Having told you about the bath ducks and their mammoth journeys, I just had to have a look further; what else has gone overboard and how common is it to lose containers at sea, and why?
So let’s answer the easy question first, why do containers fall off these super freight liners?
I’ve often sat watching as container ships are loaded. It seems so majestic to me, these large machines effortlessly lifting each container and placing them with such precision on their pins, securing them to the one below. The towers of these containers gets ever higher until I can see the ship sinking to its load capacity and the final containers get placed on top.
By now, the stacks are like sky scrapers sitting above the deck of the ship, reflecting the multi-colours of the cargo companies who have commissioned their passage from one place to another. It maybe a slower way to get things moving but the weights carried are enormous and goods from all round the world travel all around the world dropping off and picking up as they go.
As they slip their moorings I silently wish them safe passage and wonder where their next destination will be. Yes, I am fascinated by docks, harbours and freight, to me its the engine in the power house of our lives today and their almost silent and pretty much unseen movements fascinate me.
So, I fancied finding out more and went onto the British International Freight Association website to uncover what exactly goes on. Interestingly, they had recently completed a survey of their members and had gathered together the latest data which they added to that which went back to 2008.
How many containers then do get swept overboard each year? It turns out the average for any year after 2008 is 1382 containers. It would have been closer to 650 per year if it hadn’t been for a particularly bad few years, around 2014 to 2016, when we had a spate of vessels either being lost at sea or running aground.
However, even with the sudden increase, losses still only represent 1% of the 226 million containers which are currently shipped around the world, which is a good figure when all’s said and done.
My next question was why do we lose even that many? Surely they are secure?
The results were in part obvious; if the weather turns incredibly bad then the ships, however large are going to be tossed about by the swell of the sea and waves will wash over the decks. I have experienced storm force seas on board ship and will vouch for the size of some of these waves and their power to shift even well tied down cargo. I was accompanying an artic across the North Sea to Ireland when we hit a severe storm and the truck I was with was being pulled and pushed around on its chains, by the waves and wind and yawing of the vessel. When we finally pulled into harbour I was amazed we still had the truck and even more amazed it started having been washed so strongly with an angry sea.
So the thought of seas like that pulling and pushing against the slab sides of a 40 foot container, mm, its no surprising some will give in and vacate the premises.
But what happens next? Are they just left? Do they get reported? Is it now just a write off against insurance or do they have to salvage?
It appears its mandatory to report losses at sea and it is agreed to by most container outfits around the world. So too is obtaining salvage companies to go and hunt for them. If you are the person who has lost the container you get 30 days in which to file a claim and have it acknowledged by the shipping company. Who is responsible for the payout? The shipping company, so they won’t want to lose too many as it’ll eat into their profits.
If they are fridge containers they tend to float for a few days longer than non-fridge ones so they are easier to find, but on average the salvage teams have 2 days to locate the containers. As with the bath toys, as they go overboard it is possible they will come into contact with each other and spill their contents thus sinking rapidly. These are the greatest danger as they could be carrying anything.
One container I read about was full of packs of cigarettes. The packets and the tobacco part of the cigarettes dispersed into the sea, being natural products, but the butts remained intact; these turned up in large numbers in fish and dolphins as well as tuna harvested for our consumption, whales and seals. It didn’t mention the thin plastic which is used to wrap the packs but I can presume they broke down and entered the food chain somehow, which in turn would enter us through foods we eat, air we breathe and water we drink.
On 28 October this year, Wales Online, a local newspaper for the region of Wales in the UK reported the loss overboard of 11 containers somewhere in the Bristol Channel. Three had been found by the time of reporting but one had already made landfall on a beach in Devon. It was full of nappies and other sanitary products. Now that would have proved interesting if that container had split open and disgorged its load!
In February of this year during the height of the worst storms Britain had experienced for some time, 10 containers were lost somewhere off the coast of the Scilly Islands. Even though planes and helicopters scoured the area they couldn’t find any trace of the containers and it was agreed they had probably sunk due to the heavy storm seas. Fortunately, these contained non toxic loads and will no doubt find their way out of the rusting boxes eventually whatever they are.
The final one I read about is an old one. In 2007 the MSC Napoli ran aground off the area around Branscombe beach, Devon. Although the 26 crew were lifted to safety, the contents of a few of the containers made it to the shore where they spilled their guts for all those sight seers. What did they reveal?
Motor bikes, anti wrinkle cream, pet food, wine barrels, weedkiller, explosives, car engines, polish bibles, vodka, shampoo, wine, coffee, perfume, dog biscuits and frozen ducks.
Security was dispatched to guard the goods washed up along the coast but thousands of sight seers had gathered. As night fell and the darkness cloaked the beach…….well, you can imagine what came next.
Christmas came early that year in Devon me thinks.