COLLATERAL LOSSES

Given the sheer scale of international shipping and commerce, it should come as no surprise that some goods get lost in transit. The problem, of course, is that when ships lose cargo, they aren’t accidentally dropping a single shoebox of, say, Nike sneakers. Rather, they’re losing entire shipping containers of goods. While some lucky beachcombers occasionally find washed-up plunder, these wayward containers have the potential—if encountered at the wrong time and angle—to quickly sink boats. And while the world’s oceans contain a heck of a lot of real estate, experts estimate that between 1,400 and 15,000 shipping containers are lost annually. But, notes BSB Marine on a frequently asked questions page: “Containers are either floating or sinking but do not remain in shallow depth because the two stable positions are either floating, when the container mass-to-volume is less than 1 kilogram per liter, or sinking if it is above 1 kilogram per liter. You can experience it by putting objects in a glass of water; trying to have anything just below the surface is next to impossible.”

While this doesn’t absolve these navigational dangers—or their environmental impacts—it does mean that if there’s a container bow on, Oscar can detect it.