| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| Hagan Walker contemplated the geography of the planet and felt pangs of agitation. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean seemed to be stretching wider. |
| 哈根·沃克思考着这个星球的地形地貌，感到阵阵焦虑。浩瀚的太平洋似乎不断延展，越变越宽。 |
| His start-up company, Glo, makes novelty items — plastic cubes that light up when dropped in water. He started the business six years ago in the compact town of Starkville, Miss., while relying on factories 8,000 miles away in China to make his products. |
| 他的初创公司Glo生产新奇的小玩意——掉进水里会发光的塑料小方块。六年前，沃克在密西西比州的小城斯塔克维尔创业，将生产放在8000英里（约13000公里）之外的中国工厂。 |
| That distance suddenly felt unbridgeable. |
| 突然间，这段距离让人觉得难以跨越。 |
| It was December 2020, nearly a year into the pandemic, and China’s industrial might was sputtering. The factory making Glo’s next order in the Chinese city of Ningbo warned him that the costs of key materials like plastic were soaring. The shipping industry was straining under an overwhelming flow of goods from Chinese plants to American consumers. Booking a shipping container seemed akin to trying to catch a unicorn. |
| 那是在2020年12月，当时进入大流行已有近一年，中国的工业能力出现了卡顿。生产Glo下一笔订单的宁波工厂警告他，塑料等关键材料的成本正在飙升。大量的商品需要从中国工厂运往美国消费者手中，航运业变得紧张。想订到一个集装箱难于上青天。 |
| Calm and reserved, Mr. Walker, then 28, was generally comfortable with risk. In 2016, fresh from Mississippi State University with an engineering degree, he turned down a job at Tesla that would have paid him $130,000 a year. Instead, he opted to remain in Starkville, his college town, to start his own business. |
| 那时的沃克28岁，他冷静而沉着，面对风险，基本还能保持镇定。2016年，他从密西西比州立大学毕业，获得工程学位。他没有接受特斯拉一份年薪13万美元的工作，而是决定留在他大学所在的斯塔克维尔，开始自己的事业。 |
| Yet he was increasingly worried that his next order would not make it to his warehouse in Mississippi in time for Christmas — still a year away. |
| 然而，他越来越担心，他的下一笔订单可能无法在圣诞节前及时抵达他在密西西比的仓库——尽管还有一年的时间。 |
| “I was scared,” Mr. Walker said matter-of-factly. “I was willing to pay pretty much whatever.” |
| “我当时很害怕，”沃克冷静客观地说。“随便多少钱，我都愿意出。” |
| By now, the disruptions to the supply chain are widely known. The still unfolding turmoil has been amplified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine along with fresh Covid lockdowns imposed in China. Yet the story of how a single container made it from coastal China to central Mississippi shows the complexity of the troubles — a condition unlikely to give way to normalcy anytime soon. |
| 现在，大家都知道供应链的中断情况了。俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以及中国最新的疫情封锁措施加剧了仍在持续的混乱。然而，一个集装箱如何从中国沿海运至密西西比州中部的故事，显示了问题的复杂性——而这种情况不太可能在短期内恢复正常。 |
| The largest multinational retailers like Amazon and Walmart have responded to the convulsions in the supply chain by chartering their own container ships, amassing empires of warehouse space and stockpiling products. Such options are beyond the reach of small companies like Glo, which employs 27 people. Modestly profitable, the company aims for $4 million in revenues this year. |
| 面对供应链的动荡，亚马逊和沃尔玛等最大的跨国零售商已经采取了应对措施：租用自己的集装箱船，清出庞大的仓储空间，并囤积产品。但对像Glo这样只有27名员工的小公司来说，这样的选择不可能。这家公司只有中等利润，今年的目标是实现400万美元的收入。 |
