Containers

Two containers adrift in vicinity 23-50N 118-18E and 23-48N 118-16E at 180755Z nov

South China Sea · HYDROPAC 887/98

What this record establishes

Archived notice · 1999-01-01 00:00Z

This notice comes from the historical archive. Its archived status does not establish when or how the reported situation ended.

Source and dates: NGA MSI broadcast-warn JSON (archive, frozen 2024-05). Issued 1998-11-19 01:35Z. First collected 2026-08-17 13:38Z; last seen in collection 2026-08-17 15:46Z. Collection dates record ingestion, not a new incident or a fresh field observation.
Location covered: South China Sea. The parsed report position is 23.817, 118.283. It is a position in the source message, not a live location. Check the original wording for limits and qualifications.

Current notices and reporting history in the South China Sea →

issued: 1998-11-19 01:35Z
status: Archived notice
sea: South China Sea
position: 23.817, 118.283
containers: 2
source: NGA MSI broadcast-warn JSON (archive, frozen 2024-05) · first seen 2026-08-17 13:38Z

Original warning text

TWO CONTAINERS ADRIFT IN VICINITY 23-50N 118-18E AND
23-48N 118-16E AT 180755Z NOV.

Reading this warning

Lost containers: Shipping containers lost overboard, reported floating or semi-submerged, often in groups after a single incident.
Adrift: Loose and moving with wind and current — a vessel, container, buoy, log or anything else no longer secured.
Position (degrees and minutes): How warnings write positions: degrees, a hyphen, then minutes, with N/S and E/W — 49-40.8N 003-43.8W.
Date-time group (DTG): A compact UTC timestamp — day, hour and minute followed by Z — such as 201500Z for the 20th at 15:00 UTC.

All warning terms →

Collected reports in this area · drifting containers

5 within 180 nm since 1998 · 0 in the last 12 months · 0 listed in force now

Counts include repeat notices about the same situation. NGA archive coverage ends 2024-05; live collection began 2026-08-17. The period between them is incomplete. An empty year is not evidence that no hazards occurred.

20 containers adrift in vicinity 22-29N 119-41E at 140918Z jan2017-01-16
White container adrift in 22-27.9N 119-40.9E at 150400Z jan2017-01-15
Container adrift vicinity 22-13.6N 118-43.4E at 130530Z oct2014-10-13
Container adrift in 22-35.3N 116-48.2E at 300648Z dec2011-12-30

Month of issue in the collected archive

All available years combined. Uneven collection and repeat bulletins affect these counts; this chart does not measure the seasonality or probability of incidents.

Nearby notices listed in force · within 120 nm

No other collected notice is currently listed in force within this radius. This does not establish safe conditions.

Worldwide in the collected sources

0 drifting containers listed in force · see all

Record snapshot 2026-10-01 17:12Z; source collection times vary.

Containers

Shipping containers lost overboard and reported adrift or semi-submerged. All current drifting containers →

Not for navigation. This is a re-rendering of an official navigational warning for awareness; mariners must use official NAVAREA broadcasts and their national MSI service.