The ship lies beached in full view outside the breakwaters. Owned by a KG company, the ship is not really one of your modern monsters and has room for only 4,038 TEUs.
On board is a typical containerised cargo full of manufactured goodies, bound for shops and factories. Local factories affected by the disruption of the parts pipeline are said to include Nissan, Ford, Sears, Truper, and Sanyo.
Since the ship went aground, various attempts have been made to drag her off. Also helicopters have been ordered in to help lighten the ship. Since this only removed the lighter sort of containers at the rate of 5 or 6 a day, a small jetty has been built on the beach upon which a mobile crane perches which has been taking off deck cargo at the rate of 50-60 containers a day.
A made-up road allows container draymen to collect a container, to be driven under escort to the local port Customs area. A 75% salvage contribution is being asked of cargo interests, suggesting that the total labour and cost of lightening and clearing this ship is going to be very high. The latest strategy is to attempt to dredge a channel for the ship to float clear of the sand bar upon which she is well and truly stuck.
Now ports and port authorities are no doubt asking themselves – how would they deal with a casualty involving one of the new 9000+ TEU ships. Is there a mobile crane tall enough to scale the freeboard and deck cargo stacks of a modern leviathan? And would the jib of such a marvelous Gottwald or Liebherr or Manitowc reach all the way across to the other side of the ship’s deck?
How long would it take to unload a full ship using these improvised methods?
What about a security alert involving a container in the middle of the stow?
Or a fire?
It will surely not be long before the operators and wreck removal underwriters of one of these ships will be called upon to supply the answer to these interesting theoretical questions.