| The order that Mr. Walker placed for the Christmas season just past was the most important in Glo’s brief history. His light-up cubes had begun as a playful way to garnish a cocktail. They had since evolved into the glowing midsection for a variety of children’s bath toys. The company had recently forged ties with a giant in children’s education and entertainment — Sesame Street. This order represented the debut offerings of this partnership. Glo was to produce thousands of light-up dolls in the incarnation of Elmo, the Sesame Street icon, plus thousands more for a new character named Julia. |
| 沃克为刚刚过去的这个圣诞季下的是Glo公司短暂历史上最重要的一笔订单。他的发光方块最初是一种鸡尾酒的趣味装饰物，然后开始变成各式各样儿童沐浴玩具的发光部分。不久前，该公司还与儿童教育和娱乐领域的巨头——芝麻街建立了联系。这个订单就是这一合作关系的首次供货。Glo公司打算生产成千上万个会发光的艾蒙玩偶，艾蒙是芝麻街的标志性角色；另外上万个玩偶将以一个名为朱丽娅的新角色为原型。 |
| Mr. Walker contemplated the possibility that the factory in Ningbo might prove unable to procure raw materials. He envisioned the port choked with finished products, outstripping the availability of ships. A significant delay or shortage of product courted disaster. To amass enough inventory to avoid disappointing Sesame Street, he placed the largest order that Glo could manage — 21,196 Elmo bath toys, and the same number of Julia figures. |
| 沃克考虑到了宁波工厂可能无法采购原材料的可能性。他想象着宁波的港口，那里挤满了成品，远超船只的供应。重大延误或产品短缺都会招致灾难。为了准备足量的库存，不让芝麻街失望，他下了Glo公司可以承担的最大订单——21196个艾蒙沐浴玩具，以及同样数量的朱丽娅玩具。 |
| The total cost ran $251,000, an amount just manageable without taking on debt. The order amounted to one-fourth of Glo’s anticipated sales for the year. For the first time, the company was ordering enough products to fill an entire 40-foot shipping container. |
| 总费用是25.1万美元，是在不负债的情况下刚好能付得起的金额。这个订单相当于Glo公司当年预期销售额的四分之一，是该公司首次订购足够装满一整个40英尺（约12米）集装箱的产品。 |
| This container would carry more than Glo’s usual bath toys. It was a vessel of aspiration for his company, a start-up that personified the nation’s entrepreneurial brio. |
| 这个集装箱将承载的不仅仅是Glo公司通常的沐浴玩具。对这家代表着这个国家创业热情的公司来说，还承载着它的远大理想。 |
| “I tell people all the time,” Mr. Walker said, “‘Either this company is going to go somewhere, or I’m going to be sleeping on your couch.’” |
| “我总是告诉大家，”沃克说，“要么这家公司能闯出点名堂，要么我只能在你家沙发落脚。” |
| ‘Get This Made in China’ |
| “在中国把这东西搞定” |
| A tinkerer by nature, Mr. Walker mastered a power screwdriver when he was 3, shocking his parents by using it to remove the deadbolt from the front door of his family home. |
| 沃克天生是个捣蛋鬼，他三岁时就知道怎么使用电动螺丝刀。他用它拆掉了自家前门的门栓，把父母吓了一大跳。 |
| He fashioned his first light-up cubes by inserting basic electronics into a rubber toothbrush cover. He sold his wares to local bars that stuck the cubes into cocktail glasses. When the light went out, the bartender could tell with a glance that the customer was ready for a refill. |
| 他把基础电子元件塞进一个橡胶牙刷头保护头里，做出了他的第一个发光小方块。他把这套小玩意卖给了当地的酒吧，他们把这些小方块放进鸡尾酒杯。当灯熄灭时，酒保就知道，该续杯了。 |
| Then Glo heard via Facebook from an unexpected customer, the mother of a 4-year-old boy who was autistic. Bath time had been a perpetual nightmare. Her son suffered from sensory overload and was terrified by the sound of rushing water. When she deposited a Glo cube into the bath, he was transfixed. It diverted him from his fears. |
