Again and again we ask the same questions: why can’t we make bike parts in America, why can’t we manufacture shovels, why can’t we produce our own flyswatters or kitchen cabinets?
Anyone who has spent any time on Tybee Island and sat and watched, mesmerized, as the huge container ships from all over the world navigate their way into our port might ask those questions - as well as how in the world are those behemoths going to make the bend into the Savannah River and then downtown. They just look so close to shore.
A few years ago one ship came in that was as long the Empire State Building if it were floating on its side.
Skilled tugboat operators bring them in, of course. Otherwise they’d be stuck between tides. But money is the reason behind their popularity. It’s so much cheaper to pay someone in China to make the goods and then float them to us than to hire someone a few states away who could truck the derailers or bicycle handles our way.
For overseas goods we have always used cargo ships but we didn’t always use containers, those steel boxes some 20- to 40-feet long and eight-and-a-half feet tall.
Credit: Margarita Bourke/ForSavannahNow.com
Credit: Margarita Bourke/ForSavannahNow.com
Shipping containers have become very popular for other things as well. Some people live in them shabby chic because it’s a cheap option and they could get their hands on one and they were handy with tools; others because when pushed together with the right builder and plan they can become architectural wonders and artistic statements.
We see these floating cargo vessels all the time. At any given day there are, I just read in a New Yorker article, some 6,000 cargo ships in the oceans, many of them headed to our popular Savannah port. In a year that translates to a quarter of a billion containers every year. That's a lot of Christmas decorations, dog collars and flat-screen TVs.
They don’t need a lot of people on these ships either. The article said one of the larger container vessels that might carry as many as 23,000 containers might have a crew of 25.
We like our products. We love our credit cards and debit cards. We have an itch to spend. Because of the pandemic and a new habit to shop on-line, the demand has increased. We are weak for the latest hombre shirt, off-the-shoulder top or mid-length-skirt. Last year’s style just won’t do.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
I know this because this is time of year people “go through their closets” and get rid of stuff they have either never worn or didn’t really like in the first place. Somehow I’m on the receiving end of these items friends and relatives no longer want but don’t can’t bring themselves to throw away. Maybe they feel sorry for me and my limited (but treasured) wardrobe. I like frayed collars. I like shirts with history. Nonetheless large black plastic bags of pants, shirts and even bathing suits keep ending up in my house. Some of the items are almost new, others still have tags on them.
“Just look,” someone will say. “You might find something you like.”
The thing with the humongous freighters (that have gotten all the larger with all the more demands for SOMETHING NEW) is this: they can topple over. Not good for the fish, the marsh, the water. In 2020, 1,382 did just that. This was reported by the World Shipping Council, a trade organization, even though shipping lines don't report this.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Factor in high winds, sudden storms and changes in the weather and that’s a lot of plastic Lego parts and bits of Styrofoam floating in on our beaches. Just ask the Tybee Clean Beach patrol about that. They’ll tell you.
Here’s the last paragraph of the story about a container ship that ran aground off the coast of the Isles of Scilly in England. Read it and weep.
“… residents and beachcombers kept coming across some of the cargo: a million plastic bags, headed for a supermarket chain in Ireland, bearing the words, ‘Help protect the environment.’”
Maybe it’s time to curb our spending.
Jane Fishman is a contributing lifestyles columnist. Contact her at gofish5@earthlink.net or call 912-484-3045. See more columns by Jane at SavannahNow.com/lifestyle/.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Bigger and bigger container ships sail through Savannah’s port. What does all the stuff get us?
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