a few hours as the air leaks out (there are actually vent holes in newer containers for this purpose). A container of tennis balls or Christmas toys like dolls may float almost forever. Better than 95% of container traffic is international – mostly full containers from SE Asia (China, for example) to North America or Europe and empties going back to be refilled. So most of the traffic is near shore when it approaches a deep water port with a container terminal. Places like Boston, Jersey City, Baltimore, Savannah, Miami, Long Beach, and Vancouver, and to a certain extent Chicago and Toronto.. Shipping between locations inland is far cheaper by rail or truck, so the container ports have intermodal hubs to handle transshipping the containers to their final destination – like a warehouse or your local Walmart store. Miami is a special case because a fair amount of container traffic gets transferred to smaller vessels and to barges for delivery to the various islands in the Caribbean. Shipping costs are driving a trend to bigger and bigger ships and fewer and deeper ports. I recall reading about a plan to launch a series of container ships over 100,000 tons – bigger than an aircraft carrier. And there were plans to build a MEGA container port on the west coast of Mexico than would reduce shipping costs through high cost ports like Long Beach, Vancouver, and New Orleans. Homeland Security and others were weighing in on the Mexican plans because of concerns about a significant increase in cross border traffic, truck traffic on existing roads in the Southwest, etc. Anyway, the risk of hitting a container if you are a coastal cruiser are pretty minimal. Unless you are in an area like SE Florida, the Chesapeake, or sail well out into the ocean off the entrance to a deep water port like Long Beach or New York. Most of the lost container go into the water during severe storm well out at sea. Rick Brass Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Marek Dziedzic via CnC-List Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2015 8:56 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Marek Dziedzic <dziedzi...@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Stus-List Here's why it is better to sail the gulf-side of FL My information is certainly dated, but a while back my wife was consulting for a shipping (container) line and at that time they claimed that they regularly lost about 5 containers on an average Atlantic crossing. Interestingly, they were not overtly alarmed about it. I think, fortunately, most of these containers eventually sink. Possibly there are some newer regulations that changed it somewhat, but I doubt. Marek 1994 C270 “Legato” Ottawa, ON From: Josh Muckley via CnC-List <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 9, 2015 10:06 PM To: C <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> &C List Cc: Josh Muckley <mailto:muckl...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Stus-List Here's why it is better to sail the gulf-side of FL I read an article years ago about semi-submerged containers. Then can lurk just at the surface level and even in full daylight be almost invisible. A collision with one can sink even a large private vessel in only a few minute with no warning. Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD
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