Dangerous ships

[John Arton]

At sea I sailed on all types of ships, bulk carriers, general cargo, crude oil, product and chemical tankers, forest product ships that along with a full timber deck cargo had a couple of hundred tons of traveling gantry cranes secured by just bolting them down to the deck, container vessels where the contents of some were definitely not as listed on its bill of lading, passenger vessel where at times female passengers or female staff were intent on destroying my body,
All dangerous but we were aware of the rangers and took adequate precaution against them.
I have now come to the conclusion that the most dangerous ships have to be these mega container ships. Looking at the height of their accommodation what must it be like when they roll sufficiently enough to destroy stacks of their deck cargo. When that happens it must be akin to being trapped inside a washing machine being flung around with all the accommodation fixtures and fittings crashing around you.
Rgds
J.A.

[happy daze john in oz]

John, having seen not just photos but actual ships come into port with half the containers hanging off one has to question the logic in these ships.
The look at the bridge, only just able to see over the top of the containers.
Great fun in the fog.

[Les Woodard]

Always thought that they are ignoring the basics of gravity. Everyone seems to be thinking along the lines that height means profit or power for some reason. Just like those that raise their four wheel drives up in the air loose stability and wonder why they roll. Do not know if what I have heard is true? That the modern liners (cattle ships) have to watch out for bad weather to maintain stability so alter course in the name of safety. Same as containers where promoted to reduce theft of cargo. Bet that promotion has gone out the window now seeing as they just take the bloody lot in one go LOL.

[j.sabourn]

#3 Height has always been promoted in different aspects of life Les. Policeman’s tall helmets for example and the busbees worn by army regiments to make their wearers appear bigger and more ferocious than what they are. I always get that feeling also whether true or false , that is the impression that today’s designers of ships want to put across to the punters also. Brings back that observation that has been on here before , policeman to Teddy boy ... hey son do your toes go to the end of those winkle pickers ? Teddy boy to policeman , does your head go to the top of your helmet ?
JS

PS it always amazes me why people want to build skyscrapers especially in Australia where there is no shortage of land. In Australia it is fashionable to have a double storey house , why ? A single storey in the UK would be most peoples wish especially as they got older. Big 4 wheeled drives that never go off road ? Status symbols or what ? Avarice greed or a mixture of both ? JS

[Lewis McColl]

If an oil tanker at sea has an oil spill there is hell to pay and large amount of money changes hands for clean up costs and pollution. Will container companies be hit for recovery costs Recovery in a lot of cases will be impossible, Will they be hit for Pollution costs. The ships cargo manifests would reveal what each container lost was carrying and if the contents are a pollutant.
Who remembers the container that went overboard years ago that was full of kids bath time yellow ducks. They were bobbing about the seas for years and more or less turned up all over the world along coasts.
All these grand ideas about bigger and bigger container ships. They did that with Oil tankers bigger and bigger 500,000 tons?+ BP Century Class are just under 160,000 dead weight.

[Doc Vernon]

Blue Planet II reveals how 28,000 RUBBER DUCKS lost at sea 25 years ago are still washing ashore around the globe today (thesun.co.uk)

Amazing that was Lewis!


'Moby-Duck': When 28,800 Bath Toys Are Lost At Sea : NPR


(4) How 29,000 Lost Rubber Ducks Helped Map the World's Oceans - YouTube

[Colin Wood]

Unfortunately, if this was the case, no shipper would ever say the contents were polutable, so would be self defeating. Too many containers are incorrectly labeled already, don't need any more.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Thank you Lewis, now I feel better that the box of fruit I took out of the hold of my first ship, and took home, was minuscule in the scale of things

[John Cassels]

To my mind it's simply a case of the lashing , stowage and securing of modern container ships has overtaken our concept of how to carry them safely. The new Virgin cruise ship
think she's called Scarlet Lady , apart from being one ugly vessel , I just hope that the naval architect who did the stability calculations got his sums right.

[Les Woodard]

Not only is height a problem but just the sheer size of modern ships. One has to wonder at the stress on the hull and structure that must take place. Not to mention the reduced thickness of the plates used and less support for them. I notice the side markings for tugs to be able to connect to the ship to prevent damaging the hull. As I recall, tugs could push our old ships around from any point that was available and we used to think that a welded hull was a lot weaker than the old rivited ones LOL. Sailed with ex tanker men that said the large tankers you could see the deck twisting along its length. Just imagine these new super duper tankers and bulk carriers and how they must twist and distort to the extent that anyone on the bow would lean to the left and the wheelman would be leaning to the right LOL.