It’s Not Always Smooth Sailing

Life isn’t always smooth sailing, and neither is the life of a cargo ship on the open sea. Ocean waves can have a profound effect on your products if your packaging isn’t in order.

6 Types of Wave-Induced Motions

Ocean waves cause six types of intense ship motions—and if you don’t take some of those motions into consideration, they will wreak havoc on your packaging and the products within.

MOTION NUMBER 1: Heaving
Heaving is an upward and downward force applied along the ship’s vertical axis. There’s acceleration and deceleration in this movement.

MOTION NUMBER 2: Swaying
Swaying is the side to side motion where, again, there’s significant acceleration and deceleration.

MOTION NUMBER 3: Surging
Surging is when the ship is accelerated and decelerated in a forward or backward motion.

MOTION NUMBER 4: Rolling
Rolling is when the ship . . . rolls over its own center of gravity.

MOTION NUMBER 5: Pitching
Pitching is the ship motion where the bow is lifted and the stern lowered, and vice versa—like a horrible teeter-totter on the ocean.

MOTION NUMBER 6: Yawing
Yawing is when wave action causes the ship to rotate around its vertical axis.

Want to Learn More?

After reading this post, we hope that you are more enlightened about waves and their effects on cargo ships.
Maybe this post even helped you consider your current or your future packaging.
To learn more, watch the video linked above!

To learn more about the world of logistics and freight forwarding courses, check out The Cooperative Logistics Network's suite of online courses on SOC Containers, International Transportation and Trade, and more.