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I'm an engineer on a ship and while I don't work on a container ship, I took a cargo class in college. There are other considerations too, the software frequen

by wmoser 16y ago

I'm an engineer on a ship and while I don't work on a container ship, I took a cargo class in college. There are other considerations too, the software frequently accounts for things such as not putting chemicals that react poorly with each other near each other or things that may be hard to put out if they catch on fire near the top of stacks on the outside so they can be jettisoned in an emergency. Also, while no one weighs each container, its part of the process for people doing the shipping to say what is in it and how much it weighs. They can probably fudge the weight a little but the software takes into account the reported weight to make sure the ship has safe stability. Containers stored inside are dryer and less likely to be lost overboard which normally is a premium price for shipping too. Plus as you mentioned the logistics problem of not putting all the new stuff on top of stuff that gets taken off at an earlier port.

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
I wonder if it's possible to choose a route, time of year and container position that would almost guarantee container loss? Some people would be prepared to ship something a few times to have it lost at the bottom of the ocean I'm sure. Perhaps easier to just bribe the captain?
- wmoser 16y ago
  Well I suppose it depends on your intention? I mean scientists are dropping buoys and AUVs and what not in the water all the time, you might be able to convince one of them to toss it overboard for free. Also, there is a fairly big sub-industry of weather routing which have very sophisticated meteorological models and what not to help shipping companies route their ships around crappy weather to avoid losses to cargo and damage to ships. Some of the new ships though are so large that for the most part they're able to weather even the larger storms a bit better so they're just going through instead of around. Save some fuel, lose a container, probably an environmental tie.

by wmoser 16y ago

pbhjpbhj 16y ago

I wonder if it's possible to choose a route, time of year and container position that would almost guarantee container loss? Some people would be prepared to ship something a few times to have it lost at the bottom of the ocean I'm sure. Perhaps easier to just bribe the captain?

wmoser 16y ago
Well I suppose it depends on your intention? I mean scientists are dropping buoys and AUVs and what not in the water all the time, you might be able to convince one of them to toss it overboard for free. Also, there is a fairly big sub-industry of weather routing which have very sophisticated meteorological models and what not to help shipping companies route their ships around crappy weather to avoid losses to cargo and damage to ships. Some of the new ships though are so large that for the most part they're able to weather even the larger storms a bit better so they're just going through instead of around. Save some fuel, lose a container, probably an environmental tie.