No-one knows exactly what happened next, or even what was in the other 61 containers,
WHAT?
I imagined every container to have tracking and identification numbers so the owners could know roughly where it is at all times; and so that various government agencies could prevent import of things not allowed in their countries. A quote a bit later on kind of supports that.
She says the ship's manifest - a detailed list of everything in the containers - shows a whole range of Lego items, not all sea-themed. After all this time "it's the same old things that keep coming in with the tide", particularly after a bad storm.
I'm surprised about how many containers are lost.
About 120m containers carried on world's oceans in 2013
2011 survey by World Shipping Council estimated an average of 675 containers lost at sea each year between 2008-10
2014 survey says average annual loss between 2011-13 was approximately 2,683 containers
2,500 containers out of 120m is a small number, but still. How would you design a pinger suitable for shipping containers so that they could be located after being dropped overboard?
EDIT I should have said that this pinger thing is just a thought experiment. Obviously most containers are no lost, and most of the ones that are are not toxic / valuable enough to bother with. (But thanks to the posters below)
I imagined every container to have tracking and identification numbers so the owners could know roughly where it is at all times; and so that various government agencies could prevent import of things not allowed in their countries.
Yes, that's correct. Every container has a unique ID, and the content of each one is declared in the shipping manifest, of which the port authority, customs, the shipping company, the agricultural service etc etc, have copies. Not knowing what was in the containers is complete bullshit, everyone know at least what was declared to be in them.
Customs checks the truthfulness of the manifest by opening a small percentage of containers at random. Most containers just go through their voyage unopened. This and their standardised size is why container shipping was such a huge efficiency revolution in international transport.
Locating things underwater is a tremendous pain because it's radio-opaque. So you have to spend a lot of energy on sonar.
Having a power source for such a thing is a tremendous pain: you want a lot of capacity and low self-discharge. Ideally the battery would be chemically or mechanically inactive until underwater. Compare for example the wet cells in the early radar anti-aircraft shells that were inert until fired out of a cannon. Doable, but it's not going to be cheap.
Also, it's going to be expensive to fish up the container, and the contents will generally be destroyed and worthless. Realistically this is only going to be worth it for (a) things too toxic to leave lying around or (b) gold.
Much of the real world is low-tech and works just fine under 80/20 rule (usually 99/1 or higher). Try asking any store manager for detailed data on shrinkage.
When I was in the Navy, I knew a guy who had moved half-way around the world between postings. Virtually all of his "household goods" were in a container... that was lost overboard in a storm.
It had happened to him years before I knew him, and he was still having to deal with the paperwork. :(
Well, I'm Cornish and like all things. It's a little more complex than your one sentence implies.
But if you live by the sea (like I do) and go to many beaches all through the year, no one cares if you pick up some of the tons and tons of rubbish that washes up every year. Planks, plastic, bits of container, every type of plastic ever made. Nets (so many nets) buoys, gloves, wellies (so many gloves) fish boxes (so so so many) plastic bottles (like, an infinite amount of them).... light bulbs (yay - glass on the beach! fun for all the family!)
Who could get angry if some locals nab a pair of water logged nikes, or a huge bale of tobacco... it's only heading to the landfill anyway. Every now and then some big-wig gets annoyed with that behaviour and they get on the local news and some clever clogs gets to ask them "If we give you twenty pairs of crocs back, will you clean up the thousands of gallons of oil spilt?".... but for the other 359 days of the year no one gives a shiny shite about anything that gets washed up.
I've never heard of lego being washed up, I'm about 12 miles from that beach. I think it's just a cute story that has become viral.
Regarding scavenging shipwrecks and wrecking -- 99% of that was fiction by Daphne du Maurier. But it's a good story about some poor folk, who can blame them for adding it to the local 'history'. In actual _real_ history, we're better known for the heroic lifeboats and cliff rescue teams of total nutters who risk their lives to go help people.
I think the company in custody of the goods should be held responsible for environmental damage they cause, up to and including retrieving containers they lose.
When I drove Alaska->Argentina, I had to ship my Jeep in a container from Panama to Colombia. I shared the container with a French couple driving around the entire world. He worked for a company that sent ~500 containers a month around the world for various construction projects.
We toyed with the idea of insurance on our container, and he said in his experience, about 10% of shipping containers are never seen again. They can disappear at the origin port, disappear on the ship, or disappear at the destination port.
Shipping ports are seedy places, in my experience.
We didn't get insurance, and our container did arrive no problems.
Comments
WHAT?
I imagined every container to have tracking and identification numbers so the owners could know roughly where it is at all times; and so that various government agencies could prevent import of things not allowed in their countries. A quote a bit later on kind of supports that.
I'm surprised about how many containers are lost.
2,500 containers out of 120m is a small number, but still. How would you design a pinger suitable for shipping containers so that they could be located after being dropped overboard?
