Made on Earth (8 page)

After 10 hours or so, the tense atmosphere finally lifts. It is the middle of the night when a glittering theatre of light suddenly appears in front of the
Dhaka
. Where, moments before there was only darkness, suddenly there are hundreds of columns of light. The sound of helicopters and car horns carry across to the ship on the breeze. There is the scent of rain after it has evaporated from warm streets. This is unmistakably Singapore, the small city-state at the most southern point of the Asiatic mainland.

Singapore was built as a centre for world trade by the British over 250 years ago, and today, Singapore has the largest container harbour in the world. This is where the axes of world trade cross paths: from the Far East to Europe, from the Far East to Southeast Asia/the East, and from the Far East to Australia. Around 20 million containers pass through this port each year, and that number increases annually. That’s about 63,000 containers
every
day. A harbour is only capable of moving this much cargo by being exceptionally well organised. Singapore itself is renowned for being a very orderly and well-run city. For example, it is illegal to drop used chewing gum on the streets, and smokers may only partake in their favourite habit in specially designated glass booths. Everything runs like clockwork here. Within five hours the
Dhaka
has been unloaded.

27 September 2005

The container from Bangladesh holding the fleece body warmers only has to wait 21 hours before a crane loads it into the depths of a huge freighter. The
World Star
has dropped anchor in the dock. It’s one of the world’s newest and most state of the art container ships: at 312 metres long, it can hold up to 8,400 containers. The
Dhaka
was only delivering to a single destination – which in shipping terms is a fairly straightforward process. It’s a completely different matter when you have 8,400 containers to deliver to 12 different destinations. Not only must the containers be unloaded correctly at all 12 harbours, but new containers must be loaded on in their place.

Loading the ship to result in as few container moves as possible during loading and unloading is a real art form. This is organised at the shipping company’s headquarters by engineer Walter Smith. Although Walter is an expert in calculating optimum loading arrangements, the process can still take several days. Once the final loading plan is agreed, boarding engineer Philipp Connor monitors the loading and unloading of each container on his computer screen. On screen, the containers are colour coded by destination: red containers go to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), green to Barcelona (Spain), yellow to Southampton (England), violet to Rotterdam (the Netherlands), and blue to Hamburg (Germany – where our fleece container is going). Empty containers are coloured grey, but are usually only found on the journey from Europe to Asia. Containers loaded with dangerous substances are highlighted as hazardous, and stowed in a particularly safe area of the ship.

During loading and unloading, the boarding engineer has to keep a close eye on the distribution of weight across the ship. The ship cannot be allowed to list (sit lower in the water on one side than the other). If too many containers are loaded on either the port or starboard side, he must stabilise the ship by filling the ballast tank on the opposite side with water. About 2,000 containers need to be loaded and unloaded in Singapore. The
World Star
has exactly 20 hours to complete this process. Twenty hours – that’s 1,200 minutes, which works out at just over 30 seconds to move
each
container. When the
World Star
leaves Singapore, it is carrying 8,023 containers, arranged in 19 rows. Each row is composed of up to 25 blocks. In these blocks, containers are piled on top of one another from the bottom of the ship up to the 15th or 17th decks. A single block can be up to 40 metres high – as tall as a nine-storey house. Our fleece container is tucked in the middle of the ship: row 15, block 12, fourth storey.

Container Ships

In 2007, there were 3,500 container ships spread across the globe. Yet by 2017, it is predicted that a further 5,000 container ships will have been built and put into use. In 2005, the largest freighters could carry 8,400 TEU containers. By 2006, the
Emma Mœrsk
, at 387 metres in length, could carry up to 15,200 TEU containers. And in 2011, the same company ordered 10 container ships with a capacity of 18,000 containers to be built.

Until the 1970s, Europe led the way in shipbuilding. But Japan soon took the lead – producing ships both faster and more cost-effectively. By the 1990s, Korea had overtaken Japan. The majority of orders for tankers and container ships went to Korea. These days, it looks like China will soon take the shipbuilding title from the Koreans. European shipbuilding, for example in Germany, is generally more specialised, focusing on feeder ships (smaller cargo ships) and passenger ferries
.

28 September 2005

Half an hour behind schedule, the
World Star
leaves the harbour terminal in Singapore and enters the Strait of Malacca. It is night, and the crew are on high alert. However, they aren’t as afraid as the crew of the
Dhaka
were. Large freighters like the
World Star
are much more difficult for pirate crews to attack, as they are as tall as tower blocks and fly through the narrow strait at 24 or 25 knots (about 45 kilometres per hour). Despite its speed and massive scale, the
World Star
does have one weak spot: the quarterdeck. This open deck at the back of the ship is situated closer to the water than the ship’s side-walls. It’s used to take on supplies at port, but it can also be used by pirates to gain access to the ship.

When a small, unknown ship approaches the rear of the
World Star,
Captain Neubold sounds the pirate alarm. Eight members of the crew run to the quarterdeck and release the huge water hoses that are used to fight fires on board. If intruders try to get on board, the crew will shoot them with powerful water jets from the hoses into the sea. Perhaps the pirates suspected the crew were prepared for them, or perhaps they were only harmless fishermen racing the freighter for fun? Either way, the
World Star
is spared.

