Have you ever hit a shipping container?

[cherev]

It might be cheaper to make shipping containers that sink, but what about all those plastic toys and other buoyant crap they might contain? The top of the container would need to release (explosive bolts?) so those decayed plastic bits could later clog the craws of sea-birds.

May be the real cure is to just stop buying stuff made in China? And save some American jobs?

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by MarkofSeaLife

And there's been no known deaths from containers.

That didn't pass the smell test... them things are killers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ship...iw=827&bih=718

[Atlas]

I suppose it's obvious that MarkofSeaLife meant that there were no recorded deaths due to a sailboat hitting a floating shipping container.

[hellosailor]

"May be the real cure is to just stop buying stuff made in China? And save some American jobs? "
Right, isolationism, that's been proven to work. (Not.)

The US forcibly opened trade iwth Japan, a closed kingdom. The Chinese actually BURNED all their fleets, which we are now suspecting ranged halfway around the world and included vessels of incredible unprecedented size. That didn't work any better than their Great Wall.

Or Hadrian's Wall in England. Damned barbarians keep slipping by...

Save American jobs? OK, but a chinaman's gotta eat, too. You'd save more Ameican jobs by opening gen-you-whine American franchises to serve those billion hungry chinamen lunch. In China.

[CBinRI]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

It's not uncommon for shipping containers to float just a few feet below the surface for a few hours or so on their way to the bottom, meaning there is no way you'd see it on a dark night and you might just notice a strange wave pattern during the day - if you're looking that way. Given that they are usually only lost during storms, you'd have to be sailing through a shipping area a day or so after a storm, so the chances of hitting one are slim, but, like the chances of hitting a whale or a sunfish, it does happen..

A nice old timber motorboat was crossing Whitsunday Passage one night late last century when it was sunk by the periscope of a submarine on route to Cairns. Stuff really does happen out there.

I've always suspected that the thought of hitting a shipping container is one of those things you hear talked about disproportionately to the amount of times it actually happens. Sort of like great white sharks in swimming areas. Because it is such a terrible thing if it happens, it preys upon our feelings of powerlessness and is probably thought about a whole lot more than it is likely to happen.

In the rare (but not unheard of) event that they do fall off a ship, like someone else said, they probably don't float all that long (even below the surface) before they sink. I would venture to guess that your chances of hitting a whale woud be far greater than hitting a storage container.

[davidpm]

Originally Posted by Atlas

I suppose it's obvious that MarkofSeaLife meant that there were no recorded deaths due to a sailboat hitting a floating shipping container.

I don't suspect there would be many recorded.

If you hit a shipping container at speed and sink in a couple minutes their will not be much to record.

Now that tacking systems are getting more common you could looks for boats that decelerate from 10+ knots to 0 knots then stop transmitting minutes later. Not proof of a container hit but certainly a possibility if the track is clear of land.

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"May be the real cure is to just stop buying stuff made in China? And save some American jobs? "
Right, isolationism, that's been proven to work. (Not.)

The US forcibly opened trade iwth Japan, a closed kingdom. The Chinese actually BURNED all their fleets, which we are now suspecting ranged halfway around the world and included vessels of incredible unprecedented size. That didn't work any better than their Great Wall.

Or Hadrian's Wall in England. Damned barbarians keep slipping by...

Save American jobs? OK, but a chinaman's gotta eat, too. You'd save more Ameican jobs by opening gen-you-whine American franchises to serve those billion hungry chinamen lunch. In China.

Sell'em Hostess - they can use one of their shuttered melamine factories to produce the "cream" filling.

[MarkofSeaLife]

Originally Posted by Atlas

I suppose it's obvious that MarkofSeaLife meant that there were no recorded deaths due to a sailboat hitting a floating shipping container.

Thank you. Yes that's what I meant.

Originally Posted by CBinRI

I've always suspected that the thought of hitting a shipping container is one of those things you hear talked about disproportionately to the amount of times it actually happens.
... I would venture to guess that your chances of hitting a whale woud be far greater than hitting a storage container.

Yes, you are absolutely right.

The thing I hate about these threads is they are just so wrong. But they instill fear into people, especially the womenfolk. And then you get the threads where guys say their wives won't go sailing. It's because morons who know nothing promote this sort of drivel.

Whales are a much more likely thing to hit. Surprisingly because of the greenies movement keeps telling me they virtually don't exist.

I have never got close to one in the last 35,000 nms, but doing a trans atlantic in 1999 about half way over I came on deck in the morning and the watch was watching these three quite LARGE whales asleep dead ahead. As it wasnt my watch, but I was Mate, so I said, "bring it up a bit" to miss their tails, and the dope on the helm held course. I said it again and he did nothing so I had to run to the crew cockpit and grab the wheel and spin it. I'm sure the keel brushed the tail of the biggest one. He didnt do anything, but we would have hit him in the gizzards. I don't think it would have hurt the boat but an angry tail smack would have!

So anyone that doesn't want to go cruising because of containers floating is a fool. If they are out there you won't hit one. I guarantee it!



Mark

[aa3jy]

Originally Posted by MarkofSeaLife

Thank you. Yes that's what I meant.



Yes, you are absolutely right.

The thing I hate about these threads is they are just so wrong. But they instill fear into people, especially the womenfolk. And then you get the threads where guys say their wives won't go sailing. It's because morons who know nothing promote this sort of drivel.

Whales are a much more likely thing to hit. Surprisingly because of the greenies movement keeps telling me they virtually don't exist.

I have never got close to one in the last 35,000 nms, but doing a trans atlantic in 1999 about half way over I came on deck in the morning and the watch was watching these three quite LARGE whales asleep dead ahead. As it wasnt my watch, but I was Mate, so I said, "bring it up a bit" to miss their tails, and the dope on the helm held course. I said it again and he did nothing so I had to run to the crew cockpit and grab the wheel and spin it. I'm sure the keel brushed the tail of the biggest one. He didnt do anything, but we would have hit him in the gizzards. I don't think it would have hurt the boat but an angry tail smack would have!

So anyone that doesn't want to go cruising because of containers floating is a fool. If they are out there you won't hit one. I guarantee it!



Mark

Got lots more pixs..

Flickr: aa3jy's Photostream

..just wish the OP of this thread would publish his promised article that I had submitted these pixs too..

Oh..by-the-way..my wife was aboard when these pixs where tak'n..

[MarkofSeaLife]

Originally Posted by aa3jy

Got lots more pixs..

..

Thats the same pic.

no one was killed.

It was 16 years ago.

I am not saying they are not there. there was one picked up iin the PNW a few weeks ago. it came from Japans tsunami.
so yes they are there. but not enough to kill. or none have....