EDIT I should have said that this pinger thing is just a thought experiment. Obviously most containers are no lost, and most of the ones that are are not toxic / valuable enough to bother with. (But thanks to the posters below)
Yes, that's correct. Every container has a unique ID, and the content of each one is declared in the shipping manifest, of which the port authority, customs, the shipping company, the agricultural service etc etc, have copies. Not knowing what was in the containers is complete bullshit, everyone know at least what was declared to be in them.
Customs checks the truthfulness of the manifest by opening a small percentage of containers at random. Most containers just go through their voyage unopened. This and their standardised size is why container shipping was such a huge efficiency revolution in international transport.
Source: I worked in the industry for 6 years.
pinger suitable for shipping containers
Locating things underwater is a tremendous pain because it's radio-opaque. So you have to spend a lot of energy on sonar.
Having a power source for such a thing is a tremendous pain: you want a lot of capacity and low self-discharge. Ideally the battery would be chemically or mechanically inactive until underwater. Compare for example the wet cells in the early radar anti-aircraft shells that were inert until fired out of a cannon. Doable, but it's not going to be cheap.
Also, it's going to be expensive to fish up the container, and the contents will generally be destroyed and worthless. Realistically this is only going to be worth it for (a) things too toxic to leave lying around or (b) gold.
I think it should ping when it's dropping, before it sinks, kind of like a Macbook does with mechanical hard drives.
Then sonaring it should be simpler, as we know the rough location.
Much of the real world is low-tech and works just fine under 80/20 rule (usually 99/1 or higher). Try asking any store manager for detailed data on shrinkage.
But as we're on the subject on containers, here's an interesting read from Wired on a radioactive container in Genoa port a couple of years ago: http://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff_radioactivecargo/all/1
When I was in the Navy, I knew a guy who had moved half-way around the world between postings. Virtually all of his "household goods" were in a container... that was lost overboard in a storm.
It had happened to him years before I knew him, and he was still having to deal with the paperwork. :(
And "household goods" is in quotes because?
because it strikes me as an inside term, possibly only used inside the military. Maybe I'm wrong on that?
I suspected that some of the "goods" may not have been "household".
"How would you design a pinger suitable for shipping containers so that they could be located after being dropped overboard?"
You don't. Black box pingers have a range of approximately 5k meters. Which complicates matters if your depth is in that range.
And for what purpose you'd want that again? Claim the insurance.
No pinger will save lost cargo around Cornwall - they've been assiduous scavengers down there for centuries...
But I guess it's just cheaper for all concerned to write off the lost goods and file an insurance claim. As they say: worse things happen at sea.
Do you know what a social stigma is?
Hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stigma
I know what it's not: applicable to Cornwall re scavenging shipwrecks and the like. It's part of the local folklore.
Well, I'm Cornish and like all things. It's a little more complex than your one sentence implies.
But if you live by the sea (like I do) and go to many beaches all through the year, no one cares if you pick up some of the tons and tons of rubbish that washes up every year. Planks, plastic, bits of container, every type of plastic ever made. Nets (so many nets) buoys, gloves, wellies (so many gloves) fish boxes (so so so many) plastic bottles (like, an infinite amount of them).... light bulbs (yay - glass on the beach! fun for all the family!)
Who could get angry if some locals nab a pair of water logged nikes, or a huge bale of tobacco... it's only heading to the landfill anyway. Every now and then some big-wig gets annoyed with that behaviour and they get on the local news and some clever clogs gets to ask them "If we give you twenty pairs of crocs back, will you clean up the thousands of gallons of oil spilt?".... but for the other 359 days of the year no one gives a shiny shite about anything that gets washed up.
I've never heard of lego being washed up, I'm about 12 miles from that beach. I think it's just a cute story that has become viral.
Regarding scavenging shipwrecks and wrecking -- 99% of that was fiction by Daphne du Maurier. But it's a good story about some poor folk, who can blame them for adding it to the local 'history'. In actual _real_ history, we're better known for the heroic lifeboats and cliff rescue teams of total nutters who risk their lives to go help people.
The tobacco was salty and rank.
Somewhat apropos, my favorite long-time earworm: Wreck, by Gentle Giant, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6n8-b7uk9E
Seriously? "No pinger will save lost cargo around Cornwall - they've been assiduous scavengers down there for centuries..."
That's absolutely 100% casting an aspersion.
Located for what? It'd cost too much money to retrieve.
I think the company in custody of the goods should be held responsible for environmental damage they cause, up to and including retrieving containers they lose.
Of course they should. As should many companies be responsible for whatever damage they're doing to the environment (BP, Exxon, etc. etc.).
Of course, those businesses wouldn't be nearly so profitable anymore, which means it's almost certainly never going to happen.
When I drove Alaska->Argentina, I had to ship my Jeep in a container from Panama to Colombia. I shared the container with a French couple driving around the entire world. He worked for a company that sent ~500 containers a month around the world for various construction projects.
We toyed with the idea of insurance on our container, and he said in his experience, about 10% of shipping containers are never seen again. They can disappear at the origin port, disappear on the ship, or disappear at the destination port.
Shipping ports are seedy places, in my experience.
We didn't get insurance, and our container did arrive no problems.