Sunday, July 22, 2007

wow

I realize that I'm a landlocked lubber, and have only been to the ocean a half-dozen times, so maybe this is old hat for some, but I came across a photo of a container ship in a U.S. News article and was stunned at its size. The above photo is not from that article, but look at the size of that thing. Each of those boxes are things you see going down the road behind a semi rig. The rear-most layer alone is 80 containers. No wonder we dont screen all the stuff coming into this country, how could we?

6 comments:

Bora Zivkovic said...

Oh, and those puppies can go FAST! I saw one just like it the other day and it was fun watching small sailboats trying to run away from it.

Anonymous said...

Even though it's old hat for me, I'm always amazed. The RORO (roll on, roll off) auto carriers are amazing as well.

daveawayfromhome said...

How many of these come into a U.S. port everyday? It's a wonder that we havent been buried beneath a foot-deep layer of imported crap.

Anonymous said...

On any given day, there are about a dozen or so going and coming from the Port of Oakland alone. Multiply that by LA, Seattle, and the East Coast and smaller ports and that's a whole lotta containers.

Unknown said...

Since we don't have the money to hire enough inspectors they really check only 8-10% I think of the cargo coming and going..

A drop in the friggin bucket.

I have been to L.A, San Fran and Boston harbors..its amazing to watch them load and unload those huge beasts.

daveawayfromhome said...

Whoa, check out this container ship