Viewing a Leaving Container Ship

The above picture was published in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL dated Friday, August 30, 2013.

According to the photo description, the ship was carrying a full loaded export cargo leaving San Francisco Bay in June as an evidence of strong U.S. exports, but actually the ship appeared to be evidence to the contrary.

The high freeboard, which revealed part of the bulbous bow and large portion of the ship’s red bottom section, proved the ship was extremely light loaded. It meant that the containers onboard were all empties, which were re-positioned (shipped back) to the exporting countries for loading more batches of cargo to the U.S. for the oncoming Christmas sales drive.

Usually, for stability, the ship will take in lots of sea water into her ballast tanks to keep her center of gravity down in the voyage.

觀察一艘駛出境的貨櫃船

上面是2013年8月30日華爾街日報所刊的一張照片。

根據照片下方的說明，那艘貨櫃船正滿載著貨物駛離舊金山灣，用以說明美國出口貿易的轉旺，可是實際上這張照片正說明了相反的話──美國出口貿易毫無起色，目前正在加強迎接進口貨，以應耶誕節的促銷。

請看那艘出港的貨櫃船，水面以上高高的船舷(high freeboard)連帶露出了船艏球莖狀道流鼻(bulbous bow)，以及一大片塗有紅漆的船底部份，這都說明了那艘船非常的輕載，哪像是滿載出口貨的船！船上所載的貨櫃肯定都是空櫃，是調度運往出口國裝載下批貨物來美之用。

通常爲了航行平穩，這條船將會在壓艙水槽中打入大量海水，以降低船的重心。