
The Container Ship Tourism Industry - todayiamme
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-container-ship-tourism-industry
======
CoffeeDregs
I must admit that I've researched this on-and-off for years. Surprisingly,
it's reasonably expensive (ie. not inexpensive). That said, the reviews I've
read have been nearly universally positive: as the article notes, the crews
love interesting company (they spend months on the boat painting from stem-to-
stern and you're naturally inclined to discuss the outside world and not-
painting-bulkheads).

Boredom: if you step onto a container ship as a guest without at least a month
of "work" to do, you're to blame. I admit, I'm uncertain of bandwidth and
such; but there is _some_. Download sources before boarding! And I ain't much
of a writer, but I might take a whack at writing the Great American [short
story] during the journey so that I wasn't bored. Point is: riding a largely
automated ship for 2-14 days without a plan is nearly the definition of
boredom; plan against boredom!

Having taught myself Ruby on Rails while cruising in Alaska 8 years ago,
learning without the internet can be pretty blissful. Just make sure you
download the sources first! [Yes, Ruby doesn't need that. I'm looking to learn
Rust...]

EDIT: I have no affiliate relationship, but this
([http://www.freightercruises.com/](http://www.freightercruises.com/)) seems
pretty solid (e.g.
[http://www.freightercruises.com/seaworthy_news_1310.php](http://www.freightercruises.com/seaworthy_news_1310.php)).

~~~
eliben
Realistically, would a satellite internet connection be prohibitively
expensive for non-data-heavy browsing for a couple of weeks (meaning no
Youtube, just programmer-work related Google/Wikipedia/StackOverflow, etc)?

~~~
kybernetyk
>prohibitively

Yup. According to
[http://www.groundcontrol.com/IsatHub.htm](http://www.groundcontrol.com/IsatHub.htm)
and
[http://www.groundcontrol.com/BGAN_rate_plans.htm](http://www.groundcontrol.com/BGAN_rate_plans.htm)
50mb will cost you around $400. (Just a quick search but when I researched
this a little more in depth a few years ago prices weren't too different from
that). + the modem which is ~$2000 IIRC.

Of course this is if you would buy the data for yourself. Though quiet a few
ships have sat internet installed. The data rates are usually pretty low so
it's good enough for email but not for surfing bloated websites like
Stackoverflow or Google.

And then there's the alternative of 3G/4G GSM when you're near the shore.

------
cfreeman
I actually did this, back in 2004 when I was obsessed with "traveling
authentically." I sailed from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Cork, Ireland. It took
two weeks. I was surprised at how quickly the boredom set in, as there is
really nothing whatsoever to do on a boat like this once you've read and
watched the few decent books/movies on board. The only scenery that changes on
the open ocean is the clouds.

It was cool to interact with the crew but also strange and somewhat depressing
as the life of a sailor is really not that great. The average crewman is from
a very poor country and they are at sea for most of the year to support
families back home that they only get to see for a few months.

------
tdaltonc
Lots world wide could be fitted with a standard socket so that your container
house could be (1) taken from the ship, (2) put on a truck, (3) fitted on to a
lot.

Sockets could be stacked to create medium density housing. You could relocate
your house to any city on earth with the right socket.

~~~
sleazebreeze
Considering how many containers are lost per year (thousands), I wouldn't risk
my house on that chance.

EDIT: More like ~546 containers per year from an industry survey, out of 120
million moved in a year. Not quite as good as commercial air flight, but not
as bad I was thinking.

~~~
kbutler
Thousands out of more than 120 million container trips per year, and the loss
of containers was primarily from two large accidents.
[http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=17474](http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=17474)

Your container may be safer than your house, and the financial solutions is
the same: insure it.

~~~
sleazebreeze
Thanks, I stand corrected. The odds aren't too bad in that case. Hell, now I
am intrigued by the prospect too.

------
mmphosis
> the typical cost is about $120 a day

I don't want to discourage anyone from traveling on container ships. It sounds
like fun to me. Please be aware that some cruiseship travel can cost less
(much less?) than $120 a day, and they make your bed everyday amongst many
other amenities.

~~~
Udo
I think for most of us here the appeal of booking a container ship route would
be the isolation that hypothetically allows for uninterrupted programming plus
the romance of the idea. On a cruise ship, you have to deal with personnel and
other guests daily. Personnel might constantly be trying to engage you in
social activities, you always have to tip everyone, and if you do bring a lot
of computer stuff it might get stolen.

