Slice-Ship Panamax +

The expansion of the Panama Canal is impressive, but global trade is expanding at a greater pace than the locks can accommodate.

By 2013 the Canal will be able to accommodate ships carrying 18,000 cargo containers, yet the progression of need indicates that it should be able to accommodate ships carrying 31,000 containers by 2016.

Current ships are loaded with individual containers that were transported to the ship by a truck or railcar. We do not load the tractor in with the trailer, nor do we keep the driver and the cab attached to the trailer. Each container is completely separated from the propulsion unit and the aerodynamic elements of the cab.

In the same way, the ship, loaded with containers from China should stop at the Pacific end of the Canal, disconnect the section loaded with freight and only send the freight through the Canal. This way we could increase the freight throughput by about 30 percent.

Once the freight carrying section gets through the lock, it would be attached to a completely different engine, prow and bridge for the trip up the East Coast, Europe or the Middle East or Africa.

This (Slice-Ship Panamax +) as I call it, would have other advantages. It would be able to attach several container sections together and with one crew, one engine, one bridge and one prow take the freight to its final destination. Loading and unloading would be fast, with one segment of the ship detaching outside of the port, and another – fully loaded – segment would attach to the ship.

Freight going from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans would also disassemble before entering the Canal, send it’s freight through, and reassemble on the Pacific side with the separate, and much more powerful engine, bridge and prow all locked together as if one ship, though made up of several multiples of same sized container carriers.

World trade is expanding at a phenomenal rate. New ships on order already exceed the capacity of the expanded Panamax. The new concept of freighter that goes to pieces at the sight of the Canal would increase freight throughput significantly.

Add to this a container of the maximum size that can fit though the Canal could enclose a number of small boats trying to cross and send them through as if one freighter, packed together before they even approach the locks.