How many ships?

[valerief]

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but does anyone know how many cargo ships travel across the Pacific between North America and China/India every day? Couldn't find it in my google searches.

BTW, I'm merely curious. Don't need to know this.

Thanks.

[pscot]

1. right now there are probably 100

big ships in Puget sound; spread from Tacoma to Vancouver, with more moving in and out every day. The total for the whole China trade must run to thousands per week up and down the coast.

[valerief]

2. Thanks. Is this a guess? nt

[pscot]

4. A guesstimate

Based on this.

[valerief]

5. Thanks!

[Travis_0004]

3. Go to www.marinetraffic.com

You can view all the large ships out there. It really only tracks ships close to the coast, but it gives you an idea. I've sailed across the Atlantic solo before, and I can tell you there are a lot more than you think. I was never more than a few hours away from another boat. (which is good to know, because if you were on a collision course with another boat in 3 hours, you might want to set the alarm to wake you up in 2 hours.


The active global shipping fleet is about 17 milllion TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit), or a 20 foot container.

So lets think of a ship that is large, but can still fit through the panama canal. It would be called a panamax. (which can hold around 5,000 twenty foot shipping containers, or 5,000 TEU. If every ship is this size, that would mean there are 3,400 in the ocean. There are some larger ships, and some significantly smaller, but the extremely small ones may not be crossing the ocean as much.

If I had to guess how many large cargo ships are out there, I would say around 5k. I guess it depends on where the cutoff on a large ship is. And its only I guess. I could be way off. I know you asked how many cross the pacific each day, and I didn't directly answer your question, but it should get you in the right direction.