It was Aug. 30, 2020. The Gulf Livestock 1 was steaming into the path of Maysak, a Category 4 typhoon that was hurtling up the Philippine Sea with 130 mph winds and 20-foot waves. Even the sturdiest cargo ship would take a beating in such conditions. But for the Gulf, Maysak spelled catastrophe. Gulf Livestock 1 was due to arrive at Tangshan, a massive Chinese port complex about 100 miles from Beijing, in four days. It was the height of pandemic gridlock in ports around the world, especially in China, where ships often waited more than two days to offload. For the Gulf, which carried a shifting, easily frightened cargo of 5,867 dairy cattle, every extra day at anchor heightened the risk of the animals becoming ill or dying—and of costing the exporter and ship owner money. The ship continued its route towards China. The eventual sinking of Gulf Livestock 1 was the worst disaster in the history of the live-export trade, an industry made up of about 150 ships with a market value totaling as much as $30 billion. While the industry’s size makes it a tiny fraction of the $2.2 trillion global commercial shipping fleet, which numbers around 100,000 vessels, the live-export fleet was already disproportionately prone to catastrophic accidents. This story was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a nonprofit investigative news organization. 0:00 Introduction
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