Felixstowe Port

Meanwhile we counted 50 ships in the southern anchorage outside Europort the other week. There is however one big difference. Of the 50 or so ships only three were container ships. The rest were loaded bulk carriers ready to discharge a cargo.
 
Bonus Doom!

German port workers strike…

Another strike at major German ports as pay negotiations break down again - The Loadstar

(You will notice the reference to the “avalanche” of container ships heading for Europe…

“At last week’s TOC conference in Rotterdam, Lamia Kerdjoudj-Belkaid, secretary general of the Federation of Europe Private Port Operators (Feport), told delegates her members did not expect the congestion to ease until next year.

“”Ports’ worry is that the return to normal will coincide with the third-quarter peak season and before the current problems of port congestion and the lack of drivers are solved.

““An avalanche of vessels is coming to Europe, but the yards are already fully utilised. We do not see the congestion being cleared until 2023 because they are so worried about absorbing the bulk of vessels coming from Shanghai,” she said

“Nicolette van der Jagt, director general of Clecat, told The Loadstar today there were “no real signs of improvement in the coming weeks.
“This leads to port congestion and vessels being redirected to other ports to load and unload cargo and ultimately hinders the proper movement of goods.

“””The lockdowns in China worsened this situation, but I also hear from freight forwarders that the problems are equally bad for export containers. They are delivered to the terminals subject to initial closing dates, but vessels are delayed or even blanked – but the containers are already in the terminal, waiting to be shipped by delayed or blanked vessels, adding to D&D costs.”
 
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Too much like hard work. Problems are always much more complicated and challenging to solve than first meets the eye. It's much easier and more immediately satisfying to attack imagined conspiracies!
When you consider the effort required by most conspiracy theories, you very quickly realize that it would be much less effort if things happened the way they were supposed to! My favourite is the Apollo Moon Landings. If they were faked, you just need to think of the number of people who would have to be convinced to stay quiet and how likely it is that at least one of them would spill the beans! You simply COULDN'T keep a secret like that; too many people would have to know. Faking things like speed of light delays convincingly would be difficult, and so on and so on. Frankly, building a rocket and sending it to the Moon is far easier!
 
We've had a family friend visiting from Cornwall this week, and have travelled around a bit. There were ships anchored in the Southwold Anchorage (en route to Hamburg, 2x MOL Container jobs), Harwich Anchorage and the London Anchorage...
 
I had a pint the other day and very expensive it was.... When I had drunk half of it I was pleased that I still had the other half to drink
 
When you consider the effort required by most conspiracy theories, you very quickly realize that it would be much less effort if things happened the way they were supposed to! My favourite is the Apollo Moon Landings. If they were faked, you just need to think of the number of people who would have to be convinced to stay quiet and how likely it is that at least one of them would spill the beans! You simply COULDN'T keep a secret like that; too many people would have to know. Faking things like speed of light delays convincingly would be difficult, and so on and so on. Frankly, building a rocket and sending it to the Moon is far easier!

Tingemouth Electron?
 
Tingemouth Electron?
Uncovered exceedingly easily, and suspected by people like Chichester even before the Electron was found. He'd never have got away with it, and he knew that he wouldn't once Tetley was out of the race; his only hope was to come in second and trust that no-one would look too closely at the runner-up.
 
Uncovered exceedingly easily, and suspected by people like Chichester even before the Electron was found. He'd never have got away with it, and he knew that he wouldn't once Tetley was out of the race; his only hope was to come in second and trust that no-one would look too closely at the runner-up.

Which is exactly why he failed. And illustrates the price of trying such a deception. As you say, far easier to do the actual job than fake it.
 
Uncovered exceedingly easily, and suspected by people like Chichester even before the Electron was found. He'd never have got away with it, and he knew that he wouldn't once Tetley was out of the race; his only hope was to come in second and trust that no-one would look too closely at the runner-up.
Which is exactly why he failed. And illustrates the price of trying such a deception. As you say, far easier to do the actual job than fake it.
Teignmouth Electron...

Err did he plan to Fake It ? I understood that it all happened or came about as a result of other failings , events that along with his own failings ended with the very unfortunate fatal results

My understanding from reading lotsa info was that a combination of failngs , events , outcomes , folly perhaps brought about the enevitable outcome ; If so twas not a contrived plot to deceive but a sad outcome enevitable as against all odds as these odds stacked up ?
 
Err did he plan to Fake It ? I understood that it all happened or came about as a result of other failings , events that along with his own failings ended with the very unfortunate fatal results

My understanding from reading lotsa info was that a combination of failngs , events , outcomes , folly perhaps brought about the enevitable outcome ; If so twas not a contrived plot to deceive but a sad outcome enevitable as against all odds as these odds stacked up ?
He knew from the beginning that he was insufficiently prepared (because of time pressures, all sorts of short-cuts had been taken when building the Teignmouth Electron (for example, the problem with the hatches in the hulls), and NONE of his much-vaunted electronics were installed) and certainly decided to try deception at a very early stage, if not before setting out. It's fairly clear from the books that if he had felt able, he would have called it off before leaving - but he was unable to discuss it with anyone, and felt that his family's future welfare was tied up in it. My own opinion is that the first few days out he realized that a) the boat wasn't up to it (he might have realized that on the delivery trip, when it was clear that the boat couldn't do the required speeds) and b) he wasn't up to it. At that point, he concocted a very clever scheme to fake position reports (for example, he only transmitted when he was on a bearing that was appropriate for his claimed position). But his deception certainly started very early in his voyage, and wasn't just something that he fell into.

It's a very sad story of a person who put himself in an impossible position, and was psychologically unable to back down.
 

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