The dockworkers strike prompted a conversation with my mom about loading/unloading ships in the pre-container age (or before they completely took over). When I was one yr old, we took a Yugoslavian cargo ship NYC to Italy. My mom described the loading of all kinds of cargo without containers.

She described all kinds of cargo lashed to the top of the ship, unprotected. Lumber, clothes, cars. She painted a picture of chaos often interrupted by rain, including men trying on hats from the cargo. We got stuck in various ports due to weather so our trip took almost a month instead of a week.