Maersk containers in the waters off of Oregon Inlet N.C.

Fortunately the odds of any boat hitting a container on a given day are extremely miniscule, because it's my opinion that you can have an exceptional watch, use sonar, be in any type boat built from any material, and it's still a matter of luck. Something along the lines of lightning strikes in the luck aspect but less likely. It's first luck of hitting one and second the depth of it and the angle of the hit. It might disable you or it might sink you.

Years ago, I read somewhere some mini gps locator (micro eprip) was planned on containers just for these things. I guess it's not ever going to happen.
It was a cool read.

GPS Tracking devices on Sea Containers are common practice today. These devices get smaller and smaller and cost about $350 a piece. The battery is lasting a year but the customer renting the box has to pay for that extra service. Because of the extra costs, not every customer uses this service. It just depends on the value of the transported goods. Nobody would track a 20 ft box full with scrap metal but with a 40 ft box full of expensive consumer electronics, I would strongly recommend this little extra service.

We had one 40 ft box, loaded with expensive medical X-ray equipment going off its planned route in South America. With its GPS Tracker, it was found quickly and placed back on route by the authorities to its original destination, a hospital in Brazil.

Out of of this 76 boxes gone over board, statistically 45 to 50 have gone to the bottom of the sea, depending on their internal load. The ones with lighter stuff in it will float for some days, even weeks or month, until the complete internal load is soaking wet and the box is getting heavier. Only very few will stay afloat for longer time.

A submerged container may show on radar only momentarily, when coming above water level in waves. During glassy sea conditions, You will never see one, if it is more than 2 or 3 ft under water. Neither visually nor on radar. And I do not know of many yachts or even commercial vessels with an effective forward looking sonar with an vertical forward field of view from 0 to -45 degrees. This advanced equipment is mostly left to military vessels.

Given the fact, that the probability of a yacht hitting one of those submerged boxes is quite small, they are very dangerous for smaller ships and boats. Part of the crew of a bigger vessel might hear the bang, when hitting one of those boxes at 18 to 20 Kts, the guys in the wheelhouse of those ships will most likely never notice.

But the poor sailor in his 30 to 40 ft GRP sail boat during night will notice and will for sure have to take emergency steps within shortest time.

The best way of locating those floating boxes is an areal survey by maritime Reconnaissance aircraft, have the Navy or Coast Guard sink or recover them and then have my special friends from Maersk or at least Lloyds Unterwriter pay for it.

Boxes going over board are a constant pain in the neck for the industry and a potential danger for all seafarers on smaller boats and yachts.

With these modern container ships with its minimum crew, the lashing of the above deck level staggered boxes is done mostly by external assets. With time being always short and labour always to expensive, the quality of the lashing is lets say not always assured. If a truck driver is not securing his cargo properly, he gets fined and his boss has to pay for the damage caused by and to the cargo. If one of those vessels looses boxes on voyage, its Force Majeure. Something wrong here!

I am not guilty, Maersk Shanghai is a blue ship, not a red one and I am a privateer now .

HTMO9
Thank you for updating me.
,rc

This. I will never do more than 12 knots at night in a 100' + and 10 knots in 100'<. With most items such as a log, the bow wake will push it away and the chance of puncturing the hull is a good bit less than at 15+ knots. I have only seen a submerged container 1 time, in all of my sea miles. I do know of a 100' Hatteras MY that did hit one off of PR and it tore the running gear out on one side. Boat did not sink.

Le Trawler, a Garcia 54 aluminum trawler, hit a submerged container on their crossing from Cannes Boat Show to Annapolis Powerboat Show in Oct. 2012. Captain heard a loud thud at 2:00 in the morning, crew was knocked out of their beds. No interior damage, no ingress of seawater. At daybreak, they went overboard and saw a large red streak with underlying dent on starboard bow. Captain was sure if it had not been a metal yacht, they would have gone under. Instead of repair, they left the dent and red paint as a testament to the dangers at sea and how to best be prepared for them. So sad that there were dangers of the human kind that did this great boat in.

Judy

why are containers not mandated to have air vents so they sink sooner?

Because that would let salt air into the container that would ruin the goods and might let in saltwater from spray. Many of the items in these containers (non reefer) are things like metal goods (tools, cars, etc.), furniture which is fabric and wood, etc. etc.

