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Interesting. I was thinking the line from the 1947 movie "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" as Rex Harrison as a crusty old sea captain says something like "typical landlubbers don't know it is ships and men that bring them precious goods from far away lands." And how Europeans particularly England became a global force with transoceanic commerce and warships to dominate countries on the other side of the world. Also debated what if China (Ming Dynasty) maintained their large navies (debate is they were faced with threats from the Mongols, issue of gunboats from Europe became a big problem later on but it was too late for the Chinese at that time). People talk about air freight but even the US Army relies more on ships to move equipment and resources instead of airplanes. Exception of fast response forces, i.e. 82nd.

Besides the ships the container concept to unload the vessel rapidly. Your mention reminds me of this site cargolaw.com which has lots of examples of container ships getting into trouble, http://www.cargolaw.com/2011ni... You have to wonder how many containers sitting at the bottom of the ocean, and all the cheap crap from China these contain.

Speaking of ships, a slashdotter posted his thoughts from readings of many books about sailing ships when European countries began expanding beyond, mainly wrote about misconception that all those ships had crews that were mostly slaves. On the contrary many vessel captains reminded him of people leading a Silicon Valley startup. They were in their 20s, very knowledgable of ship handling and navigation but like successful startups knew how to motivate and organize people. If the captain were to leave the ship to command another vessel, many sailors will follow the captain. This person went on to write royal and noble families saw this would be a good career opportunity for their sons so they were able to manipulate the system to get their boys as captains but many did not have that talent to lead and motivate sharp crews. This led to many vessels being lost such as taking the ship around the Cape of Good Hope where eventually wind direction will abruptly change so switching sails has to be timed just right. Most didn't get it and they'd lose the mast. I don't know the specific details or facts but it would be interesting comparing successful startup presidents to effective sailing ship captains of back in the days.

Maybe it was a bad idea to name it the Flaminia.

IIt is a regular occurrence for containers to be washed overboard or to simply be "lost" (before or after customs).

Yes. 10000 containers per year lost at sea. Probably not yours, but it could be.

I'm confused, do I go to the Cargo Letter or Airdisaster.com for news on this ?
Guess I should check Wrecked Exotics while I'm at it.

There have been other maritime disasters but Titanic was the grandest with state of art technology, an unsinkable ship that went down on her maiden voyage. It has everything for compelling documentaries and dramatic movies. Regarding maritime disasters, an interesting site with lotsa photos of freighter transport loss at http://www.cargolaw.com/gallery.html#ocean.loss

Go here to read of the 'Tricolor' effect as a target: 2003 Cargo Nightmare M/V Tricolor Laying on the bottom, full of BMW, Volvo and SAAB autos, the Tricolor was run into repeatedly. Oops. tom

The Gallery of Transport Loss. Terrible website design, but fascinating content and pictures of various transport mishaps.

Jesus motherloving Christ, you weren't joking about their webshite. That twitching, flashing, jumping monstrosity is just about un-navigable.

A fascinating insight into another person's mind.. a diseased mind, that is. Most incredible of all; someone (somewhere) is happy with these.. pages. It never ceases to amaze me how the truly stupid think. However, I'd rather read /. posts than wade through that eye-gravel no matter how pretty the pictures, thanks anyway. :)

Or just go straight to the source: The Gallery of Transport Loss.

Terrible website design, but fascinating content and pictures of various transport mishaps.

A link posted further down the thread shows a ship with cranes. From here. and thanks to k6mfw for the funny post.

A link posted further down the thread shows a ship with cranes. From here. and thanks to k6mfw for the funny post.

Wasn't there a similar post about cargo lost? I bookmarked this page on "Gallery of Transport Loss -- Photos & Lessons of Disaster" at http://www.cargolaw.com/gallery.html and oh man are there zillions of photos of all kinds of transport accidents. Some cargo damaged at ports but the amount lost at sea is staggering! Though be careful as this site is interesting and can become a huge timepit surfing through all the pics.