| 后来，Glo公司通过Facebook接触到一个意外的顾客，那是一个四岁男童的妈妈，她的儿子患有自闭症。洗澡时间从来都是噩梦。因为感官超负荷，她的儿子会被水流冲刷的声音吓到。当她把一个Glo小方块放进浴缸中时，他惊奇地怔住了。这个小方块使他摆脱了恐惧。 |
| By then, Mr. Walker had been joined by a partner, Anna Barker, another recent Mississippi State graduate. She sketched out an idea for what became Glo Pals — friendly characters framing the cubes. |
| 那时，沃克的合伙人安娜·巴克也加入了进来，她也刚从密西西比州立大学毕业。她想出一个主意，给这些小方块赋予友好的形象——这成了后来的“Glo Pals”的雏形。 |
| Despite the lure of larger places with more engineering and creative talent, Mr. Walker has kept the business in Starkville (population 25,000), moving last year into a long-vacant movie theater just off Main Street. Inside, employees sit between exposed-brick walls, placing products into shipping cartons. Dogs roam gleefully through the building, along with the toddler daughter of a woman who works on the design team. |
| 尽管拥有更多工程和创意人才的大地方很有吸引力，但沃克还是把生意留在了人口2.5万的斯塔克维尔，并在去年搬到了主街附近一个长期空置的电影院。在里面，员工们坐在裸露的砖墙间，把产品装进运输纸箱中。狗狗们高兴地在大楼里转来转去，旁边是一个蹒跚学步的小女孩，那是一位在设计团队工作的女士的女儿。 |
| Mr. Walker wanted to make his products in the United States, but soon concluded that this was virtually impossible. |
| 沃克曾想在美国生产他的产品，但很快得出结论，这几乎不可能。 |
| He contacted dozens of American factories. One offered to make the steel plates used to manufacture the cubes for $18,000 — 12 times what he pays in China. Another offered a price close to what Glo pays to make cubes in China. But this operation, it turned out, was using factories in China while collecting a piece of the action. |
| 他联系了数十家美国工厂。其中一家提出以1.8万美元生产用于制造小方块的钢板，那是他在中国支付金额的12倍。另一家公司的报价接近Glo公司在中国生产小方块的价格。但事实证明，这家公司也是把订单交给中国工厂，然后从中间赚差价。 |
| In starting a new line of Glo characters, the company sought a promotional box that would open and pop up, like a children’s book. It contacted a factory in Georgia. |
| 在启动一个新的Glo角色系列时，这家公司想要做一种打开后会弹出产品的促销盒，就像儿童读物那样，于是他们联系了佐治亚州的一家工厂。 |
| “Their packaging engineers said, ‘It’s too complex,’” Mr. Walker recalled. “‘You should just get this made in China.’” |
| “他们的包装工程师说，‘这太复杂了’，”沃克回忆道。“‘你应该在中国把这东西搞定’。” |
| ‘China Now Is Crazy’ |
| “中国现在疯了” |
| Ningbo, a city of more than nine million people on the East China Sea, had been a trading power for two millenniums, dating back to its days as a hub on the Silk Road. In modern times, its factories have proliferated along with China’s industrial reach. Its port is one of the busiest on earth. |
| 位于东海之滨的宁波人口超过900万，两千多年来一直都是贸易重镇，其历史可以追溯到它作为丝绸之路枢纽的时代。现如今，它的工厂随着中国工业的发展而数量激增。其港口是地球上最繁忙的港口之一。 |
| Like factories everywhere else in China, plants in Ningbo were severely challenged by the pandemic. |
| 与中国其他地方的工厂一样，宁波的工厂也受到了疫情的严峻挑战。 |
| In late January 2020, as the first wave of the pandemic expanded, migrant workers returned home to communities across China to visit their families for the Lunar New Year. After the holiday, many opted not to return to their jobs in factory enclaves like Ningbo. |
| 2020年1月下旬，当时第一波疫情正在扩大，外出务工者纷纷返乡过春节。节后，许多人没有回到宁波这样的工厂聚集地打工。 |