I don't really think containers pose an issue for other ships, they'd just knock them out of the way with no harm to the ship. Only yachts would be an issue mostly. That being said, they very very rarely pose an issue to a yacht, the odds are so slim. Other flotsam like very large trees are more often and more of a danger than containers.

Even with vents if the contents are buoyant, the box could be filled with water and it will still float... especailly with air trapped in packaging.

Wvee seen a fridge floating out there? I have.... it floats very well

Standard Containers, both 20 ft (TEU) and 40 ft boxes are not watertight at all. Some have vents, some have wooden floors, some are completely steel and the doors are definately not air or even watertight. The reefer boxes are insulated and much more sealed than standard boxes but not really watertight either.

A container only floats (according to the famous Mr. Archimedes ), if its weight in the water is lower than the volume he displaces in that water. But even an empty box will gradually fill with water and finally sink.

Depending on its internal load, only the trapped air inside keeps them afloat for some time or forever. A 20 ft container (called TEU, twenty feet equivalent unit) displaces 36.3 cbm or 1280 cubic feet. It has a typical empty weight of 2.300 kg or 5.066 lbs. The maximum allowed load (due to road transport weight limits) is 21.7 metric tonnes or 47.800 lbs. So the typical max. 24 tonne TEU, loaded for onroad transport, will have sufficient buoyancy for floating.

That means any TEU heavier than 80.000 lbs will go directly down to the bottom. Lighter than 80.00o lbs TEUs will float as long as air is trapped inside. Really light or empty boxes will be visible above the sea level and will appear on radar as long as one of the ships radars are not in the very long range settings. (But that is exactly, what officers on watch on commercial vessels do during night on open sea. Set the radar to long range, ARPA alarm ring to 20 NM and go mentally to idle). They will never notice floating debris or boxes.
Remember that 60 ft sailing yacht run over by a larger cargo vessel just west of the street of Gibraltar some years ago.

The really bad boys are the boxes, which are in weight very close or in equilibrium to its displacement. They will float like a submarine on periscope depth. But most lighter than water cargo like some foods or wrapped in household stuff will either be soaked with water or gradually fill up with water with time.

The biggest problem as far as floating is concerned, are the inflatable load securing systems. They are used to fill the complete left free inside volume of the boxes, in order to keep the cargo from being tossed about. Those boxes may float like a message in a bottle for a long time.

Worldwide, thausends of boxes go overboard every year. Reasons are heavy weather and very high staggered boxes in combination with careless lashing or no lashing at all. A very large box carrier has sometimes 11 or 12 boxes staggered above its already very high main deck level. If one of those ships starts rolling in heavy seas, the higher mounted boxes travel quite a lot from left to right. The forces applied on them during that rolling may easily break its fasteners and make them fly overboard.

My special friends from Maersk have pretty good records of loosing boxes during voyage. Recently, a larger Maersk carrier lost more than 500 boxes on a single voyage. But with a shipping company, owning more than 750 box carriers, most of them really large ones, they are statistically more involved than others.

It is amazing, that with the amount of boxes lost per year, only such a small amount of accidents happen during a year. But the oceans are really big.

And when you have Murphy residing on your shoulder, It's not a comfortable feeling.
Josie and I found one container years ago during the day. No issues and reported it.
This is why we have the owners and his insurance company approve any night deliveries. A good CYA in our records.
Nobody has ever said no, but it's recorded were operating at night in reduced viability.

A little added thrill for the Newport-Bermuda race fleet in June as well...

I remember waking up in the Bahamas and seeing a refirbished WWII cruiser that ran out of City Island, NY as a charter yacht called Firebird with hoses punched out of the salon windows and cockpit with water gushing. They hit a container while crossing from FL at night. I saw that boat everywhere but haven't since then.

Interesting subject thread, .....and very informative posting from HTMO9

(been away from boating subjects for awhile)

Operating at night is a dangerous proposition to begin with, but more so in waters that almost always have super tankers and container ships. We frequently find floating and partially submerged containers in our travels. If close enough, we put tracking devices on them and notify local authorities. However, with trans Atlantic and Pacific crossings, it's simply impossible to retrieve any of our devices. I'd rather have them floating than be one or two meters below the surface where they will do the most damage.
Floating we can see them on radar and avoid them.