All kinds of disasters including "Meals Ready to Explode" (ya know all them MREs with water activated heaters, what about containers filled with MREs with their heaters and water gets inside), http://www.cargolaw.com/2001nightmare_mre2.html

Here's an interesting mention from the cargolaw webpage:
"We are frequently asked the question: Do Containers Float? Why yes, they do -- at least for a while depending upon the container age, whether there are holes and the volume of air within the stow. There are many documented cases of partially submerged containers -- floating just at the surface which have been hazards to navigation. In Year 2000 the entire crew of the F/V Solway Harvester fishing trawler perished when their vessel struck a partially submerged container in the North Sea -- laden with mayonnaise. You probably have never considered mayonnaise to be dangerous. "

Wasn't there a similar post about cargo lost? I bookmarked this page on "Gallery of Transport Loss -- Photos & Lessons of Disaster" at http://www.cargolaw.com/gallery.html and oh man are there zillions of photos of all kinds of transport accidents. Some cargo damaged at ports but the amount lost at sea is staggering! Though be careful as this site is interesting and can become a huge timepit surfing through all the pics.

All kinds of disasters including "Meals Ready to Explode" (ya know all them MREs with water activated heaters, what about containers filled with MREs with their heaters and water gets inside), http://www.cargolaw.com/2001nightmare_mre2.html

Here's an interesting mention from the cargolaw webpage:
"We are frequently asked the question: Do Containers Float? Why yes, they do -- at least for a while depending upon the container age, whether there are holes and the volume of air within the stow. There are many documented cases of partially submerged containers -- floating just at the surface which have been hazards to navigation. In Year 2000 the entire crew of the F/V Solway Harvester fishing trawler perished when their vessel struck a partially submerged container in the North Sea -- laden with mayonnaise. You probably have never considered mayonnaise to be dangerous. "

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

Whoops... let's try that second link again Better Images Here.

It's been no secret to me. However a simple Google search would have helped you.

While the practice seems in decline now that China continues its march toward ascension to the World Trade Organization, recent years have seen Chinese patrol boats foray deep into international waters in search of "customers." When a suitable vessel is located, it is ordered to heave to and follow the patrol boat back into Chinese territorial waters. Once inside a local Chinese port, the vessel would be impounded for "suspicion of smuggling," with both cargo & crew held for ransom.

http://www.cargolaw.com/presentations_pirates.html

The Petro Ranger, valued at $16 million, was restored to Alan Chan's Petro Ships in Singapore, but the company lost cargo worth $2.3 million to the pirates and the Chinese authorities. Alan Chan blames the Chinese for abetting the piracy.
- http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n24/glas01_.html

etc and so on...

"You'd only need one sub, working its way along the coast."

Why go high tech? A container ship could toss ISO containers containing mines overboard (pitch them off the outboard upper levels) with little effort and simple tackle. It could make a normal delivery, then leave the area long before the mines went off.

Lots of containers fall off every year without human help.
http://www.cargolaw.com/2004nightmare_unstacked.html

You chose the word "piracy". I would prefer to use the word differently.

When was last time you heard of a Jumbo jet successfully landing on water? Yeah, that is right: never!

Since they aren't designed for successful water landings (when they do that, it's not exactly plan 'A'), you won't ever see one either. However, that's not the point. I was prodding at the arrogance of those that decided to put only enough lifeboats on the Titanic to satisfy the asthetic requirements because, after all, the ship was too big to sink.

FYI: There has been at least one jet (707 cargo) ending up in water still intact that I can think of off the top of my head: http://www.cargolaw.com/2000nightmare_africa_air.h tml
I'm sure you can find more if you look, but since it's bad form to post pics of airliner crashes, you might have a hard time finding photos.

See this list of marine casualties for 2003.

Here's a link to the full instructions for the flameless ration heaters.

These heaters are great...they get the food nice and hot pretty fast...just be careful about storing and shipping them:

Meals: Ready to Explode
The Meals: Ready to Explode have exploded

Here's a link to the full instructions for the flameless ration heaters.

These heaters are great...they get the food nice and hot pretty fast...just be careful about storing and shipping them:

Meals: Ready to Explode
The Meals: Ready to Explode have exploded

200 years after people stop raiding other people at sea,

But they haven't stopped - trying to uncouple IP theft from Blackbeard doesn't make it less of a crime than it was before. It is the meaning of the word: Piracy 2. The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.