# LOST SHIPPING CONTAINERS AT SEA



## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

A most interesting and disturbing fact came across the radio waves today. Somewhere upwards of ten thousand shipping containers fall off cargo ships each year! And are never recovered!! Container shipping has been around for fifty years!!! Do the math. Even if you allow for minimal loss in the earlier years, the figures could be staggering. They wind up along shipping lanes all across the oceans. 
My question is, are they not secured to the ship? It doesn't appear that they are when you see these ships in photos. It's a wonder that we get our trains from Europe. How many LGB locos are sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Dan, 

The unfortunate truth is that the cost to recover the container would far out weigh the cost of the material in the container. 

Consider this, shipping containers are only required to 'float' for approximately 1 hour. All general merchandise shipping containers are required to have venting, aka places for water to enter. Consider the damaging effects of seawater on ships, what do you think it would do to that LGB engine? I could go on, but I think you get the picture. 

As for the numbers, you are correct to the extent that they fall overboard in the shipping lanes. By the time they hit bottom, depending on depth and currents, who knows where they really are. There was a TV show about treasure hunters on awhile back and I watched one show where they were going after a lost container of HIGH DOLLAR Champagne. They spent over 100K to find the spirits had been contaminated by the salt water. 

As for being secured to the ship, the answer is both yes and no. The containers are (if done properly), locked to the deck with a locking device mad from cast aluminum. Each container is locked to the above/below in a similar manner. However, consider the forces in play if the ship is in heavy seass and the top container is an 80K loaded container. I suspect the cast aluminum in the lock devices fails, and one or more of the stack goes overboard. As far as I can tell it is considered a hazard of the container business. 

Bob C.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Yes, the locos, and most anything would be trash once the sea water gets in. I heard the report on NPR this afternoon. They had accidentally discovered a container that had fallen off a ship a few years ago. The container was still in good condition. It was filled with tires that will probably be there forever.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Used to hear things along the lines of 'the barge carrying those things sank' when talking with various small retailers hereabouts.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Rough Seas can cause trouble. I remember a coating unit weighting about 12 K broke loose from the wood pallet and bang around in side the container.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Gee I can't understand why there aren't more lost.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

The can's (as they are called in RR lingo) are locked to railcars and ships in the same way by a small piece of metal about ~4" x 5" I'm guessing. They are called interbox connectors or (IBC's) 
A quick google search provided this link. http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build00/art047.html 
Craig


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

My cousin used to work at port newark unloading containers. You wouldnt beleive how many containers come off with things just rolling around in them. Nevermind the ones that may fall off the ship. The worst he showed me was 2 brand new Lamborghini Diablo's, one broke loose and rammed them both to bits. The photos were just amazing to see what was left. After the inspection here they could only find 6 tiedowns and ruled them improperly secured. I have the emblem from the hood around somewhere...


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## astrayelmgod (Jan 2, 2008)

I head that same item on NPR, and I was surprised that it was that common. My brother spent 30 years working on container ships in the North Pacific. He lost 16 containers, all in one batch, and all because the tie-downs had been installed backwards on one row. They have a visual indicator so that you can walk down one side of the ship and visually verify that every tie-down is correctly latched. This row looked latched, but wasn't. 

Another of my brother's ships was hit by a rogue wave. The bridge was 110 feet up, and the hellmsman reported that he was looking UP at the top of the wave. The containers on the bow (70 feet up) were crushed, but none were lost.


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

If memory serves, Atlas lost a container of HO and N product about five+ years ago.


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## Ross (Jul 19, 2009)

A few years ago we had one ship ran ashore in a gale on the South coast of the UK (in the old wreckers territory of Devon). One container had BMW motorcycles in it. Guess what..local youths wheeled them away when containers came ashore!! 


"Around 50 BMW motorbikes were carried off the beach last night," One person who was there toild a news team "It took about eight to 10 of us to lift each one out. As each one came out the front wheels were put on, then they were taken down to the beach and over the cliffs," he said. 

In the UK all washed up valuables such as this must be reported to the Receiver of Wrecks.
Beauty was..the local cop was standing there as the 'bikes were snitched!! Not sure if they got them back.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

After watching those videos, I would venture to say that sea life is not for the faint of heart. It's like alot of trades we don't have time to think about. You don't realize how dangerous they can be until its in your face.


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## HeliconSteamer (Jan 2, 2008)

In addition to the cones (referred to as IBCs by BNSFConductor) the containers on ship are lashed down to the deck and to each other. This pattern varies seasonally (more in winter, less in summer), and sometimes the winter pattern is even inadequate. 

I do know that some companies with high value or time sensative cargoes will specify where they want their containers place on the load.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

I had a recently deceased cousin who worked docks and fishing boats here in the currently thawing north country on and off for decades. One of his more disturbing stories was how he signed on to be the 'other half' of a two man crew taking a fishing boat from Cordova to Seattle. The other guy - the owner and alleged captain - got them out into the sound and pointed in the right direction. He then turns to my cousin and says "I'm going to go lay down now' - code for he was too dang drunk to do much of anything. So my cousin takes the wheel...less than an hour before one of the sounds really nasty storms comes raging in. The 'captain' pretty much stayed in his bunk something like 90% of the trip, which lasted several days...or was it a week?


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## Joe Bartolini (Jan 2, 2008)

From 1985-1995 I spent most summers working in the Aleutian Islands and along the Pacific coast of the Alaskan Peninsula. If the need should ever arise one could find enough flotsam to reconstruct modern civilization. In 1991 a container busted open spilling thousands of yellow rubber ducks into the north Pacific. Scientists were able to accurately track currents by studying reports of people finding the ducks. On Amchitka Island I saw huge logs that were tossed on 80' and higher bluffs by tsunamis. Somebody with a sawmill on a barge and allot of time could saw enough lumber off Aleutian beaches to construct a small city. But nothing could beat finding unopen bottles of booze and cans of beer when working off a "dry" boat. In 1988 I found a bottle containing two notes. Several years ago I posted a story map using Google Maps and posted it online. a few years latter I was contacted by the girlfriend of one of the note writers 20 years after i found the bottle. http://goo.gl/maps/Yk9I 
Sorry you will have to cut & paste the URL into a browser.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

And don't forget NYSW Chinese 2-8-2 loco #141 that fell off the freighter on its way to the U.S.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Lost shipping containers are a very serious navigation threat, more than one ship has collided with a partially submerged container, in some places where there is heavy ship traffic its common place to have warnings sent out to to be on the look out for them after storms. Yachts and powerboats are the most vunerable, the first time I heard about this was a few years ago where a report about a sailboat off the florida coast, had collided and been holed and was sunk by a "submerged oject" that turned out to be a container that fell off a ship during a recent hurricane.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

The more I read and photos I see in this topic, the more I wonder why anyone in there right mind, way back in the day, would insist that the world was round!!


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