https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1024x1280/p0c9z60g.jpg
Awhile back somebody chided me for admiring the size of mankind’s handiwork.
Well here, as Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story*!*
Enormous container ships ferry goods all over the world, but when one of them gets into trouble – as happened with the Ever Given and Ever Forward recently – how can they be saved?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220530-how-to-rescue-th…
Many millions of U$ dollars worth of cargo enter an leave US ports every day and a kink in the supply chain can mean millions in losses to the businesses involved.
The world’s cargo ships, which transport around 90% of global trade, do not always make it to their destination without incident.
According to the Safety and Shipping Review by insurance company Allianz, 27 cargo vessels were lost in major incidents during 2021, and 357 during the past decade.
They catch fire.
They hit rocks, reefs and sand bars.
They malfunction.
But they don’t always sink.
Whenever there’s a chance to rescue a large ship, their owners almost always take it because these vessels can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220530-how-to-rescue-th…
Awhile back somebody chided me for admiring the size of mankind’s handiwork.
Well here, as Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story!
Very interesting for a mariner specially since we did two jobs for the Venezuelan dredging company (Instituto Nacional de Canalizaciones INC) in the mid 1970s. The first job saved us from approaching bankruptcy and we landed our biggest contract to date, some $100,000, about $550,000 in today’s money – plus expenses.
The second job, much smaller, was to set up an accounting system to help nationalize the Orinoco Mining’s dredging operation. Orinoco Mining was US Steel’s mining subsidiary which had a long term contract (50 years?) to dredge and maintain the Orinoco River’s shipping lane from Puerto Ordaz to the sea.
The Captain
One of the INC’s captains used to say that there is no such thing an outboard motor – it would fall to the bottom! He called them 'onboard" motors. 
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