Alaska to Seattle AML barge in trouble near Bella Bella BC

Neither of these vessels would work. The large one couldn’t get into Bethel, Saint Paul, or any number of other Western Alaska ports because of size. The smaller ship might fit, but couldn’t carry enough containers to make it worthwhile. Barges have a relatively shallow draft, are readily loaded with forklift or crane, and are 100 percent flexible with what can be loaded. It’s not that companies haven’t tried to use small ships for this work in the past– they have, but I suspect the experiment failed because they couldn’t carry enough containers to be profitable.