Cargo ship by the coast on a sunny day

A cargo ship passing the Cape Fear River

A cargo ship passing the Cape Fear River. The area has a rich maritime history with archaeology showing the practice was widespread from the 1^st millennium BC.

Ships have long been known to travel through the district carrying everything from raw copper, glass, ivory, gold, spices, and treasures from Canaan, Greece, Egypt, and Africa. 

As with any industry, the desire for improvement saw the technological advances which allow ships to travel over great distances and across seasonal changes.

The transportation of such valuable commodities in relatively unsecure containers led to the rise of piracy and although not in these waters.

Grey container ship fully loaded at sea

This image shows a fully loaded container ship on a clear day at sea.

This image shows a fully loaded container ship on a clear day at sea. The difference between a container ship and a normal cargo ship is that container ships are able to carry their entire load in truck-sized containers which can be loaded and unloaded quickly onto either docks or articulated lorries who then move them inland. 

This technique is known as containerisation and means it is easier to transport commodities and goods through different freight systems without having to adapt loads or cargo. 

Bulk cargo including grain and coal would be transported in large volumes within the hull of the vessel, whereas, break-bulk cargo such as electronics and manufactured goods are transported by container. 

Cape Ship in Dock – part of Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Maritime Agencies’ fleet

A cape ship, owned by Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Marine Agencies

A cape ship, owned by Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Marine Agencies, being unloaded and loaded with cargo by huge cranes.

Cape ships are also known as Capsize ships and were originally too large to be able to travel along the Suez Canal (larger than Suezmax and Panamax). In order to travel across the world’s oceans it meant that the ships would pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, hence their name, although the definition has changed in recent years due to the widening of the canal.

Cape ships like the one owned by Eyal Ofer in the image, are mainly used to transport raw commodities on a large scale such as coal, iron ore, etc. It is estimated that over 90% of cape ships are used to carry coal and iron ore and with the demand for this type of commodity growing, there are an increasing number of Cape ships on the sea.