| Glo had hired a company called Platform 88 to make its first order of Sesame Street characters. Before the pandemic, roughly 300 people had worked at Platform 88’s plant in Ningbo, according to its operations manager, Calvin Zheng. By March 2021 — as the factory prepared to bring Elmo and Julia to life — fewer than 200 workers were on hand. |
| Glo公司雇佣了一家名为Platform 88的公司来制作它的首批芝麻街人物。据Platform 88的运营经理卡尔文·郑说，疫情前，该公司在宁波的工厂有大约有300名员工。到2021年3月，当该工厂即将完成这批艾蒙和朱丽娅的生产时，现场只有不到200名工人。 |
| On top of the labor shortage, the Chinese government was limiting the supply of plastic by prioritizing its use for vital goods like medical devices, Mr. Zheng said. The electrical grid was buckling in the face of ramped-up factory production. |
| 郑先生说，除了劳动力短缺，中国政府还限制塑料的供应，将其优先用于医疗设备等重要商品。在工厂生产增加的情况下，电网也在崩溃。 |
| By May 2021, as the factory in Ningbo made the products, Mr. Walker went online to begin arranging shipping for his order. He consulted a website called Freightos — something like Expedia combined with PayPal for companies booking space on container ships. |
| 到2021年5月，当宁波的工厂还在生产产品时，沃克开始在网上安排订单的运输。他咨询了一个名为Freightos的网站——该网站类似于Expedia和PayPal的结合，为公司预订集装箱船的舱位。 |
| A year earlier, a container could be shipped from China to the West Coast of the United States for about $2,000. The same journey was now pushing $20,000. |
| 一年前，一个集装箱从中国运到美国西海岸的价格大约是2000美元。现在，同样的航程已涨至2万美元。 |
| Behind this surge was a shift in how Americans were consuming. Cooped up in their homes, they were avoiding restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues. But they were still spending money — on exercise bikes, desk chairs, video game consoles and kitchen appliances. |
| 这一激增的背后是美国人消费方式的转变。他们把自己关在家里，避免去餐馆、酒店和娱乐场所。但他们仍然在花钱——买健身自行车、办公椅、电子游戏机和厨房用具。 |
| Some of Platform 88’s customers were stockpiling their finished wares in China, waiting and hoping that shipping prices would decline. Mr. Walker dismissed that option. He emailed a Chinese shipping agent, ECU Worldwide, and arranged to move a partial container load from Ningbo to Starkville for $5,485.31. |
| Platform 88的一些客户把商品存放在中国，等运费降下来再运送。沃克否决了这一选项。他给一家中国航运代理公司ECU Worldwide发了邮件，安排将一个拼装集装箱从宁波运到斯塔克维尔，价格为5485.31美元。 |
| Four days after his booking was confirmed, the shipping agent wrote to tell him that she could not locate a container. |
| 在订单得到确认四天后，航运代理写信告诉他，她找不到集装箱。 |
| Two months later, in July, with transportation still not secured, Mr. Walker was consumed by worry. An agent at a freight company in Indianapolis, Cargo Services, counseled him to forget about shipping out of Ningbo and instead truck his cargo 90 miles up the coast to Shanghai, where he would find more vessels headed across the Pacific. |
| 两个月过去了，到了7月，由于运输仍然没有保障，沃克忧心忡忡。印第安纳波利斯一家货运公司的代理人建议他放弃从宁波发货的打算，改用卡车将货物运到140公里外的上海，在那里，他可以找到更多驶向太平洋彼岸的船只。 |
| “Ningbo has zero space lately,” Jefferson Clay wrote. “Truthfully, it’s all a mess, and the pricing is out of this world.” |
| “宁波最近已经没有空间了，”杰斐逊·克莱写道。“说实话，混乱极了，而且价格贵得离谱。” |
