
The shipping network that keeps the world running - jonbaer
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150209-the-network-that-runs-the-world
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AndreasM
I recently read The Box[1] by Marc Levinson. It is an excellent read which
explains how the container came to be - it's really fascinating to think that
this ubiquitous thing was only invented about 50 years ago.

The book is very entertaining and informative, though it has a rather US-
centric approach (being Danish, I obviously looked for when Maersk would be
introduced, but they are barely mentioned). I especially enjoyed the
explanations of how shipping worked before "the box." Dockworkers' unions were
extremely powerful, to the extent of introducing ridiculous rules. E.g. "seven
people must be assigned to each hatch on the ship, even if there is not enough
for them to move there, and they are not allowed to help crews at other
hatches." They went to extreme lengths to protect their jobs, and ultimately
failed because they would not accept that they could not stop the container.

[1] [http://smile.amazon.com/Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-
Econo...](http://smile.amazon.com/Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-
Economy/dp/0691136408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423655225&sr=8-1&keywords=the+box+marc+levinson)

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contingencies
I just finished _Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible
Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your
Plate_ by Rose George. It focuses more on the life at sea, working conditions,
regulation, changes in the industry, pirates, ransoms, and other things. Broad
scope, readable, interesting, unique, recommended.

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acrooks
The company I work for, www.stage3systems.com, builds logistical web apps for
marine shipping and related industries - our software covers the full spectrum
of the industry from vessel construction to port agency.

I've been at Stage 3 for about two years and it has been incredibly
fascinating learning about the business from the inside. As efficient as they
may appear, the day-to-day operations of the businesses within shipping are
generally riddled with piles of paper documents and mountains of email. And
we're trying to pivot their centuries-old workflows which is an incredibly
eye-opening and difficult problem.

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chadk
More power to you! I worked in fuel shipping and bunkering, and the fact that
many times a day I had to haul a typewriter up 60ft of rope ladder to produce
receipts to be signed by the captain/chief eng. because the only tech they
trusted was CARBON PAPER in the year 2008 simply boggled!

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acrooks
I know, it just completely boggles the mind. One of the products I lead is
based around agency operations - these guys are probably some of the heaviest
paper pushers in the industry. And I'll walk into an office and see them
creating them with typewriters, by hand, or slowly tapping away at their
keyboard into Word, burning through a five-figure annual printer budget. A
port call will involve a few dozen documents (B/Ls, customs forms, etc). One
of the product modules effectively automates that and it's an incredible
impact on their workload.

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macmac
If you find container shipping interesting, and perhaps Maersk specifically,
Markus Völter did an episode [1] on the topic on his Omega Tau podcast a while
back. The episode also goes into some depth about how optimisation is applied
to some of the processes in the industry. Full disclosure: I am one of the
interviewees.

[1] [http://omegataupodcast.net/2014/04/146-container-
shipping/](http://omegataupodcast.net/2014/04/146-container-shipping/)

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vincvinc
For that extra sense of perspective, trying opening one of the many cargo
tracking apps and make them display all the ships in the world.

[http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shiplocations.phtml](http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shiplocations.phtml)
[http://www.marinetraffic.com/](http://www.marinetraffic.com/)

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snksnk
Log into a Bloomberg terminal and use the BMAP function. Lots of fun: (near)
real-time tracking of cargo vessels plus their cargo, and a lot of other
interesting data re commodities, weather, etc.

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mdisraeli
At EMF Camp last summer, Dan W gave a great talk about his similar Unknown
Fields trip on a container ship. This by far was one of the highlights of the
event, as it was extremely insightful into this hidden world. You can watch
the talk at
[http://www.iamdanw.com/said/emfcamp/](http://www.iamdanw.com/said/emfcamp/)

Dan is now writing up the journey, you can follow his tales at
[http://www.iamdanw.com/postcards/](http://www.iamdanw.com/postcards/)

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JumpCrisscross
> _It 's a hypnotic, fascinating dance to watch: the cranes lifting containers
> off the ships, the trucks pulling up in time to catch them as they are
> elegantly lowered down on steel cables._

What is a good video of this?

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gambiting
Not entirely what you asked for, but:

1) It has plenty of shots of ships 2) is really cool to watch anyway

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE)

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argc
I have such a sense of awe when looking at pictures of container ships. This
article sums it up pretty well. Capitalism certainly has its downsides, but
results in some pretty amazing things. Then again, the same could be said
about totalitarianism. I guess you could generalize it to: modern powerful
entities can do amazing things.

~~~
fit2rule
You can't get anything big done without power, and often times that power
requires the needs of the group to be greater than the needs of the individual
..

