Why Isn't There...?

[HissyFit]

Because they attach to each other using twist locks, which acts as the cement in your analogy. The bottom layers are tied on with lashings. It takes quite a lot to upset a boxship and its stacks, and stack collapses are usually more to do with misdeclared weights than being knocked off by the vessel rolling. Latest stats show fewer than 800 a year lost overboard.

The bonding of brickwork is not the cement, it is the stacking of bricks so that they interconnect, such as flemish bond, garden wall bond, etc. You don't see bricks stacked one on top of the other with just cement between them, other than when using thinset cement, which is more like glue than cement. Even cavity walls have cavity wall ties joining the two leafs.

As a column of boxes increases in height it must put a great strain on the couplings of the lower layers when underway, as it is effectively a long lever.

 

[newtothis]

The bonding of brickwork is not the cement, it is the stacking of bricks so that they interconnect, such as flemish bond, garden wall bond, etc. You don't see bricks stacked one on top of the other with just cement between them, other than when using thinset cement, which is more like glue than cement. Even cavity walls have cavity wall ties joining the two leafs.

As a column of boxes increases in height it must put a great strain on the couplings of the lower layers when underway, as it is effectively a long lever.

It does, but naval architects have put quite a bit of thought into the topic over the last 60 years of containerisation. Stacking the boxes so they are stable is something of a science too. I'm sure some of the boxship masters who habituate this site can give you chapter and verse on what goes into a loading plan. Given the 80m or so boxes shifted by sea each year, to lose less than 800 a year shows they system works pretty well given the circumstances in which they sail. I'm not sure how many brick walls could take a hit from a wave during a Force 10.

 

[HissyFit]

60 years? Wow. I thought that it was within my lifetime. Still, above 700 boxes lost per year seems a lot to me, especially if they can remain buoyant for some time and be encountered by small boats at inopportune moments.

To be honest, considering the cr@p shipped out of China in these things, I would be happy if there wasn't 80m of them shipped per annum.

 

[newtothis]

The Ideal X voyage from NY to Houston in 1956 is generally regarded as the birth of containerisation as we know it.