Miscellaneous desk
< January 11	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 13 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 12

Foundering

How often do container ships sink? Temerarius (talk) 14:55, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Try googling "how many container ships sink each year" and you'll find a number of answers. Unfortunately all different. Jahoe (talk) 15:11, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Allianz publish a useful annual review

https://www.allianz.com/en/search.html#searchTerm=shipping%20review

AGCS-Safety-Shipping-Review-report-2018.pdf

Also distinguish between sinking (rare), grounding and wrecking (more common) and cargo lost overboard (very common indeed). Andy Dingley (talk) 15:33, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

surely “cargo lost overboard, or coveted by seamen” is very common indeed. How could an insurance company or shipper tell the difference? Temerarius (talk) 15:58, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Most cargo lost overboard these days is lost as whole shipping containers.[1] It's very difficult to gain access to those during a voyage. Where access is needed, those containers have to be loaded in particular locations on the ship. In most of the spots they're just too close together to open the doors. Andy Dingley (talk) 17:25, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The hard part is dividing the number of losses by the total number of container ship ‘’trips’’ taken. That s how to answer “how often.” DOR (HK) (talk) 19:25, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I question whether "how often" has to be on a per trip basis. It could also be "per time" period. Nil Einne (talk) 16:36, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

So, a single loss in 1768 would be 100% of all containerships, but only a tiny portion of all voyages that year. Which is the more useful measure?DOR (HK) (talk) 18:03, 19 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This suggests the World Shipping Council also regularly publishes numbers [2] Nil Einne (talk) 16:36, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Ship losses are documented at the various lists of shipwrecks, such as List of shipwrecks in 2018. Every year is covered by a list, sometimes as part of a list by decade or century, depending how far you go back. Mjroots (talk) 20:54, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

More information on this stamp, please?

Could someone please help me identify this stamp? I cannot seem to upload it to Wikipedia, as it is not my own work, so I am including a link to TinyPic.

http://tinypic.com/r/1055gu9/9

Thanks for any pointers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Username1023 (talk • contribs) 18:25, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The black stamp superimposed says "Zanzibar". Favonian (talk) 18:29, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. It's the stamp underneath that I'm after, though, not the cancellation, but thank you. Username1023 (talk) 18:33, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

But that's a big clue: "Before 1895, unoverprinted stamps of India were used in Zanzibar... 1895 Stamps of Zanzibar [were] stamps of British India Overprinted" First Stamps of Zanzibar. The accompanying illustrations have the same head (Queen Victoria) although your stamp seems to have a different legend from those which say "INDIA POSTAGE", but I can't read it. I'm not sure yours is actually a postage stamp as it lacks perforated edges, which were introduced in 1854. Alansplodge (talk) 23:48, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

See also Postage stamps and postal history of Zanzibar, which links to this page. My guess is that your image is from a pre-printed envelope; they were made in the local newspaper office which had the only printing press, due to the shortage of Indian stamps - see the last paragraph. Alansplodge (talk) 23:53, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Like this one I found on eBay. The legend says "ONE AND A HALF ANNA" and has been overprinted with "ONE ANNA". Alansplodge (talk) 00:10, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Now uploaded to Commons; see above. Please add to the description/ categoris there. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:26, 15 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Now done Andy Mabbett. Alansplodge (talk) 20:40, 19 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]