Look around you. Chances are that something in your line of sight sailed on a cargo ship. 90% of the world's goods travel over the ocean, often on cargo vessels mammoth in scale: a quarter mile long, weighing 250,000 tons, holding 12,000 containers of goods collectively worth a billion dollars. Unlike airplanes, trains, and trucks, cargo ships are in nearly constant operation, following cyclical routes across oceans. A "post-Panamax" container ship, so named because it's too large to fit in the ...