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Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Foxxee — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:40:29 GMT

October 24, 2021

Some containers on board caught fire.

Dozens of shipping containers have fallen from a ship into Canadian waters, and the cargo ship carrying them has caught ablaze amid the damage caused by a 'bomb cyclone'.

Up to 40 shipping containers fell into the Pacific off Vancouver early on Friday morning, when the vessel Zim Kingston hit rough waters 43 miles west of the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Then on Saturday morning, a fire broke out in the ship's cargo area, believed to be caused by damage to the remaining shipping containers, the US Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard is now tracking 35 containers adrift at sea, and says that two of them are confirmed to contain hazardous flammable material.

Two of the containers have been identified as carrying spontaneous combustibles,' Petty Officer 3rd Class Diolanda Caballero told the Vancouver Sun.

'They are currently drifting north but we can't predict which way they will go because of the heavy weather. The bomb cyclone is around that area,' she said.

Photos showed smoke billowing and flames leaping from the side of the ship.

Radio communications indicate that the crew, including the captain, has been advised to abandon ship by Canadian authorities.

'The advice is that you abandon, completely abandon, including all crew and captain,' a Canadian Coast Guard official was heard broadcasting to the ship.

Containers which fell overboard from the ship Zim Kingston are seen floating west of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, off the west coast of British Columbia.

However, a response from the ship indicated that the crew wanted to continue to battle the fire, and it was not immediately clear whether the crew abandoned ship.

Canadian Coast Guard advised that due to the nature of the combustibles on board the vessel, tugs deployed to fight the fire are not to use water on the blaze.

The Zim Kingston is a Maltese-flagged containership built in 2008, with capacity for 4,253 twenty-foot containers.

It had departed from Busan, South Korea bound for North America.

The ship is now anchored in Constance Bank, in the Straits of Juan de Fuca off Victoria.

The containers on the ship were lost in rough seas due to a a strong low pressure system that was at hurricane force at times with seas up to 30 feet.

A storm is considered a bomb cyclone when its minimum air pressure drops 24 millibars or more within 24 hours, known as bombogenesis.

Between 2008 and 2016, an average of 568 containers were lost per year worldwide, according to a study commissioned by The World Shipping Council.

From DailyMail.com

Update: October 26, 2021

Firefighters put the fire out.

Firefighters and several crew members boarded the stricken container ship MV Zim Kingston Monday night after a storm had kept crews at bay.

An environmental unit has been set up to monitor any ecological effects and to recommend strategies for preventing and mitigating harm.

“Based on the assessment so far, there aren’t any identified risks to marine species. There aren’t any fisheries closures recommended at this time,” Mariah McCooey, the coast guard’s deputy federal incident commander, said at a briefing Monday.

From VicNews.com

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Laura14 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:39:12 GMT

😂😂😂 I'm sorry but at this point just bring on the four horsemen and let's go. I keep waiting for Allan Funt or SNL to pop in at some point and wake us all up but it ain't happening. 😕

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Leeny — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:30:42 GMT

@Foxxee

Thank You for posting this very informative news regarding the Cargo ships.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Snowpuppy — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:35:37 GMT

Fortunately, I've been into used/refurbished lately on the bay so I'm not waiting for a thing MIC.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Vivian — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:39:48 GMT

This infuriates me. If it weren't for the greed that led to all this cheaper outsourcing, this stuff would be made here. Perhaps I shouldn't use the word cheaper. How much will it cost to clean up the mess created by these ships? When did quantity usurp quality? How much CCC as my neighbor calls it (Cheap Chi.....Cr@p) do we need or even accept? If you watch Antiques Road Show, just take a look at the many objects brought in. They were made in all our towns and cities, but that's history. We've made a big mistake, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

godi — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:41:08 GMT

The way it's going now a days I'm sure one of my orders is on that boat. Either on fire or sinking to the bottom of the ocean. 😳

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Kachina624 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:53:57 GMT

I'm guessing this is what sailors call an "ill-fated cruise". The captain is probably soon to be unemployed, if he can find a ride home.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

RainyDayGal — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:04:12 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
I'm guessing this is what sailors call an "ill-fated cruise". The captain is probably soon to be unemployed, if he can find a ride home.

