The world’s largest armada
The fleet of ships anchored off the coast of Malaysia is larger than the British and American navies combined. It is “surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history,” noted Simon Parry in the Daily Mail. Where are they headed?
Nowhere.
These are “ghost ships”—tankers and freighters from the world’s largest shipping companies sitting idle, waiting for business.
“They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia,” writes Parry.
He continues:
The world’s ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world’s economies. So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year.
“Before, there was nothing out there—just sea,” said local fisherman Ah Wat. “Then the big ships just suddenly came one day, and every day there are more of them. Some of them stay for a few weeks and then go away. But most of them just stay.”
At night it would be beautiful sight, were it not so ominous. Parry continues:
The size of the idle fleet becomes more palpable when the ships’ lights are switched on after sunset. From the small fishing villages that dot the coastline, a seemingly endless blaze of light stretches from one end of the horizon to another. Standing in the darkness among the palm trees and bamboo huts, as calls to prayer ring out from mosques further inland, is a surreal and strangely disorientating experience. It makes you feel as if you are adrift on a dark sea, staring at a city of light.
“We don’t understand why they are here,” said Ah Wat. “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.”
The ships are proof that the global demand for shipping has collapsed. Last summer it cost £185,000 (us$300,000) to charter a bulk freighter. Earlier this year, that figure fell to £6,100 (us$10,000). Naturally, shipping brokers and financiers are not happy. “Do not tell these men and women about green shoots of recovery,” writes Parry. “As Briton Tim Huxley, one of Asia’s leading ship brokers, says, if the world is really pulling itself out of recession, then all these idle ships should be back on the move.”
Ignore the so-called green shoots the mainstream press likes to play up; the world’s stranded ghost ships reveal the true health of the global economy.
