A storm night on a container ship
NORTH ATLANTIC · 49.6°N 27.4°W · 03:00 · Wind 58 mph · Storm, heavy rain (the scene's setting, not live weather)
Sound on. Best with headphones, phone face down.
Field notes The North Atlantic, bound for New York
Who keeps the ships moving
About 1.9 million seafarers crew the world's merchant ships, and most of them come from developing countries. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
The world's fleet
On 1 January 2025 there were 112,500 commercial ships, able to carry 2.44 billion dead weight tons between them, 3.4% more than a year before. Greek owners had the most, 16.4% of the capacity. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
Twenty-five people, 400 metres of ship
The Ever Given, one of the biggest container ships, is 399.94 metres long, carries 20,124 containers counted in twenty-foot units, and has a crew of 25. Ships like her usually cruise at 16 to 25 knots. (Wikipedia, Ever Given (no shipping line page with the crew could be read); Wikipedia, Container ship)
Boxes over the side
In 2025 about 1,478 containers were lost at sea, out of roughly 280 million carried, up from 576 in 2024. (World Shipping Council, Containers Lost at Sea, 2026 update)
The long way round
Voyages are getting longer. The average haul went from 4,831 miles in 2018 to 5,245 miles in 2024, as security worries redrew the routes ships take. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
The biggest seas on record
The world record for significant wave height, 19 metres, was measured by a Met Office buoy in the North Atlantic at about 59°N 11°W on 4 February 2013. (gCaptain, on the World Meteorological Organization record (2016))
A gale, not a hurricane
The weather behind that record sea was a very strong cold front, with winds of up to 43.8 knots. On the Beaufort scale that's force 9, a strong gale. (gCaptain, on the World Meteorological Organization record (2016); Met Office, Beaufort wind force scale)
Sleep timer ended. Goodnight.
You're in the bunk of an officer's cabin high up at the back of a container ship, somewhere in the North Atlantic on the way to New York. It's three in the morning, ship's time. Past the foot of the bunk the stacks of containers run away under the deck lights, and far ahead the bow buries itself in a wave and throws it back white. The red night light is on, the clock ticks on the wall, and under everything there's the engine.
What a night on board is like
A ship at sea doesn't stop for the night, so the rules that protect a seafarer's sleep are written into international law. Under the Maritime Labour Convention, in force since 20 August 2013 (ILO), a seafarer's work may not go over 14 hours in any 24, or 72 hours in any seven days. Counted the other way, their rest may not fall below ten hours in any 24 and 77 hours in any seven days, and it can be split into no more than two periods, one of them at least six hours long (Maritime Labour Convention, Standard A2.3).
So at 3am somebody on this ship is on watch, and somebody else is in the middle of the six hours that are theirs. Ships like this one usually cruise at 16 to 25 knots (Wikipedia, Container ship), and a big one carries thousands of containers with a crew you could fit round two tables.
A force 10 storm
The Met Office's Beaufort scale calls force 10 a storm: a mean wind of 48 to 55 knots, with waves probably around 9 metres high and up to 12.5 metres, a sea it describes as very high. To turn knots into miles an hour the Met Office multiplies by 1.15 (Met Office Beaufort scale), so the 58 mph on this scene's card is about 50 knots, right in the middle of force 10.
From the cabin you feel that sea before you see it. The bow lifts, hangs, and comes down into the next wave, and a long way back here the whole steel block of the accommodation gives a slow shudder and settles again.
Field notes
The real place behind the scene: who lives there, the wildlife they share it with, and a few things worth knowing. The same notes open from Field notes in the player.
Who keeps the ships moving
About 1.9 million seafarers crew the world's merchant ships, and most of them come from developing countries. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
The world's fleet
On 1 January 2025 there were 112,500 commercial ships, able to carry 2.44 billion dead weight tons between them, 3.4% more than a year before. Greek owners had the most, 16.4% of the capacity. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
Twenty-five people, 400 metres of ship
The Ever Given, one of the biggest container ships, is 399.94 metres long, carries 20,124 containers counted in twenty-foot units, and has a crew of 25. Ships like her usually cruise at 16 to 25 knots. (Wikipedia, Ever Given (no shipping line page with the crew could be read); Wikipedia, Container ship)
Boxes over the side
In 2025 about 1,478 containers were lost at sea, out of roughly 280 million carried, up from 576 in 2024. (World Shipping Council, Containers Lost at Sea, 2026 update)
The long way round
Voyages are getting longer. The average haul went from 4,831 miles in 2018 to 5,245 miles in 2024, as security worries redrew the routes ships take. (UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025 (overview))
The biggest seas on record
The world record for significant wave height, 19 metres, was measured by a Met Office buoy in the North Atlantic at about 59°N 11°W on 4 February 2013. (gCaptain, on the World Meteorological Organization record (2016))
A gale, not a hurricane
The weather behind that record sea was a very strong cold front, with winds of up to 43.8 knots. On the Beaufort scale that's force 9, a strong gale. (gCaptain, on the World Meteorological Organization record (2016); Met Office, Beaufort wind force scale)
Somewhere else tonight
If you'd rather be somewhere that doesn't move, there's a lighthouse keeper's cottage in an Atlantic gale. Or sit out a storm in a crew cabin on a North Sea oil platform. Every place is on the map.