The Empty Armada
See this? This is a representation of the ships, on ghost/skeleton crews and devoid of cargo, sitting off the coast of Singapore. They’re waiting for work. According to a few articles around, it’s been massing since sometime at the start of the year. The economy has decimated the shipping industry, leaving these slow monsters to wallow and wait.
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.
Photos and another article here.
Thanks to Joseph A Holsten, et al, for the heads up.
Triviality: as a Singaporean, until I read the attached article I had thought that the description of the coastline was from the perspective of Singapore, which was…odd, because in my twenty years of living there I had not been aware that we had bamboo huts and fishing villages.
It’s a tad misleading: that description isn’t from the coast of Singapore, but the location of where the fleet is is listed as off the coast of Singapore.