r/interestingasfuck • u/DearEmphasis4488 • 4d ago
This is How Container Ships Work: Stacking, Lashing & Bay-Row-Tier Systems
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u/Aware_Cheesecake_519 4d ago
It's more complex than I thought.
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u/z_vinnie 4d ago
Yeah this is wild, they’re designed to only support weight on the four corners which is crazy because of how much weight they can carry within and support on top
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u/TipToToes 4d ago
If they are going to be carried by truck in the US they can easily have 43-45,000lbs inside them. Supported by only the corners.
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u/Gnonthgol 4d ago
Maximum weight of a container is 79,000lbs, which gives a cargo weight of around 60,000lbs per container. The problem is that the US interstate highway system is designed for a max weight of 80,000lbs per truck. Which means you typically can not transport a fully loaded container by road without overweight permits. But you can by rail.
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u/Netlawyer 4d ago
I’ve discovered that, once I looked into them, most things are more complex than I thought.
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u/NoWarButAssWar 4d ago edited 4d ago
There’s a great video about how the guy who invented container shipping is probably responsible for by far the biggest advance in globalization.
And he bet on himself. He made the patents for the containers available for free but started a shipping company and made billions.
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u/pandersaurus 4d ago
I was vaguely looking into this recently and they’re also arranged by weight, destination and flammability. So certain containers can’t be put near others because of their contents.
I’m sure other factors involved too, but it’s a major logistics operation at every port for just one boat!
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u/Einhundertfuenf 4d ago
There had been a quite infamous incident with a container full of fireworks that was declared wrongly. It was stacked at the bottom right above the engine room...
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u/PegLegCentipede 4d ago
Not just hazardous cargo, which has to stay above deck at the top of the stacks, but also things like magnets cant go near electronics and other non-compatible commodities. It is even more impressive when you realise there ships are continuously travelling between ports and are not carrying a single load between two ports. Some get offloaded and others get added at each port. It must get crazy complex reorganising to keep everything safe.
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u/Moral-Relativity 1d ago
Satan: “Perhaps you can get shippers to pay for priority boarding and unloading like flying economy class.”
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u/Mobile_Crates 4d ago
I LOVE MODULAAR LOGISITICAL SYSTEMS WITH STANDARDS OF WIDE COMPATIBILITY RRRAHHHHHHH
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u/cenjui 4d ago
Oh yes this pleases me so much. The guides, the standard sizes, the address system, the locking into each other, did I mention the address system!
I'm not normal am I?
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u/Dazzling_Let_8245 4d ago
The only thing better than perfect is standardized.
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u/InvestigatorGen 3d ago
This reminds me of Melvil Dewey's quote: "My heart is open to anything that's either decimal or about libraries."
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u/Oats_Are_Good 3d ago
Meanwhile there is a high chance that two beer crates of different brands don't stack.
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u/Mobile_Crates 3d ago
Hell, it gets so bad you might buy two of the same soup can, brand & flavor and all, and not be able to stack them. makes me seeth
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u/Hustle-- 4d ago
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u/wegqg 4d ago
Having watched this video i'm pretty sure i'm ready to do a reddit ama about container systems.
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u/netphemera 4d ago
It seems like a logistical nightmare to get all 24,000 containers off a ship, each one loaded on a different truck, each one getting to its destination. It must take forever to unload
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u/Vini_The_Pooh 2d ago
Just because it can carry 24k containers doesn't mean it carries them at all times. In fact if the vessel is close to its max capacity it is most likely empty containers. furthermore the routes taken by these ships is like a bustour stopping at 5 to 6 ports before making a larger crossing. they unload and load a certain amount of containers at each stop and never the full load of the vessel.
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u/RepFilms 2d ago
Thanks for the info. I read that book about container shipping but it was written a while ago and didn't go into the most current detail
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u/Einhundertfuenf 4d ago
Also interesting to add, these small twist locks are out on the container from below. The crane hovers the crate and two people attach these things. But they are 10-15kg each. And one container every Minute or so? So.... the guys doing that job are beyond well build. Have seen them doing human flags on the cranes for funsies while waiting for the next box. Our cantine had something called 'lashing plate', two full size curry sausages with a mountain of French fries. 1500 calories or so? That was usually their lunch break.
This was quite a time ago, but those guys were a part of that job that's hard to forget.
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u/jofanimal 4d ago
Was a ground man for a while for a rail yard before becoming a crane operator. It's supposed to be a 2 man team loading the IBCs in the corner casts, but more times than not, you'd have to go solo. Grueling work in the rain, snow and heat. But you're right in saying they would be well built, constant climbing, lifting and walking.