But that said, 120/day is _not_ cheap. As a hacker getaway, you can book a hut
by a fjord in Norway for far less than that...

~~~
kwhitefoot
And the hut by the fjord will have pretty good connectivity too.

------
mjn
Also recommended if you find the idea intriguing, a long-form narrative
article on the subject from last year: [http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/slow-
boat-from-china/](http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/slow-boat-from-china/)

------
MCRed
I spent 6 years traveling full time from 2008-2014. One of the things that I
really liked about the way we did it is that there was not tourism involved...
we lived in each country as long as a visa would allow. For instance, in Bath
UK we got a basement condo in an ancient methodist church that had just been
converted to condos for 6 months.

This form of travel- on container ships- will show you a side of the world,
the shipping industry, the people who work in it, working ports, etc that
you'll never see on a cruise ship. The accommodations and value is probably
not competitive with a cruise ship, but the experience is not going to be
similar at all.

We spent 2 years in Chile, starting with Startup Chile-- but it really got
good when we started making friends with locals.

Tourism is a totally different experience from travel!

------
ndoherty13
I crossed the Pacific on a cargo ship last year, 26 days from Japan to Peru,
as part of a 3.5-year trip around the world without flying.

I made a video about my cargo ship experience here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9yA7KjIuw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9yA7KjIuw)

A few quick points:

1\. Yes, it is very expensive to travel by cargo ship. It cost me about $4,500
total. I'm glad I did it as it was a cool experience, but given the cost I'd
be hesitant to do it again.

2\. Why is it so expensive? Best I can tell, because the cargo ship companies
don't care. Taking passengers isn't their primary business. They're
transporting multi-million dollar cargoes, so they probably figure that if
they're going to take the odd passenger, they might as well charge a high
price to make it worth their while.

3\. For anyone interested in how to go about booking a trip on a cargo ship, I
explain how I did it and provide a few links here: www.ndoherty.com/cargo-
ship-2/

4\. Perhaps the craziest thing for me was the lack of security on the ship. My
bags were never checked at the port in Japan and the captain told me the door
code for the bridge within an hour of boarding the vessel. The bag check when
I got off the ship in Peru was also half-assed at best.

~~~
ndoherty13
Oh, almost forgot:

5\. There was very limited internet access aboard the ship. We could just send
and receive email once or twice per day. That was it. I brought a lot of books
with me on the ship and did a lot of writing, so I didn't get bored, but I
imagine most people would. I think a few days is plenty of time to spend on
such a ship unless you have a plan to make use of all the down-time.

------
freshyill
I am _extremely_ intrigued. A few weeks of mostly solitude wherein I can see a
few interesting sights, meet a few interesting people, and the whole thing is
extremely affordable? This sounds right up my alley. Now, to convince my wife
and family…

~~~
dshankar
I've been wanting to do this for years, but it's hardly "extremely affordable"
– on average, it's anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per person for a 2-4 week
trip.

~~~
Mr24601
Cruises can be waaay cheaper than that. Six adults from my family recently
went on a 9 day cruise that was really nice to the Bahamas, I think the whole
thing was under $4000.

~~~
dshankar
On a freighter? I'd love to know more.

Or one of those Caribbean leisure cruises? Those are cheap upfront - to get
you in the door - relying on in-ship purchases (like alcohol & restaurants) to
make the majority of their money.

------
dstyrb
A fun little trip on a related note is the Alaska Ferry (Alaska Marine Highway
I think) which leaves Seattle (well, suburb) and spends about 4 days heading
up to Alaska. You can sleep on the deck with a sleeping bag (or in a little
heated patio) for real cheap and get great views with chances of whales. Cost
is similar per day.

Cool little blog link: [http://jackandjilltravel.com/roughing-it-on-the-
alaskan-stat...](http://jackandjilltravel.com/roughing-it-on-the-alaskan-
state-ferry/)

------
kamphey
And if you want a bit more luxury and want to be paid for it, cruise ships are
hiring IT staff all the time. You could be incredibly under paid but still see
the world.

~~~
polimux
If you are into old school and sailing you can also go on a trip with Tres
Hombres.

Dont expect any comfort there but it's cheap and a fun.

[http://fairtransport.eu/sail-along/](http://fairtransport.eu/sail-along/)

~~~
dewey
Thanks for posting that, that's really interesting. Haven't heard about this
one before.

------
sandworm101
A very interesting concept. I like the sea but hate cruising. For me, a cruise
is basically a hotel pushed into international waters (or some other legal
fiction) for purposes of cheap labour. But a freighter seems a different
matter. I'm not saying that they pay people well, but at least taking care of
me won't be their primary job. A freighter has a job, it has a purpose for
going somewhere beyond labour laws.

And I'd bet good money there is far less risk of norovirus on an freighter
than on the floating retirement communities that are modern cruising.

~~~
sjtgraham
> For me, a cruise is basically a hotel pushed into international waters (or
> some other legal fiction) for purposes of cheap labour.

It's not a complete free for all once in international waters. The law of the
flag the ship sails under (i.e. the jurisdiction where it is registered)
applies. However, in practise many ships fly a flag of convenience, e.g.
Liberia. The minimum wage in Liberia for unskilled labour is $4/day(!)

------
advanderveer
Does it support Docker?

------
douche
My uncle did a few cruises around the world on cargo ships, it always seemed
like a great way to see the world on the relative cheap. Of course, he was a
retired, single, Army officer, so taking the months such a voyage required was
more practical for him than most.

