[imagesource: YouTube / World of the wild]

In the world of shipping, there’s usually no such thing as an inexpensive mistake. If you mess up you tend to mess up on a monumental scale and there’s no hiding.

Just ask the person who wedged the Ever Given ship across the Suez Canal. Not your best work, pal.

In general, moving goods by container ship is one of the safest ways to get your cargo from point A to point B without a hitch.

Unfortunately, every so often, things can go horribly wrong and the cameras never stop rolling.

To put it mildly, the ships below didn’t quite reach their destinations unscathed. The bigger they are, the harder they fall – that old chestnut:

The blue structure collapsing at the 30-second mark somewhat resembles a defeated person collapsing on the couch.

Heads will have rolled.

The world of shipping is enough of a logistical nightmare without container ships destroying cranes and rear-ending other boats. There’s route optimisation, currency cover, tariff determination, customs regulations, packaging requirements, marine insurance, and all those other fun moving parts to consider.

Thankfully, one of South Africa’s largest private-owned logistics companies, Berry & Donaldson, has been helping our importers and exporters navigate the labyrinth that is international freighting for over half a century.

It’s a great place to start to ensure you never see your goods feature in a video like that one above.

[source:youtube]