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Studying the Impact of Lost Shipping Containers

Posted by Soulskill on from the modern-day-treasure dept.

swellconvivialguy writes "Looking at a picture of the world's largest container ship, it's easy to visualize how 10,000 containers fall overboard from these vessels every year. Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute are now undertaking the Lost Container Cruise, an attempt to gauge the effects of shipping containers lost at sea by studying a tire-filled container, which marine biologists discovered in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. (The research [PDF] is being funded by a multi-million dollar settlement with the operators of the Med Taipei, the ship that lost the cargo.) The work is not unlike studying a deep water shipwreck: Use robotic submarine to take pictures and collect sediment samples; repeat."

4 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can't they tie them down? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to Wikipedia there are around 18 million shipping containers in the world that make over 200 million trips per year. Which means that 10,00 lost at sea each year is just a drop in the bucket. Spending any significant amount of money to reduce that number would not be a worthwhile expenditure.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  2. Re:Can't they tie them down? by jklovanc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Except for steel railings, the shippers do everything you have mentioned. The reason for no railing is that the containers themselves are the structure and they are stacked far above the hull of the ship.

    Here is the tie down that goes between the containers http://www.tandemloc.com/0_securing/S_AD54000A.asp

    Here is a picture of the lashing used http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueship/137784714/

  3. Re:Can't they tie them down? by GreenTom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a pic of a container ship after going through rough seas: http://i.imgur.com/4ynah.jpg. I'm stunned that those containers are still on board. Looks like they're chained down, but even metal breaks eventually

  4. Re:Can't they tie them down? by Demolition · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you look at those two green containers on the far right, hanging in the air with nothing supporting them, I'd say they must be secured in some fashion, otherwise, they could not possibly be where they are. The containers on the left seem to be hanging in the air as well. That circumstance would be adequately explained with chains.

    I worked at a container terminal while putting myself through university, many years ago. This is why those containers in the photo are still stuck together...

    A device called an intermodal box connector (AKA "IBC", a hefty steel pin with a twistlock mechanism) is used to connect containers to each other. They fit into holes (four on the top, two on the bottom) on the corners of the container.

    This is the usual method for loading and locking them together: A container is dropped onto a ship and locked down (via IBCs welded to the deck). Then, four IBCs are placed in the top holes of the container and another container is lowered. The IBCs slide into the four holes on the bottom of the new container and their twistlocks are turned. No chains are required. For extra safety, some companies erect a steel scaffold/frame around the outside of a block of containers to keep them from swaying in rough seas. Otherwise, the IBCs are the only things holding the containers together.