Sitting in Hong Kong harbor one afternoon, I watched container ship after container ship set sail across the Pacific, piled unbelievably high with cargo modules. I asked my host, "How can that be stable?"
"It isn't," he replied, "but manufacturers calculate that shrinkage from being washed off the deck is cheaper than using less densely packed ships."
That can't be right, I thought. Apparently it is. Worldwide, about 10,000 cargo containers fall overboard each year. Oceanographers are using that flotsam to chart surface currants and swirls.
