A Frenzy of Inaction : Container Ships at Anchorage
"This is probably the thing that is keeping me up most of the time.""We have some nice live bands from time to time. Hopefully we can keep the crew happy with some barbecues, some team events like watching movies together, or playing some sports.""If you like to have a beer, it's possible. Normally we have it on stock and you can have it.""You, of course, always have to be ready for emergencies, so there cannot be any excessive stuff."Captain Markus Grote, Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg, Germany-based
 |
Container ships wait outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach waiting to unload on Oct. 13, 2021. Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images |
There are at least 21 crew members on most ocean-going container carriers counting the officers. Routine chores such as maintaining equipment, keeping cargo secure and decks tidy see crew members consume their activities routinely, while at sea en route to a destination. The officers rotate on eight-hour watches and monitor instruments and radio traffic.
Busier days are those when the ship is in port, unloading containers and loading up others. This is when the crew works as a team, everyone knowing his job, meshing with the activities of their shipmates forming the crew. It's when critical paperwork is completed, along with the restocking of supplies and attention given to undertaking extensive mechanical fixes.
When a container ship is forced by conditions to sit at anchor awaiting their turn to approach the docks to unload and alternately load up, it is a time of inaction; waiting, boredom, plummeting morale. Remaining at anchorage for weeks at a time is psychologically debilitating; they're stuck, neither underway nor at port -- simply waiting, waiting...
If the ship happens to be anchored close enough to shore they're enabled to access local communication networks so they can call family and friends, or even order something to be delivered. Otherwise, nothing of the kind is possible, given the cancellation of shore leave opportunities in this time of pandemic travel restrictions.
 |
As far as the eye can
see cargo trucks wait in long lines to enter The Port of Los Angeles as
the port is set to begin operating around the clock on Wednesday, Oct.
13, 2021 in San Pedro, CA. Jason Armond | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images |
At anchor regular maintenance must continue, deck watches staffed. Some relief from the sameness is a necessity to keep minds engaged and fend off dissatisfaction and depression. In those circumstances a concerned captain, worried over the mindset of his crew, thinks of ways to lift the prevailing sullen mood of off-duty crew. Basketball, video games, table tennis or use of the pool and gyms on board for those ships with these amenities, are all on call
In other ways, crew members find ways to stimulate themselves. Picking up a guitar or drums, forming bands with on-board colleagues. Some choose the ever-popular karaoke as a relief mechanism. The captain of these container ships has plenty on his mind; the necessity to deliver cargo, to take on cargo, to arrive as expected at their destination, to ensure that all goes well; he is answerable to the profit margin of the shipping company he represents.
There are about 400,000 merchant mariners anxious to take time off to return home, to relieve their mounting sense of seafarer fatigue. Container deliveries have been pressed of late, with the imposition of uncertainties and new rules surrounding the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. Manpower shortages one issue, but another the shortage of shipping containers at a time the international community is trying to catch up with time and opportunities lost to the novel coronavirus's impact on business and critical deliveries from producer to consumers world-wide.
Ship crews are experiencing dizzying work swings from frenzied action to increasingly more idling time. Over 600 container ships were anchored recently awaiting the opportunity to enter ports at the traditionally busiest shipping ports in the world. Data from Seaexplorer.com and Swiss freight giant Kuchne+Nagel International AG speak of hold-ups and back-ups where the race to clear containers from ports to enable new shipments to take their place has stalled.
Roughly ten percent of the total container ships globally currently in service await the opportunity to unload. Some of them will remain at anchor waiting, waiting ... for weeks. Outside Los Angeles, North America's busiest port, ships wait an average of ovr 12 days at anchor to be allowed to pull into port. The same amount of time it would take them to navigate the Pacific from Asia.
Labels: Container Ship Backlogs, Container Shortages, Global Shipping, Holdups
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, October 31, 2021
<< Home