
Cleaning the Ship's Cargo Hold (2019) [video] - CaliforniaKarl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is4cqxLM-N4
======
amingilani
There's a story at the end [0] where he talks about a country whose ports ask
for $5000 bribes to pass cleaning inspections. Comments in the video suggest
it's Argentina, and I found a this [1] article supporting that theory.

I was half expecting it to be my own, honestly.

[0]: [https://youtu.be/is4cqxLM-N4?t=397](https://youtu.be/is4cqxLM-N4?t=397)

[1]: [https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/case-study-
view/maritime...](https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/case-study-
view/maritime-anticorruption-network-argentina-collective-action)

~~~
fuzzfactor
On the chemical tankers, we often check empty compartments for cleanliness
before certifying suitable to load sensitive industrial chemicals.

Especially after they imported some of those nasty food grade commodities.

This requires more than just standard laboratory methods.

Turns out I am one of the pioneers of this.

Haven't chemically sampled compartment walls myself in years, but it's dark
down there with only small access openings in the deck overhead, climbing down
a very tall vertical ladder with your gear then back up with your samples. You
need a safe, reliable industrial operator with explosion-proof equipment, and
very judicious sampling approach.

For decades I've heard that cleaning and testing delays are easily overcome in
many parts of the world where the presure to expedite the movement takes form
in ways which would be considered irregular in my port.

------
chrisbennet
My friend has a business descaling ships with his own device. The device
consists of a "pressure washer" "robot" that sticks to the side of the ship
with combination of magnets and suction.

The motor+pump for "pressure washer" is about the size of minivan and resides
on it own trailer. The "pressure washer" (if you made it a single nozzle) will
cut through an inch of steel. The magnets are arranged in a pattern called a
Halbach Array that concentrate the magnet force on one side of the array.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halbach_array](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halbach_array)

~~~
vervez
Halbach array AKA fridge magnet.

~~~
chrisbennet
I don’t believe this is true at all. Educate me though, I’m wrong a lot. :-)

~~~
vervez
You're not wrong, I'm just saying they're synonymous.
[https://www.hsmagnets.com/blog/halbach-
array/](https://www.hsmagnets.com/blog/halbach-array/)

~~~
chrisbennet
Ah, thanks!

"Halbach arrays now have many applications and are used in a range of systems
of varying complexity. One of the simplest applications of Halbach arrays is
in refrigerator magnets. In this case the one-sided flux properties are
exploited in order to boost the holding power of the magnet. Variable arrays
of magnetics rods can also be combined to create simple locking systems. If
the magnetizations of the rods are arranged so the field is maximised above
the plane and minimised below it, the flux confinement can be flipped by
rotating each rod 90 o."

~~~
chrisbennet
And yes, I _was_ wrong.

As we say in my household: "You were right. I was wrong. You are the superior
being."

------
econcon
One of the guys I know who works for customs. Once we were sitting in family
setting a guy started saying well you guys can afford these lavish parties
because of bribe income in customs job and his wife was like "those rich men
make too much money, if we take a part of it, it doesn't affect much".

But little did she know that big guys in export import business can afford to
pay bribes but it over the time results in small guys finding it hard to
compete.

The guys who paid bribes usually got the value of goods lowered so ended up
effectively paying less import duties compared to the guy who were not asked
any bribe because they were too small.

~~~
jablan
We have a joke about customs workers:

A group of customs workers discuss a birthday present for one of them. One
suggests, a car. Nah, too small, say the others. Another one, an apartment.
Nah, too small... What about letting him work one shift alone? Now easy there,
tiger.

------
sho
Thanks for this channel. Whiling away the hours at my high-tech, well-paid but
fundamentally pretty unromantic desk job, I often indulge my inner boy's
fantasies about running away to sea. Here's another sea-cargo-themed channel I
have watched almost every video from:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGpdSarF_FdCygiA1tOl6Cg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGpdSarF_FdCygiA1tOl6Cg)

