This fleet of empty ships sits idle off the coast of Singapore waiting for the end of the recession to kick in. With Christmas orders long in and a long way down on previous years, something like 500 ships do nothing but try to fend off pirtates with scant on-board staff
“Ah Wat says: ‘We don’t understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.’ “
And the funny thing is while these boats sit there rusting away orders made years ago for new container boats are being delivered righht now, such is the lag time in manufacture.
It reminds me of Neil Stephensons Snow Crash where hundreds off boats are all lashed together to form an interanational community off-shore. Perfect for some 20-20 matches?
[care of boingboing]
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