| Two days later, Mr. Clay emailed again. Shipping carriers were balking at handling a load headed inland, hundreds of miles from a coastal American port. With cargo prices exploding and containers scarce, they were intent on returning the boxes to Asia as quickly as possible, maximizing their use on the most lucrative routes — China to the West Coast of the United States. |
| 两天后，克莱又发来一封邮件。船运公司考虑不再将货物驶往内陆，那里距离美国的沿海港口还有数百英里。随着货物价格的飞涨和集装箱的紧缺，他们想要尽快把这些箱子运回亚洲，在中国到美国西海岸这段最有利可图的航线上，最大程度地利用它们。 |
| Mr. Walker contacted another company that brokers freight crossings, Baylink Shipping, based in Queens. An agent there, Harry Wang, suggested that Glo consider shipping out of Shenzhen, an enormous industrial city about 1,000 miles south of Ningbo. He cautioned that rates were climbing every week. |
| 沃克联系了另一家从事货运代理的公司——位于皇后区的百联国际货运有限公司。该公司的一位代理人哈利·王建议Glo考虑从深圳发货，深圳是一个巨大的工业城市，在宁波以南约1600公里。他提醒说，价格每周都在攀升。 |
| “China now is crazy,” Mr. Wang wrote. “Carriers are robbing shippers and importers.” |
| “中国现在疯了，”王先生写道。“承运商正在抢劫托运人和进口商。” |
| The next month, Baylink offered passage from Shenzhen to Houston for $21,500. It came with caveats. |
| 又过了一个月，百联提供了从深圳到休斯顿的航线，价格为21500美元。随之而来的还有警告。 |
| “Honestly,” Mr. Wang wrote, “overseas agents in Shenzhen can barely make bookings for space as most of the ports in China are suffering from terrible congestion.” |
| “老实说，”王先生说，“深圳的海外代理几乎无法预订舱位，因为中国的大多数港口都出现了严重的拥堵现象。” |
| Trouble also awaited across the Pacific, Mr. Wang warned. “Truckers in Houston are fully booked at this moment. We are not sure if they will take such a long haul from Houston to Starkville.” |
| 王先生警告，太平洋彼岸也有麻烦。“休斯顿的卡车司机目前都被订满了。我们不确定他们是否会接受从休斯顿到斯塔克维尔这么长的运输。” |
| Mr. Walker was soon reaching out to a third company, Seabay, based in China. On Aug. 30, he finally secured a booking: Shenzhen to Long Beach, Calif., for $28,296, with an estimated delivery date of Oct. 30. |
| 沃克很快就联系了第三家公司——总部位于中国的西岸国际货运有限公司。8月30日，他终于拿到了一个预订。从深圳到加州长滩，价格为28296美元，预计交货日期为10月30日。 |
| Normally, such quotes were good for as long as 30 days. This one expired in 24 hours, a sign that prices were continuing to increase. Mr. Walker paid immediately. |
| 通常情况下，这种报价的有效期长达30天。但这次的报价在24小时内就过期了，这表明价格在继续上涨。沃克立即付了款。 |
| Then came an alarming text from Sunny Liu, a representative at Seabay. Given a shutdown at the Ningbo port after a single dockworker had tested positive for Covid-19, Shenzhen was besieged by diverted cargo, along with the usual crush of products from factories across southern China. Mr. Walker had to get his container from the factory in Ningbo to a warehouse in Shenzhen within three days. Otherwise, the space on the ship would be given to someone else. |
| 随后，西岸公司的代表桑尼·刘发来了一条令人震惊的短信。由于宁波港在一名码头工人的新冠检测结果呈阳性后关闭，深圳被改道的货物以及来自中国南部工厂产品日常的拥堵所围困。沃克必须在三天内将他的集装箱从宁波的工厂运到深圳的一个仓库。否则，船上的空间就会让给其他人。 |
| But truck drivers, some of whom were in quarantine, were scarce. Somehow, Platform 88 found a driver and arranged to have the container carried to Shenzhen. |
| 但卡车司机十分稀缺，他们中的一些人正在接受隔离。不管怎么样，Platform 88还是找到了一名司机，并安排将将集装箱运到深圳。 |
| A Floating Traffic Jam |
| 海上的交通堵塞 |
