CONTAINER SHIPS TRANSPORT JUST ABOUT everything. The world wants more of all of it. So the ships are getting bigger, as are the shipping channels, port complexes, and loading cranes. “All over the world they’re expanding and expanding, and building more and more terminals to accommodate more and more vessels,” says Captain Erduan Murtaza, speaking on the bridge of his nearly 10 million cu. ft. container ship, the Gerda Maersk. Outside the windscreens, thousands of containers, painted in dull primary colors, are stacked nine levels high on the deck. Onshore, in an Elizabeth, N.J., container terminal, many more of these steel boxes spread into the distance like disassembled pieces of a giant’s play set.
When it was built in 2009, the Gerda Maersk was one of the largest container ships…