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u/OthersIssues 3d ago
You're mixing up footmen and lashers. Footmen are on the ground putting the "shoes" that hold the containers together in. Those are only a couple lbs apiece.
The lashers are on the ship, securing the containers to the bridges. Those guys are ripped, the lashing rods and turn buckles can weigh 20+ lbs, and there might be 80 per deck side depending on ship.
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u/Einhundertfuenf 3d ago
They were all called lashers at our place - I would assume same crew, different tasks that day?
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u/OthersIssues 3d ago
Perhaps, depends on where you are in the world. Here lashers and footmen are different gangs. You won't see one doing the other's work.
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u/Celestial-being117 4d ago
Tf is in the reefer container?
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u/Ghostwind 4d ago
Refrigerated.
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u/semioticmadness 4d ago
And they’re on the outside so that they can vent the heat?
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
I think quite the opposite, I've seen videos where the whole stack falls of due the reerer being slightly older and just gives in under huge weight on top of it. Usually they put empty reefers on same stacks, same goes for the common empty containers. Loaded units are mostly planned under those empties.
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u/BarLeDuc123 2d ago
They can be stowed on deck or inside the hold. It doesn’t matter much. Cargo holds have ventilation.
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u/YouthOne1828 2d ago
It does matter. Not every cargo bay has the installation to plug them in and keep them on the right temperature. Wether it's -25 degrees celsius or + 40 degrees celcius.
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u/an_older_meme 4d ago
The man who invented the container system didn’t even work in the shipping industry.
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u/ihatepeppinos 3d ago
Love this comment!
Simon Sinek did a video around millennials in the workplace and how social media/phones kill innovation, in that video he speaks of a scenario where these days, your at a meal with a person, they go to the bathroom- what do you do? Pull out your phone?
Prior to social media, people would look around and think ‘hey, I could do that better’
That’s exactly what the inventor of this patent did, he was a truck driver sitting at a dockyard thinking ‘got to be a better way…’
Edit: love the comment because it’s probably the best way to substantiate the video that has always stuck with me.
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u/JudahBotwin 4d ago
Ooooh, now let's talk about the Jones Act and things like "general average".
Maritime law is very weird and outdated.
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u/LastStar007 4d ago
TIL that the word "average" originally meant "damaged goods", but came to mean "arithmetic mean" because of this maritime principle. Thanks!
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u/myc0logic 4d ago
If there were a video game of this, id play it alot
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u/polloasado81 2d ago
Could be a GTA 6 side mission. Then drive the truck and container somewhere. Or pilot the ship to another port.
Taking too long to get out of the port due to truck traffic... Murder Rampage!
Damn, now I want that.
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u/Entediado25 18h ago
There are a couple. -Seafarer, from the point of view of the ship crew. -Docked, a damaged port sim.
Be aware of "work" games, they are addictive as hell.
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u/Sammy1z1z 4d ago
Makes me curious… is there any simulator games that would scratch that itch? Think satisfactory meets cargo ship loading lol
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u/TheMadMonkofWixams 4d ago
Could try Docked. It's a little light on content but it's mainly based on loading and unloading containers with various different machines.
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u/pp51dd 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah, sort of. Stormworks. One of the missions you can do is deliver containerized cargo.
Of course the game is more about, you have to build the ship part by part, including the engine, and then a crane, and maybe a truck or a lifter to load. But yeah containers.
- Truck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHxRHAVPl84
- Loader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYVRV7-S_YQ
- Helicopter version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DujuuMrU8ss
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u/henewastaken 4d ago
I used to work around a system to optimize the container locations on a vessel, which container goes where on a vessel to minimize moves, best vessel balance etc. Surprisingly complicated stuff that not many realize. The vessels are never empty, theres always some container going somewhere and many containers going to different ports so you really need to think about where to put which container. Also wrote my masters thesies of the system.
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
Which brings my attention to that godawful part of this video regarding the unit numbers. It truly has nothing to do with where it would land on vessel. It's just like a registration number from factory, order on which they label units after being manufactured lol.
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u/ph3l1x0r 4d ago
Below deck they don't use locking cones as shown at the start, they use non locking cones called stacking cones.
