1900 containers lost at sea

Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
Not sure if this has been posted yet. Sailors in the Pacific beware.

Quote
The Japanese container ship ONE Apus has lost more than 1900 containers on Monday evening, 30 November. This happened when the 14,000-TEU ship ran into a storm on the Pacific Ocean. Forty lost containers were said to contain dangerous cargo. (Note: count is up to 60+ containers with dangerous cargo)

The exact extent of the damage will only become clear once the ONE Apus has returned to Asia and an inspection can take place. The accident happened northwest of Hawaii, on a journey from the Chinese port of Yantian to Long Beach in the United States. Immediately after the accident, the captain sailed back to an Asian port still to be designated in order to rescue the remaining containers and assess the damage.

Container loss

If 1900 containers or more have actually disappeared into the sea, it is an awfully high number. The number of containers lost by all container ships worldwide on an annual basis was recently estimated by the World Shipping Council at 1382. In the much-discussed accident with the MSC Zoe almost two years ago, 342 containers disappeared into the Wadden Sea.

The ONE Apus accident will probably be the largest container loss since that of MOL Comfort. That ship, also of Japanese origin, sank in 2013 in the Indian Ocean with 4293 containers on board.

Picture: Sister vessel ONE Cygnus in Rotterdam (by Kees Torn).

End Quote

 
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Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Makes you realize how easy it is to hit something at sea. Not to wonder that two boats in the Vendee race hit things but how the rest managed to miss them.
 
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Aug 12, 2020
53
Lancer 36 Pago Pago
Glad we are not out there....we had to turn back to Pago Pago 2 days out due to rough weather, minor injuries, and multiple system failures....it took 4 more days to get back in to port, hitting major squalls on the way. Honu and crew are safe back in port as of 3 Dec.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,993
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
It is a vast ocean. Yet it is a wonder that when crossing it ships seem to meet with more regularity than not.

There has been a long discussion of automatic scuttling devices on ocean containers.

Floating containers make for good drama in the movies. Remember Robert Redford's experience?
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Floating containers make for good drama in the movies. Remember Robert Redford's experience?
Had a friend do the 1995 BOC. He managed to hit a couple of things, a Cuban raft set adrift in the Gulf Stream and a container between the Falkland Islands and Punta Del Este. Made for a pretty exciting trip around but he did make it.
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Alan Nebaur ( I’m sure I spelled his last name wrong). He sailed a 50 footer called Newcastle Australia. Met him and his wife Cindy when they sailed a Top Hat 25 up here from Australia to go to Bible School on Thetis Island.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,993
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Second Class: Boats 40-50 feet long
Name - Boat​
Final Place​
Total Time​
Average Speed*​
Country​
David Adams
True Blue​
1​
131d 05h 06m 39s​
8.33 knots​
Australie​
Giovanni Soldini
Kodak​
2​
134d 00h 46m 40s​
8.15 knots​
Italy​
Chaniah Vaughan
Jimroda II​
3​
166d 16h 06m 13s​
6.56 knots​
Great Britain​
Alan Neubauer
Newcastle Australia​
4​
181d 13h 46m 28s​
6.02 knots​
Australia​
Robin Davie
Cornwall​
5​
197d 04h 15m 28s​
5.54 knots​
Great Britain​
Minoru Saito
Shuten Dohji II​
6​
231d 10h 10m 55s​
4.72 knots​
Japan
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
When you consider that his first collision opened the keel fairing (split open like speed brakes on a plane) and the second damaged his rudder and he was dismasted before rounding Cape Horn 4th looks pretty good ( just finishing looks pretty good)
 
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Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
Containers should contain maritime NFC so if they fall overboard they can be tracked. JMHO
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Containers should contain maritime NFC so if they fall overboard they can be tracked. JMHO
Agree, but I’ll bet some pencil pusher has figured that it’s cheaper to let them go than to recover them. The lives of cruisers and fishermen isn’t as important as the $.
 
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WayneH

.
Jan 22, 2008
1,039
Tartan 37 287 Pensacola, FL
Salt plugs under the vents would insure that the containers (mostly) sink. I can imagine a low density cargo keeping the container floating for a while. I just bought a telescoping ladder made in China. It was boxed up with Styrofoam cushioning completely filling the box. I not sure if the ladder would be heavy enough to offset the Styrofoam flotation.
 
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Jun 11, 2004
1,621
Oday 31 Redondo Beach
A little off topic but last week on the way home from Catalina we spotted something floating and went to look. Turned out to be a small refrigerator of all things. Someboby had stuffed it full of trash, tied the door shut and , I assume, just dropped it over. It was a bit rusty but not too much so hadn't been out too long. It was calm so I dragged it over with the boat hook and cut the line holding the door shut hoping it would sink. That's when all the trash came out. Who would do that?! Try as I could I couldn't get the thing to sink. It must have had a lot of inherent buoyancy from its own insulation. It was too large to salvage on our boat so we just left it. In hindsight I should have reported it to the coast guard. I wouldn't have wanted to hit it in a small high speed power boat.

Any way, there's more out there than just containers. I know there are a lot of loose logs up in the PNW.
 
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Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Any way, there's more out there than just containers. I know there are a lot of loose logs up in the PNW.
Logs may be hard on boats if you hit them at speed but at least they are biodegradable. Still no excuse for poor forest management though. Amazing what people will throw in the water.
 
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May 17, 2004
5,028
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
From the article - “Over the past 12 years, the [World Shipping] council estimates that an average of 1,382 containers are lost overboard from ships annually, not counting for rare, significant incidents like the ONE Apus, which are separately recorded and reported when 50 or more containers are lost in a single event.”

Someone should tell the World Shipping Council that’s not how averages work. You don’t get to exclude the data points you don’t like. On the other hand, they might already know that, but the lower “average” makes it easier to defer relatively expensive scuttling options.
 
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Jun 2, 2004
3,390
Hunter 23.5 Fort Walton Yacht Club, Florida
Going to make beach coaming on the west coast interesting in a couple of months
 
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