Who has run into a floating container

[DeepFrz]

One of the Vendee Globe contestants hit what he believed to be a container but he made it to the southern most port in New Zealand. His boat was a complete mess. I don't know if they ever restored the boat or if they scrapped it.

[Captain Caliamari]

Re: a Captain's Right to Jettison Cargo at Sea.
This is called Necessity and is covered by' amongst other Maritime LAw; the York-Antwerp Rules. I used to teach them at degree and professional level.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/y...werp-rules.asp

The right exists, it is exercised and case law is available.
Quite how, in a high sea and with overbalanced cargo crew will actually jettison cargo,( the logistics and process applied) ; I don't know. It's an interesting point. It must be very dangerous.I think the YAR's were developed when tea-clippers etc. sailed the oceans; so bundles could be jettisoned. There is an extension I believe that even allows for fuel dumping in certain circumstances. I have not taught this for a long while.

[freshalaska]

If lost overboard containers do not float just under the surface as some have said.
Most go to the bottom and a few remain on the surface maybe bobbing below the surface briefly in waves, but floating just below the surface in less than one in a million. It ain’t happening.

[Dave_S]

I don't imagine a container would rest at a depth below the surface. If there is any air trapped that air will compress as the water depth increases so if the container is near the point of the same buoyancy as the water around it it will rise and dip below the water surface with wave action. At some point the air will compress enough on a dip to alter the buoyancy to heavier than the water and it will sink and continue to sink until it reaches the bottom.

I can imagine a 20t container that has 0.5t buoyancy spending time below the surface as the wave action causes it to submerge part of the time, perhaps even for a while but it will come back up and be visable for part of the time too and should show on radar intermittently.

I think it is telling that there are no first hand reports and that the insurance companies report no confirmed cases of hitting containers. There is stuff out there to hit, I think everyone has seen something your glad you didn't hit.

You take chances doing anything.

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by chris14679

As the container sinks deeper in the water the density of the water increases rapidly. Containers tend to find equilibrium at a point where the denser water is heavy enough to support them. They can sink to one or two metres below the surface and just stay there at exactly that level, impossible to see but ready to strike your keel.

Any container carrying items which trap air inside such as plastic boxes, electronics or footballs can do this. Insulated/refrigerated contains too. The majority of containers will sink but those that do float can float around for years. You just don't tend to see them unless you hit them!

Your physics is not correct. Water is almost incompressible, so the density stays the same with depth. The pressure increases, though. This would mean that any plastic object containing air inside the container would be compressed with depth, reducing buoyancy, making the container sink faster.

The only way for a container to float at a stable depth beneath the surface would if it sat on a thermocline. But these are normally much deeper.

Containers either float or sink, floating just beneath the surface is a myth and not substantiated in any way. They might hang there for a few minutes, but not more.Of course boats hit floating objects, but I think most of these are other things. In all my life I have seen many logs, refrigerators, oil drums and other debris, never a container. Of course, they exist, and there is a slight probability of hitting a floating one, but there are so many other things to worry about.

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by midnite44

I I also found out how they are loaded on the transport ships , they look at the forecasted weather to determine how high they stack them , smooth seas equals stacked high , rough seas equals a lesser stack, so if a forecast is wrong and a ship runs into rough seas which dangerously affects their stability they then start jettisoning them to get a safer stability index for conditions .

Having worked on container ships I can tell you this is total BS. Loading is done according to stability calculations independent of weather, and there is really no way to jettison containers on purpose, unless you have a crane, which very few container ships possess.

But, I am sure, sometimes stacks are not secured properly if good weather is expected, and then they might go overboard when the ship starts rolling.

[nmccubbin]

Originally Posted by Marc1

I know of a guy who bought a rather large ship and paid it off in a year, recovering shipping containers along the fright routes.
So they are out there and they still have valuable stuff in them.

If you can find them and recover them, you could surely run into them.
Statistics can be found to state that 10,000 containers are lost every year. That is most likely an understatement considering not all companies report their losses.