Every month, five or six pirate attacks are reported in Southeast Asia. If pirates succeed in boarding and taking a 200 to 300 metre ship, they can make a lot of money. Sometimes they tie up the crew and rob the safe. More often than not they kidnap the crew and demand a ransom. Sometimes, they give the ship a different name and unload it at a port where paperwork isn’t high on the customs officers’ list of priorities. A list of ships that have recently gone missing, known as ‘phantom’ ships, is pinned up in the control room of the
World Star
as a constant reminder of the threat of pirates.

30 September 2005

Eight hours ago, the
World Star
finally left the Strait of Malacca, and has set a course of west-south-west. The risk of pirate attacks has passed, but now the crew are faced with a new threat: boredom. All they have to do is stay on a direct course for 3,000 kilometres, across the middle of the Indian Ocean. Then they will change course, and head for the Red Sea.

This is a good time to learn more about the
World Star
. The
World Star
is owned by a German shipping business, but sails on behalf of a group of Norwegian companies. The group of Norwegian companies are run by an Austrian boss, who is based at their headquarters in Hong Kong. The ship flies the flag of Panama, the captain is German, the on-board engineer is British and the rest of the crew are from the Philippines. The ship was built at the Daewoo shipyard in South Korea, and is currently carrying goods from China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh. It is also carrying Australian goods to be shipped to markets in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and the Baltic region.

Logistics in the Age of Globalisation

Our fleeces and their raw materials will have travelled over 25,000 kilometres before reaching their final market destination of Hamburg. That is a relatively short journey compared to many other products. The individual materials that make up a thermos flask, for example, may travel up to three times around the
world
before the finished flask reaches its marketplace.

Experts at large companies are constantly asking: how can we break down the production process to make it more cost effective? Where are the cheapest raw materials and manufacturers? Where is the best value workforce? The success or failure of globalised production is all down to the cost of transporting materials around the world. Thanks to container ships, transport costs are so low they have virtually no impact on profits.

How much does it cost to transport a bottle of wine from Australia to Europe? In 2005, it cost €1,000 euros (about £675 pounds) to send a shipping container from Asia to Europe. Nine hundred and ninety-nine crates of wine, each holding six bottles of wine, can fit into a single shipping container. This works out at a shipping cost of €0.16 euros (about £0.10 pounds) per bottle. To send a fleece body warmer from Asia to Europe costs even less, only five or ten euro cents per item. The difference in cost depends on how well the container is packed. If oil does start running out in the next few years, the price of shipping will rise. No one really knows how much longer the individual materials that make up a thermos flask can be sent three times around the world before entering the marketplace.

5 October 2005

The
World Star
has left Saudi Arabia’s container port in Jeddah two hours late. Although the ship can carry up to 8,400 containers, and left Singapore with 8,023 containers, the number has now dropped to 7,923. One hundred containers have been ‘extinguished’ (removed and not replaced) in Jeddah. If these containters were placed in one long line, they’d cover a distance of 48 kilometres – about the same distance as from Düsseldorf to Cologne (or central London to Gatwick Airport).

Though container ships filled with yellow, blue and red metal boxes seem boring on the outside, the contents of the containers themselves are fascinating. From Australian wines to electrical appliances to tonnes of fabric, the containers can hold absolutely anything. Removal companies are also using shipping containers more and more frequently, for customers who spend their lives having to travel for work from Europe to Asia or vice versa.

The crew can only guess at what goods the
World Star
is carrying based on the cargo list. From the outside, all 7,923 containers are identical. But what’s going on with container C 53-786-23-894 in the fourth row, fifth level up? A red fluid is leaking out of it and running down the other containers in its block. It looks like it’s bleeding. According to the cargo list, the container is filled with animal furs heading to Spain. It appears the furs have been sent straight from the slaughterhouse without any further processing or preparation. The smell coming from the container is disgusting: they’re really starting to stink.

While the cargo waits quietly, packed into colourful containers, the crew live in the high, white deckhouse at the ship’s stern. Right at the top of Deck A (the top deck) is the bridge and the control room – the brain of the ship. Deck B is the ship’s stomach, where the galley and the canteen are located. Deck C is reserved for communal spaces, such as a TV room and a gym. Decks D through to G are the private rooms of the captain and crew. Below them are the engine rooms, generators that produce the electricity to run the ship, and the ship’s motor, which is as tall as a six-storey house. It provides 93,000 horsepower – that’s the same amount of horse power as produced by 700 people carriers.

This powerful motor allows the ship to run exactly according to schedule. The docking space at each port needs to be booked and paid for in advance, so the
World Star
must hit specific times and dates. The crew can use the powerful engine to make up lost time at sea, flying across the water at 26 knots (48 kilometres) per hour.

Punctuality is especially important for the next leg of the journey: sailing through the Suez Canal. One hundred and fifty years ago, the canal was dug through the desert that separated the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. It is 195 kilometres long with an average width of 205 metres. These days, large container ships and tankers are so wide that the canal can only be sailed through in one direction at a time. The ships sail in convoy. If a ship misses its spot, it will have to wait for at least two days while ships from the opposite end of the canal make their way through. The
World Star
has managed to avoid this fate. It has made it across the Red Sea in good time to join the correct convoy.