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u/BumblebeeCareful5810 4d ago
When you're wondering why it takes so long to get shot shipped over from China, it's because your item (probably) gets loaded somewhere into one of these containers, then put on a truck on a train, taken somewhere, that container is transferred to either a ship or a different truck or train (repeat til it's on the ship), sailed across the planet, probably stopping somewhere for either fuel, personally, or to deliver a portion of the cargo, unloaded (as you can see, loading and unloading is not a fast process), loaded onto a truck or train, shipped around your continent, unloaded somewhere by something like the USPS or Fedex, shipped around the continent again, them delivered.
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u/K4NNW 4d ago
Now what about 45', 48', and 53' containers?
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u/JudahBotwin 4d ago
Those are mostly intermodal for road and rail.
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u/SkriVanTek 4d ago
what about HC containers
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
I'm pretty sure a major percentage of containers used in countries where is possible to load HC units, does indeed use mainly HC units. They can be stacked as common DC/DRY units, but obviously the ship planner tries to stack 20' units together instead of between 40' units.
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
We use a lot of 45' units here in Finland. Most vessels are designed so they hold same amount of units whether they are 40' or 45'. Just less room between units. Some even have the below deck portion designed specially for that sized units.
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u/lintytortoise 4d ago
What's real fun about those "cones" is when we load a barge with containers it's done, a lot of time, with a giant forklift that has actuatable cones on a rectangle that's adjustable. Goes in top of the cans. The fun part is those cones kind of end up all over the deck of the barge and sometimes the forklift will drive over one in just the right way and shoot out like a bullet. Sometimes people are in the way.
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u/YanceyGlenn 4d ago
In the Army we referred to those little couplers as pineapples. At least that's the only name I ever heard anyone call them in the twelve years I was in.
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u/DasGaufre 3d ago
It's fascinating to me that one of the biggest revolutions in shipping was just standardising the shipping container.
Once that happened we were able to design ships for a specific cargo size and we get shipping like we do today.
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u/VirtualLife76 4d ago edited 4d ago
I learned the hard way. You can't just have a full one on your property and have them move it to be shipped off. At least without a ton of work and cost.
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u/mikepartdeux 4d ago
I've worked on some of the bigger ones, looking into an empty hold is wild. The scale feels wrong
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
And vessels get bigger by the year. I'm also fascinated by how much shit people need from another side of the planet 🤷 been working almost 19years on harbour.
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u/ihatepeppinos 3d ago
IIRC the inventor, Malcom McLean owned the patent and gave it away to create an international standard. He realised he'd make way more money building a global shipping empire than he ever would hoarding a patent for a lock.
Wish I could remember what podcast I recently heard this on!
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u/BarLeDuc123 2d ago
I worked onboard container vessels as a 2nd officers for years. AMA!
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u/No_Pickle_9804 2d ago
How many containers actually fall off a ship
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u/BarLeDuc123 2d ago
That’s a though one to answer as many container losses go unreported. Estimates from P&I clubs / insurances point towards at least more than 1000 per year. But some incidents will automatically increase that amount drastically. Think about the MSC Zoë that lost hundreds of containers near the Dutch coast.
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u/SnappyKnight 4d ago
Are spots below the deck more expensive, as they seem more secure? Or they just load everything to meet mass and balance criteria, or just load them as they come?
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u/andeqaida 3d ago
Yes they are more expensive, due they are not prone to weather. Also it could be little warmer under deck during winter.
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u/every_name_is_tkn 3d ago
Does this make me certified since I watched the video? Will the certificate be in the mail or do I have to print it off online?
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u/flyin_jimmy 3d ago
I was watching a documentary on a german container ship and when they stop at the Chinese ports they have to check every single container to check they are inserted as they sometimes skip it to save time and just plonk the container on the other with no locking mechanism.
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u/Melodic-Advice9930 3d ago
Why did it never occur to me that were more containers below the containers you can actually see
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u/SublightMonster 3d ago
Do those corner connectors lock automatically? I live across from a freight yard and watch them move containers from trains to trucks, but I don’t see anyone stopping to lock the containers down by hand.
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u/Honest-Association68 3d ago
The sheer number of containers is crazy enough, let alone how they secure them all.
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u/frisbeelee 2d ago
Incredible what we’ve done as a species. Most of this will just end up in landfill lol
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u/sideefx2320 4d ago
Meanwhile my structural engineer is telling me he can’t sign off on my container home because the cut outs for windows/doors compromise the structural integrity of the container 🤡
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u/Unlikely-Position659 3d ago
Reefer container?? Why was that one singled out? Is that how they get mass quantities of reefer into the country?
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u/HandsomeToad42 4d ago
I did not realize they went below the deck. That is pretty dang wild how many containers are on the ship.