Standard Shipping Note: Fill & Download for Free

May I present to you the humble container:Source: Gazouya-japan, CC BY-SA 4.0 via WikipediaA standard shipping container is around 20-feet long and can hold up to 53,000 lbs. (~26 tons) worth of goods and materials. The 20-foot container has become the industry standard for shipping containers through a measure called the Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit or TEU for short.Currently, the largest container ship in the world is the OOCL Hong Kong, commissioned in 2017. It has maximum capacity of 21,413 TEUs. Here she is, making her first port-of-call in Europe at Felixstowe in Suffolk:Source: Vessel FinderThe world’s busiest container port is located in Shanghai. Each day it stacks and unloads around 100,000 TEUs worth of containers, or the equivalent capacity of five ultra-large container ships like the OOCL Hong Kong.Source: Marine Vessel: Shanghai Container TerminalThe Great Pyramid at Giza is comprised of approximately 2.3 million stones weighing an average of 3 tons each [1]. Assuming average container weight of around 14 tons [2], this is equivalent to around 490,000 TEUs.This means that from a single large port in China, once every five days the equivalent weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza is loaded onto container ships and shipped thousands of miles to places all over the world.So do I think modern-day humans could handle building the Great Pyramid if we really had to? Yeah … I am pretty sure we got this.Notes:[1] Source: Live Science: How Much Would It Cost to Build the Great Pyramid Today?[2] Source: Maritime Executive: Filling Ultra-Large Container Ships

I fought this one out very early in my career as a litigator, at a time when I thought that when a judge threatens a lawyer with contempt, she/he really meant it. I had made arrangements to bond out with a local company, and had consulted a local attorney who must have smiled at me, but not when I was looking because I was so sincere.The issue was simple. Here we have a standard shipping agreement which includes a provision for arbitration. My clients wanted to arbitrate a dispute over demurrage and some other charges, and the other side did not, and was in a Chapter 11 proceeding. The judge set the dispute for trial over my objection that forcing my clients (and myself) to trial would require that we abandon the appeal we already had on some related points - one of which was over what the trial judge could and could not hear. The judge set the whole thing for trial and said if I didn’t appear and go forward, he would hold me in contempt. It was my first contempt. I was still very new at this litigation thing, and assumed he meant it. But I could not betray my client’s interests either. So I bucked myself up and on the day trial announcements were due, I renewed my objection and prepared to suffer for my intransigence. The judge merely made a note and said “okay, next”. I had to ask the clerk what that meant. Was I going to jail? Was there a hearing that I had missed? No, the judge looked at my brief and had just passed on the trial. As far as I know, and I looked in Benedict, it is still something of an unsettled issue - probably because baby lawyers who can be bluffed are in short supply.

In the picture below, these are US ships. Note the helicopter at the stern of the ship second from the top.From USNI News:That helicopter is a SH-60 Seahawk, with a length of about 65 feet.There is no standard Somoli pirate vessel, but in general, they use small open fishing boats, smaller than SH-60 helicoptor. Most pirates are desperate fishermans and sailors.And one of the larger ones.A US warship could simply run through the mass of small boats or small warships, plowing them under the bow of their ships. Use of on board weapons not required.