The 10,000 number is frequently quoted but is unsupported and debunked. Real number is several hundred, many of which sink
Containers are much less of a danger than whales and tree trunks
We have hit a whale and seen several but not seen a container in 50,000 miles around the Atlantic, including some busy areas

[seafox9]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

That's because he had a real boat!!!!

Roger that!

[Magic Dragon 42]

Robert Redford

[mvmojo]

I had always wondered about the myth of floating cargo containers... until I visited Rum Cay in the Bahamas. There's numerous containers on the island being used for generator sheds, storage sheds, even housing. In talking with the owners of marina, it seems that a bunch of containers came loose from a ship in a storm south of Rum. The containers floated into shallower waters around the island where the locals salvaged them for personal use, dragging them ashore with a bull dozer. So, they do float. No idea how far away the ship was that lost them or how long they floated, but the evidence that they float is abundant on Rum Cay! That being said, with over 30,000 nautical miles under my keel, I've never seen one at sea.

[Mark Johnson]

Originally Posted by freshalaska

Steel shipping containers usually 40 feet sometimes come loose and fall overboard at sea. Who do you know or heard of that has ever hit run into one with their boat? Seems to me the perceived risk is ever blown or maybe it is not.
I know numerous boats that have hit whales including my own last year, but how about who has hit a shipping container and what kind of damage did incure?
Just wondering.

They are out there by the thousands, as are buoys, trees, long lines, docks, and morons under way without keeping a watch, 24/7.


I have seen them all, as have cruising friends, several of which have had severe damage.


Hitting flotsam, a ship, or the bottom, is the most likely way to loose your boat.


This is why I cruise a Searunner 34 trimaran, made of plywood, with only natural ballast, and dozens of sealed air pockets.


Wheathet full of holes, or upside down and half way awash, she floats at the mid point, which gives a good chance of survival... unless it is cold!

[seafox9]

YAP! That was me. Running 7 knts on a beautiful day, 25knts of wind, full sails, BOOM!!!!!! I hit the corner of a submerged container, bottom front corner of my keel. I have 7’ draft. Cracked the length of the keel, no water intrusion. Lucky this time.
Not An experience I want to repeat. I was told luckily Hunter puts Kevlar in the hull. Perhaps that helped......
To the non believers: Never say never.......

Originally Posted by skipmac

Met a guy last year at Green Cove Springs in a 46-48' Hunter that claimed he hit a container off the Exumas. I looked at the boat and the damage didn't look like something that had come from hitting a reef, which I considered as a possibility, being a skeptical kind of guy.

There was big gouge on the hull next to the leading edge of the keel and more down the side that looked like it was from something sharp and the keel was knocked back a little opening a small gap between the keel and stub.

He said he took on a little water around the keel bolts but nothing serious and made it back to FL in one piece (obviously).

[seafox9]

Originally Posted by freshalaska

If lost overboard containers do not float just under the surface as some have said.
Most go to the bottom and a few remain on the surface maybe bobbing below the surface briefly in waves, but floating just below the surface in less than one in a million. It ain’t happening.

Interesting thought! However it happened to me......it was sitting there around 7’.......était.

[Perfect Ride]

About 5 years ago I did the math of the square meters of the ocean divided by the square meters of a shipping container times the number of lost containers a year divided by the average float time of a container before sinking below keel depth and determined that the risk of hitting a container was not even worth the consideration unless it was a reported single large loss of containers in which case you avoided that area, if possible. Fishing factories, ships, boats and nets, etc are another story....

[robmo]

Originally Posted by freshalaska

Steel shipping containers usually 40 feet sometimes come loose and fall overboard at sea. Who do you know or heard of that has ever hit run into one with their boat? Seems to me the perceived risk is ever blown or maybe it is not.
I know numerous boats that have hit whales including my own last year, but how about who has hit a shipping container and what kind of damage did incure?
Just wondering.

I was sailing along the coast toward Florida a year ago and I came across a container with two boatless sailors living aboard. They said they were fine, couldn’t afford a boat so they were squatting aboard this abandoned container. I gave them a few bucks and sailed on.