Monday, September 14, 2009

Ghost Ships

From the Daily Mail.

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.

It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world’s ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world’s economies. So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever-present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year.

Ghost Fleet

Empty Container Ships

Ghost Fleet at Night

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

finally a post with substance and value

Anonymous said...

Always posts with substance and value.
This post confirms what is happening on the rails. An amazing amount of unused freight cars are parked on rail lines that have become dead storage. The old NP line north of Rogers, ND has miles of boxcars. North of Lakota, ND, there are miles of cars of unknown type. Devils Lake, ND has hundreds of lumber cars, box cars, and container cars near its old Great Northern roundhouse location. The old Soo Line west of Egeland, ND has hundreds of coal or gravel cars. I believe the old Great Northern branch line north of York, ND has a large number of cars as well. North Dakota has become a dead storage yard for the railroad much like Singapore for ships. All are waiting for the next world war that Obama is bringing us towards.