Ask Slashdot: Transporting Computers By Cargo Ship? 249
JabrTheHut writes "I'll be packing up and moving to another continent soon. Everything I own will be packed up into boxes and loaded onto a cargo container, which in turn will be loaded onto a ship and will sail from Northern Europe, through the equator and then to its final destination. It will be in transit for up to 8 weeks. What do I need to do to ensure my stuff survives the trip? I've got anti-static bags and silica gel for graphics cards and hard disks, which won't be in the computers, mostly, when they move, and some of what I own will be crated in order to protect both against physical damage and humidity. I'll throw in a couple of packets of silica gel into each box or crate. Clothes get moth balls. But what have I missed? Will the printer ink survive? Do I have to worry about batteries? What haven't I thought of?"
Talk to Missionaries (Score:4, Interesting)
You should talk to missionaries who go for long term assignments. They typically ship the bulk of houshold goods by ship because it's cheaper. Biggest problem is dealing with the customs workers on the other end. One trick was to put a cute cuddly child's toy on the top of each box or container. The customs guy would often take that and leave the rest. That was 30 years ago.. Don't know what is the best nowadays.
One lady had to pack 4 years of tampons. Customs guy had never seen them before. Husband went to pick up the barrels (45 gallon drums) and was a bit of a joker. Q. "What are these?". A. "What do you think?" Q "Some kind of new cigarette?"
I did this a bit over two years ago (Score:2, Interesting)
I packaged the computers in their rack, pulled the hard disks, they were hand carried. I did make one mistake, my container (and computers) were inspected, and I had already set the computers to EU voltage, lost a motherboard and 2 power supplies.
No real special care needed to be done, the container was loaded by the shipping company, and all my stuff arrived just fine in Finland after about about 2.5 months later. Only real hassle was the car, the rest was just tax free and easy as "removal goods" as per EU regulations.
Prepare to lose everything (Score:5, Interesting)
Prepare to lose everything you pack in the container. Cargo ships will pack as many cargo containers into them as they can and whatever won't fit into the hold will be strapped to the deck. It is not unknown for cargo containers to be washed overboard during a storm. A shipment of rubber ducks that were washed overboard ended up helping scientists track ocean currents. See the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_Floatees
Re:Heat. (Score:4, Interesting)