| Glo’s container — logged in the shipping manifest as MSMU8771295 — was loaded atop the Maersk Emden, one of more than 300 such vessels owned and operated by A.P. Moller-Maersk, the Danish shipping conglomerate. |
| Glo的集装箱在航运清单上的编号为MSMU8771295，它装在马士基埃姆登号上，该船属于丹麦马士基航运集团，它拥有和运营着300多艘这样的船。 |
| By itself, Maersk moves about 17 percent of all shipping containers worldwide. It is in an alliance with the largest carrier, Mediterranean Shipping, one of three consortia that collectively move 80 percent of all containers. |
| 马士基运送的集装箱约占全球航运集装箱的17%。它与最大的承运商地中海航运公司结成联盟，后者是统共运输了全球80%集装箱的三个联合企业之一。 |
| The Maersk Emden was 1,200 feet long and 158 feet wide, or more than five times the size of the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal. |
| 马士基埃姆登号长约366米，宽约48米，其大小是中央车站主大厅的五倍多。 |
| On Sept. 12, the Emden glided out of the Shenzhen port, carrying some 12,000 containers. She stopped at Nansha, near the Chinese city of Guangzhou. She docked at Yantian, east of Shenzhen. She stopped at the port of Ningbo, by then reopened. |
| 9月12日，埃姆登号装载约12000个集装箱驶出深圳港，先在广州附近的南沙停留，然后停靠在深圳东部的盐田，随后在当时已经重新开放的宁波港停留。 |
| On Sept. 27, she embarked across the unfathomable expanse of the Pacific. |
| 9月27日，这艘船踏上了前途未卜的跨太平洋之旅。 |
| No one could have been surprised by the madness that greeted her on the other side as she arrived off the Port of Long Beach nearly two weeks later, on Oct. 9. |
| 大约两周后的10月9日，当船抵达长滩港时，另一边迎接它的疯狂景象丝毫不让人奇怪。 |
| The two ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach handle two-fifths of all imports reaching the United States from Asia via container vessels. That flow would increase by more than 17 percent over the second half of 2021 compared with the previous year. The surge proved overwhelming. |
| 洛杉矶和长滩这两个港口处理从亚洲通过集装箱船运往美国的所有进口货物的五分之二。2021年下半年，这一流量将比前一年增加17%以上。事实证明，这种激增让人难以招架。 |
| More than 50 ships were stuck out in the ocean, waiting for a dock to open in the mother of all traffic jams. |
| 50多艘船被困在海上，在严重的交通堵塞中等待码头开放。 |
| For the first six days, the Emden did not even have a place to anchor. It ran a slow, looping course in the waters off the port, before anchoring in formation with nine other vessels, roughly three miles off the coast, according to data compiled by AIS Maritime Intelligence, a unit of MarineTraffic. There, it sat for another 10 days, having become a floating warehouse. |
| 在最初的六天里，埃姆登号甚至没有地方停泊。根据MarineTraffic旗下的AIS海事情报部门汇编的数据，它在港口附近的水域缓慢地环行，然后与其他九艘船编队停泊在距离海岸大约五公里的地方。它在那里又呆了10天，成了一个漂浮的仓库。 |
| Any one vessel stuck in the water indicated that a massive quantity of goods was not getting where it was supposed to be. The Maersk Emden alone was carrying 474 containers for LG, the South Korean home appliance giant, according to customs data tabulated by ImportGenius, which tracks global shipping. Nike had 74 containers on board. Mattel, the toy company, had 96. Just as the weather was turning cold in North America, 48 containers shipped by Burlington Coat Factory were stuck on the vessel. |
| 只要有船困在海上，就表明大量的货物没有被运到应该去的地方。根据追踪全球航运的ImportGenius统计的海关数据，仅马士基埃姆登号就为韩国家电巨头LG公司运送了474个集装箱。耐克公司有74个集装箱在船上。玩具公司美泰有96个。正值北美天气转冷之时，服装店“伯灵顿外套厂”的48个集装箱也在船上。 |