~~~
chrisseaton
Have you though about joining your country’s naval reserve?

~~~
a3n
Well, that would be all that, plus military life and military pace of
operations. Think twice, and go for it, if that's for you.

------
Animats
There are robots for that now.[1] They're not intelligent, just mobile
pressure washing nozzles that can climb steel with magnets. So, instead of a
fire hose from far away, you get a pressure washer up close to the surface.
Seems to be used more on dirty holds, where you need more pressure to blast
the gunk off.

[1] [https://youtu.be/C4PQKSaHT6I](https://youtu.be/C4PQKSaHT6I) [2]
[https://youtu.be/R2lmDWU2BXU](https://youtu.be/R2lmDWU2BXU)

~~~
brailsafe
This is pretty cool, but actually looks even more tedius than manually hosing.

~~~
Animats
It does. It looks like it's for dirty holds where manual hosing from a
distance isn't enough. Somebody or something needs to get a pressure nozzle up
close and personal to the dirt. On a vertical surface in a moving ship, that's
better done by a robot that can use magnets to climb steel.

------
smackay
So where does all this dirty water go?

~~~
ornornor
In the sea, of course. We all know the solution to pollution is dilution, and
that the oceans are infinite so they can take infinite amounts of it before we
have a problem.

------
remarkEon
So ... What country do we think he's talking about at the end of the video,
which is extorting all cargo ships at port?

~~~
aemreunal
The YouTube comments suggest it's Argentina. They also suggested Google'ing
"Argentina Cargo Hold Bribe".

------
supernova87a
Maybe a more ideal strategy would be to have the ship carry progressively
dirtier and dirtier loads, so that the cleaning can be postponed to the last
cycle to get it back to "clean". Instead of having to wash and alternate
clean-dirty-clean-dirty.

~~~
kevingadd
Even if your cargo is "dirty" that doesn't necessarily mean you're okay with
impurities (i.e. waste from whatever happened to be in the holds last). It's
just dirty because it tends to leave more residue behind and that residue
might be harder to clean off. Someone hauling coal or silver or something
isn't going to be any happier having corn husks mixed in with their material
than the recipient of a big load of corn would be to discover there's silver
mixed in.

------
euph0ria
I was wondering about the heavy machines, such as excavators, being used to
offload the food. What about oil and hydraulic leaks into the food? Feels
somewhat unsanitary but is there something mitigating that?

~~~
MisterTea
It looks like they don't use those types of machinery to unload food. The shot
showing some kind of grain being loaded was using a chute and not a bucket or
excavator. I assume they use a vacuum system to unload food as it is cleaner
and faster.

Though, it is wild to think that the grain in your bread was sitting in a
cargo hold which previously could have been filled with coal or scrap metal
covered in greases, oils, heavy metals, paints, fluids, etc. I hope they
really do clean the hell out of them.

~~~
zdw
Ever changed the oil in a car, then cleaned up and made dinner later with the
same set of hands?

We're really good at cleaning things.

~~~
riffic
You wear shop gloves I assume?

------
malkia
Learned about Argentina too!

------
sghiassy
Anyone know why these types of ships don’t use the standard 20/40ft containers
like regular cargo ships?

~~~
Johnny555
I don't know if this is the reason but it'd take a lot longer to fill and
stack then unstack and empty 200 containers than it does to fill one cavernous
space.

Then you still have to clean those containers just like they are cleaning the
ship.

~~~
sghiassy
I was thinking filling it would be faster, but unloading the sand they way
they did, scoop by scoop, seemed like it’d be slower.

Also, I was thinking that if they used containers they wouldn’t need to clean
the ship (or at least not to food grade) since each cargo would be in its own
compartment.

~~~
tawm
The shipping industry offers a transportation service to its customers. In the
bulk area, not leaving your customers to clean hundreds of containers is part
of the service.

