The headline speaks for itself…
As containerships get bigger, their losses of cargo get bigger too. A Maersk ship lost 750, and other major carriers have reported losses. The most startling was a ship operated by Ocean Network Express that lost 1800 last November!
There is a video of the ship going in for repairs here:
Why is this happening? While it could be poor lashing, one theory is the bigger ships suffer from “parametric rolling” caused by waves hitting the bow at an angle vs. straight on. “The ship goes into a rolling motion in sync with the waves which, combined with the ship’s normal pitching as it steams ahead, can displace cargo,” said Fotis Pagoulatos, an Athens-based naval architect.