| Taken as a whole, the products bobbing on the Pacific — carried to the United States not just from China but from South Korea, Mexico, Australia, the South Pacific and the Middle East — could collectively fill an empire of warehouses and shopping malls. |
| 从整体上看，在太平洋上颠簸的产品——不仅有从中国，而且有从韩国、墨西哥、澳大利亚、南太平洋和中东运往美国——总共可以填满一个帝国的仓库和商场。 |
| One ship held enough animal feed to sustain 20,000 cows for a week. Five ships collectively carried 13 million pounds of Fiji brand bottled water. Others bore enough Heineken beer to slake the thirst of every adult in San Francisco for a year. A key element for making synthetic fabrics and plastic bottles was stuck in the queue along with solar panels, chain link fencing, fabric for carpets for Tesla cars and Cornhole game equipment. |
| 一艘船装载的动物饲料足够两万头牛吃一周。五艘船总共装载了1300万磅的斐济牌瓶装水。其他船只装载的喜力啤酒足够旧金山的每个成年人一年来解渴。制造合成织物和塑料瓶的一种关键部件与太阳能电池板、链式围栏、特斯拉汽车的地毯织物和布袋球游戏设备一起被卡在了队伍之中。 |
| Mr. Walker had his sights on a single container stuck in this monumental pileup, one steel box held there by forces entirely beyond his control. |
| 沃克将目光投向了困在其中的一个集装箱，一个被卡在那里、完全不受他控制的铁箱子。 |
| The Last Leg Home |
| 回家的最后一程 |
| On Oct. 25, after 10 days of purgatory at anchor, a giant crane plucked Glo’s container off the Emden and deposited it on the dock. |
| 10月25日，经过10天的停泊，一台巨型起重机将Glo的集装箱从埃姆登号上吊起，放到了码头上。 |
| Four days later, a so-called drayage driver — the operator of a truck that loads and unloads at ports — picked up the container and hauled it to his company’s yard in Los Angeles. There it sat for two days, until another driver ferried the container to a warehouse in Costa Mesa, some 40 miles down the freeway. |
| 四天后，一名拖运司机——在港口装卸货物的卡车操作员——装起集装箱，将它拉到了他公司位于洛杉矶的货场。集装箱在那里呆了两天，然后另一名司机沿着高速公路开了大约64公里，将集装箱运到科斯塔梅萨的一个仓库。 |
| Two days after that, on Nov. 3, Mr. Walker received an alarming email from Freightos: The previous delivery date of Oct. 30 — now past — had been updated to Dec. 10. |
| 此后又过了两天，在11月3日，沃克收到了Freightos公司发来的一封令人震惊的电子邮件。原定于10月30日的交货日期——现在日子已经过了——被更新为12月10日。 |
| “I said to myself, ‘We’re going to miss Black Friday and Christmas,’” Mr. Walker recalled. |
| 沃克先生回忆道：“我对自己说，‘我们将错过黑色星期五和圣诞节。’” |
| He emailed Seabay, the freight company in China, to try to move the box faster. It directed him to its counterpart tasked with managing the final leg of the journey, Israel Cargo Logistics. Its American operations were housed in a low-slung office complex in the Rosedale section of Queens, on a street dotted by a used-car dealer, a diner and a bodega. |
| 他给中国的货运公司西岸发了电子邮件，试图加快集装箱的运输。该公司将他转给了负责管理最后一段旅程的同行——以色列货运物流公司。该公司在美国的业务设在皇后区罗塞戴尔街区一个低矮的办公大楼里，这条街道上有一个二手车经销商、一个小餐馆和一个杂货店。 |
| Inside the complex, many of the suites were vacant. The offices of Israel Cargo Logistics were on the ground floor, down a long hallway off another long hallway lined with stained carpets. There, Michael Horan, the ocean manager, sat in a cubicle in an oddly silent room, the walls white and devoid of decoration. |
| 在大楼内，许多套房都是空置的。以色列货运物流公司的办公室在一楼，沿着铺着脏地毯的走道拐七拐八的就到了。在那里，海运经理迈克尔·霍兰坐在一个隔间里，房间里异常安静，墙壁是白色的，没有任何装饰。 |
