Shipping containers lost at sea
Very rarely, shipping containers have been known to slip off the ships which are carrying them. This usually happens during very inclement weather and in particular during storms and high winds which create the conditions where the containers are most likely to become unstable and fall overboard. According to statisticians, it is thought that over ten thousand containers are affected by this each year and are therefore considered to be lost at sea.
In one incident during November 2006, a shipping container became dislodged and was carried to an area near North Carolina. The container was transporting thousands of packets of tortilla crisps, and once locals heard about the event, made their way to the scene and tried to hoard the products.
The shipping containers which do fall victim to the elements are not guaranteed to sink and many such items float for many miles at a time. However, it is uncommon that the containers float on the surface of the water which is blessing as this would make them a potential danger which is incredibly hard to detect.
Following on from this, it is an interesting fact that the cargo which has been lost as part of this process, does provide oceanographers with much empirical information in their quest to track worldwide ocean currents.
Last year, the World Shipping Council, together with the International Chamber of Shipping started to compile a standardised code of practice relating to shipping containers. As part of this, the issues surrounding stacking methods, educating crew with regard to parametric rolling, security of cargo held above-deck and container marking were all considered.
