Who's my importer around here?

They told me a couple of days after the ship arrives. Not holding my breath. That port moves pretty slow. But the ship just docked a few minutes ago.

 

Pictures like that always amaze me. I know somebody's done the math and it's safe but Damn! How can that not be too top heavy?

 

I dont think the Memphis is one of the newer EEE class container shops, but this thing could have 7-12k Containers.. Yeah, pretty amazing.

 

These ships are heavily ballasted by trimming tanks with water.
https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/a-guide-to-ballast-tanks-on-ships/

Discharge of ballast water near our shores or in our Great Lakes is a prime source of transmission of invasive species. I am sure that there are safegaurds (regulations) that, if followed, prevent such contamination. But, there are always scofflaws who dismiss environmental concerns out of pig-headedness especially when there is added profit from doing so.

Denis

 

MAERSK MEMPHIS (IMO: 9348651) is a Container Ship that was built in 2007 (15 years ago) and is sailing under the flag of Singapore. It's carrying capacity is 6188 TEU and her current draught is reported to be 13.1 meters. Her length overall (LOA) is 299.47 meters and her width is 40 meters.

EEE vessels carry more than 18000 TEU

Denis

 

I clipped together over 300 still shots from the port camera. I did hit 1000 subs a couple of days ago so I decided I will run some kind of video series. No monitization for this guy. F Youtube!

 

it would only take about 12 of these ships fully laden to transport the stone needed for the great pyramid of giza. Thats assuming that the blocks fit neatly into the container and occupyall its space.
Challenge
Can anyone calculate how many actual ship loads it would take if you take into account the actual block sizes?

 

however i suspect that a full load of rock would be far too heavy to transport and the ship wouldnt stay upright

 

My brain hurts bad enough just figuring out much rebar my hole is going to take!

 

I'm aware of that. Thousands of similarly heavily loaded ships safely transit the oceans on a regular basis so they've obviously got it well and truly figured out. On an intellectual level I understand that but visually and intuitively it still seems implausible, with more than 2/3 of the ship above the water it just seems like they should turtle over, the simple fact that ones intuition can be so obviously incorrect is the part that amazes me.

 

A lot of the containers are stored below. I'm sure that's where the heaviest ones go. The box I'm in is at max gross. I can see what else is traveling with me.

 

I saw one of the 'super sized' container ships dock at Felixstowe after being caught in a bad storm. It wasn't nice neat rows ready to be craned off, what didn't end up in the water looked rather worse for wear!

 

"According to a report by the World Shipping Council, between 2008 and 2019, there was an average of 1382 containers lost at sea each year."

We went past one in a sailboat just northwest of Hispaniola. You can't see them until you're right on them.
Keeps you puckered up at night, thinking about hitting one of them.

 

Given the number of container-miles there must be in a year, 1382 is a pretty small number. That said however, when I think about the possibility of hitting one with a small boat, 1382 is nevertheless still a pretty scary number.
I wonder how many container lost at sea get recovered every year on average.

 

maybe the salvage rule applies to them and you can help yourself to the contents

 

OMG and the hits just keep coming! The container got selected by customs! You have got to be shitting me!
At least the added expense is shared by my fellow passengers. Hope it goes by piece count and not by weight or volume or I'm Fkd AGAIN!

Little birdie told me you get selected based on value. Some of this crap looks to be pretty expensive.

 

RELEASED from customs jail!
Now let's see what that one cost me.

 

Loaded up!

 

I'm going to put this thread to bed as the lift is finally here at my home. Turns out, the customs inspection costs were based on CBM. My part was a whopping $1266 bucks and I didn't even get a reach around! At this point, I'm about even money from building this thing myself here in the states at current steel prices. On the plus side, what I did save was TIME! I didn't have to build the damn thing and I didn't have the risk of faulty math and piss poor enginerding skills. The 3 removable plates for the upper deck arrived bent to shit and the electrical box that houses the 3phase crap and logic controller for the limit switches fell apart somewhere along the way and the wiring attached to the switches got destroyed... I'm chucking all their crap anyways and going with a bluetooth controller to run the show. I'm planning cool lighting, music and a fog machine as this bitch comes out of the ground! I'm kidding about the music and smoke show... Or am I?

I'm glad I got to at least try this importing stuff once, but it is expensive, semi complicated and lots of the bills amount to nothing more than EXTORTION! When someone makes you buy a bond BEFORE they give you the bill, you know they have you bent over a barrel. The only choice is to pay the man. This scissor lift really is an incredible piece of machinery and I know it will be worth the expense and ass pain once it's installed. But do it again knowing what I know now??? sure, why the hell not, but be warned, it can get expensive and FAST! What may seem cheap online and even what they say is no where near the truth. Getting accurate quotes on both ends of the ocean is the best defense and then hold their feet to the fire. Unfortunately you have no choice when it comes to customs, we pay them to do their jobs with our tax dollars and then get to pay them again if they feel like actually LOOKING in your container to do their jobs... What a joke!

Look for a sorta-build thread and the continuation of the lift project soon as the real work begins. Paying the thousands just to get it here was the easy part!