| He read a plaintive cry for help from Mississippi. |
| 他读着来自密西西比州这封悲凉的求救信。 |
| “Hi Michael, I know you’re probably hearing this from every client,” Mr. Walker had written. “This container has ALL of our packaging for ALL Christmas products that we intended to sell this year, so we’re in a tough position.” |
| “嗨，迈克尔，我知道你可能会从每个客户那里都听到这些，”沃克写道。“这个集装箱里有我们今年打算销售的所有圣诞产品，所以我们的处境很艰难。” |
| “Please let me know if there’s anything we can do to expedite the process,” he continued. “And I truly mean we. I appreciate your help.” |
| “如果我们能做些什么来加快这一进程，请告诉我，”他继续写道。“我真的是指我们。我感谢你的帮助。” |
| Mr. Walker figured that Mr. Horan was besieged by angry shippers issuing rude threats, and he bet on the power of polite discourse. He allowed himself to imagine that a truck might be secured to haul his container perhaps as far as Memphis or Dallas. Then, he would scramble to line up transport for the rest of the journey. |
| 沃克认为，霍兰已被发出粗鲁威胁、愤怒的托运人包围，所以他把赌注押在了礼貌用语的力量上。他允许自己想象，可能会有一辆卡车把他的集装箱最多运到孟菲斯或达拉斯。然后，他将赶紧为剩余的旅程安排运输。 |
| He was astonished by the email he received only 21 minutes later. |
| 仅21分钟后，他收到的电子邮件让他大吃一惊。 |
| “Hi Hagan,” Mr. Horan replied. “I have a truck picking up tomorrow from Los Angeles and will deliver to you on Tuesday 11/9.” This, for an extra cost of $1,100. |
| “嗨，哈根，”霍兰回复道。“我明天有一辆卡车从洛杉矶取货，将在11月9日星期二交付给你。”这，需要额外支付1100美元的费用。 |
| “Yes!” Mr. Walker wrote back immediately. “Let’s do it!” |
| “好！”沃克立即回信。“就这样做吧！” |
| Just before 8 a.m. on Nov. 9, Mr. Walker arrived at his warehouse, a failed furniture showroom on the outskirts of Starkville. The tractor-trailer was already there, backed up to the loading dock. The driver was resting inside the cab after his four-day, 1,900-mile drive. |
| 11月9日上午8点还没到，沃克来到他的仓库，这是位于斯塔克维尔郊区一个倒闭的家具展销厅。牵引车已经在那里，靠在了装卸台上。司机在经过四天、约3060公里的驾驶后，正在驾驶室里休息。 |
| As the driver lifted his rear gate, Mr. Walker peered in excitedly. There sat 1,595 brown cartons atop 24 pallets. |
| 当司机抬起后库门时，沃克兴奋地朝里面看去。24个货板上放着1595个棕色箱子。 |
| Mr. Walker and three employees wielded electric pallet jacks to move the goods into the warehouse. An hour later, a Glo truck began collecting some of the cargo to take it to the old movie theater downtown, where employees began preparing shipments for customers across the United States and around the world — in Belgium, Dubai, Singapore. |
| 沃克和三名员工指挥着电动货板搬运车，将货物搬进仓库。一小时后，一辆Glo卡车开始捡收部分货物，将其运往市中心的老电影院，那里的员工开始为美国各地和世界各地的客户准备发货，包括比利时、迪拜和新加坡。 |
| Watching this process unfold, Mr. Walker felt an overwhelming sense of relief. |
| 目睹着这个过程的进行，沃克感到如释重负。 |
| But before the day was done, anxiety had returned. Given what he had endured, he was already looking ahead to the 2022 Christmas season, readying ever larger orders as a hedge against new troubles emerging somewhere on the pathway between China and Mississippi. |
| 但在这一天结束之前，焦虑感又回来了。鉴于他所经历的一切，他已经开始展望2022年的圣诞季，准备好迎接越来越大的订单，以抵消在中国和密西西比州之间某处出现的新麻烦造成的损失。 |
| “It’s the whole cycle all over again,” he said. |
| “整个过程都要再来一遍，”他说。 |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们