I don't know that he could have done much, the weather was INSANE. Some places with 70 mph winds and big hurkin' waves. It really was pretty crazy.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Love my grandkids — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:11:21 GMT

@Foxxee Here in WA state this has been all over every local news program.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

kitcat51 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:25:12 GMT

Over 3,000 containers dropped overboard in 2020 & over 1,000 so far this year...226 million containers are shipped every year. Info from Bloomberg.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Mindy D — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:46:37 GMT

@Vivian @Part, much, of what you say is true, but we have always obtained raw materials from all over the globe. I agree that we should have never let all our manufacturing disappear. It's awful and it's a threat to our health, wealth and happiness; not to mention the threat to national security that comes with dependence on foreign nations for supplies. Most people are not thinking about this yet, but there are medicines on some of these shipments.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Porcelain — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:21:22 GMT

@kitcat51 wrote:
Over 3,000 containers dropped overboard in 2020 & over 1,000 so far this year.

Ah. That is definitely an increase. I wonder what went wrong with them in 2020?

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Carmie — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:24:56 GMT

@Vivian wrote:
This infuriates me. If it weren't for the greed that led to all this cheaper outsourcing, this stuff would be made here. Perhaps I shouldn't use the word cheaper. How much will it cost to clean up the mess created by these ships? When did quantity usurp quality? How much CCC as my neighbor calls it (Cheap Chi.....Cr@p) do we need or even accept? If you watch Antiques Road Show, just take a look at the many objects brought in. They were made in all our towns and cities, but that's history. We've made a big mistake, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Americans so not want to work in manufacturing plants that make things that can be made overseas cheaper.

It is difficult to find clothing manufacturing facilities in the US as well.

we can build the manufacturing plants, but they will be empty. I guess we will have to import the workers to work here.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Lucky Charm — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:30:18 GMT

I'm so sad for the waters. Hazardous materials....ugh.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Snowpuppy — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:34:56 GMT

@Mindy D I had that exact thought yesterday.

I drove by Meier grocer's on my lunch hour. Monday, noon, not first of the month and 12 cars lined up at the pharmacy pick up.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

kitcat51 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:37:37 GMT

@Porcelain wrote:
@kitcat51 wrote:
Over 3,000 containers dropped overboard in 2020 & over 1,000 so far this year.
Ah. That is definitely an increase. I wonder what went wrong with them in 2020?

Article on Bloombery - Over the past 7 yrs container loss has risen... larger cargo ships with containers stacked higher, bad weather & other reasons are given. I had no idea 226 million containers were shipped every year so really the loss is low.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Kachina624 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:39:20 GMT

@Lucky Charm wrote:
I'm so sad for the waters. Hazardous materials....ugh.

@Lucky Charm Also those bobbing containers are quite a hazard to other ships. I wonder if they ever wash ashore or do they eventually sink?

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Lucky Charm — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:11:21 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:

@Lucky Charm wrote:
I'm so sad for the waters. Hazardous materials....ugh.
@Lucky Charm Also those bobbing containers are quite a hazard to other ships. I wonder if they ever wash ashore or do they eventually sink?

I do know they are made of steel and salt water will erode them quickly. I guess the contents will just float away.

This is as bad as global warming, if not worse.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

gertrudecloset — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 01:24:34 GMT

@Vivian wrote:
This infuriates me. If it weren't for the greed that led to all this cheaper outsourcing, this stuff would be made here. Perhaps I shouldn't use the word cheaper. How much will it cost to clean up the mess created by these ships? When did quantity usurp quality? How much CCC as my neighbor calls it (Cheap Chi.....Cr@p) do we need or even accept? If you watch Antiques Road Show, just take a look at the many objects brought in. They were made in all our towns and cities, but that's history. We've made a big mistake, in my not-so-humble opinion.

@Vivian

South Korea is not China. Though they may trade with them. South Korea (an American ally) makes a lot of computer peripherals; cellular phones and other kinds of machinery. It's not necessarily "cheap chinese junk". Home of Samsung electronics and no doubt other things like semi conductors and chips that make computers run.

Re: Remember The Cargo Ship That Lost 40 Containers?

Kachina624 — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 03:26:06 GMT

@Vivian wrote:
This infuriates me. If it weren't for the greed that led to all this cheaper outsourcing, this stuff would be made here. Perhaps I shouldn't use the word cheaper. How much will it cost to clean up the mess created by these ships? When did quantity usurp quality? How much CCC as my neighbor calls it (Cheap Chi.....Cr@p) do we need or even accept? If you watch Antiques Road Show, just take a look at the many objects brought in. They were made in all our towns and cities, but that's history. We've made a big mistake, in my not-so-humble opinion.

@Vivian I remember well the advertising campaign of the 1960s where a little ditty touting the the quality of US goods was sung then we were advised to "look for the union label". This clothing wasn't half as good as what we now get from Asia, including China. We constantly complained that buttons fell off the first time we wore a garment and frayed seams soon followed. People have short, selective memories.

I've never experienced any of this with the Asian-made clothing I've purchased and I have a lot. It's impeccably manufactured. I consider it a good value for my money.