Buyer’s of imported goods, and seller’s of exported goods, rarely understand the perils of shipping these goods overseas. The massive cargo ships appear to be indestructible, unsinkable, but in fact, they are not. Each year, more than 100 million containers are shipped across the globe on containerships that can now stretch the length of three soccer fields or more. Despite the large number of containers shipped, accidents are relatively rare, with the best estimates saying that less than 1,500 containers are lost from ships each year on average. However, these losses are catastrophic and a recap of some of these disasters has been created in photographs. In this posting, you can look back at some of the worst container shipping disasters in modern history. Keep in mind this list is not a comprehensive list of container shipping accidents, rather a recap of some of the more infamous disasters to hit the container shipping sector since 2000.
View the photos here.
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