NATO C-17 purchase

[Sea Toby]

I agree, there are other means to islands less than a days sail away. But Canada sent aid to Jamaica three sailing days away. Columbia is four days away. Brazil is five sailing days away. Anchorage is two sailing days away from Seattle. Add another sailing day away from San Francisco.

Say the Danish want to send relief aid to Greece. How many sailing and train days away is Crete from Copenhaven?

 

[swerve]

I agree, there are other means to islands less than a days sail away. But Canada sent aid to Jamaica three sailing days away. Columbia is four days away. Brazil is five sailing days away. Anchorage is two sailing days away from Seattle. Add another sailing day away from San Francisco.

Say the Danish want to send relief aid to Greece. How many sailing and train days away is Crete from Copenhaven?

Frankly, Danes sending immediate relief aid to somewhere like Crete, other than specialist equipment & skilled staff, is a classic example of "let's do something to make ourselves feel good", rather than being effective. It's hard to imagine a disaster in Crete for which everything needed (except sniffer dogs, IR sensors, etc) wouldn't be available close by in large quantities. And that is the same anywhere in any rich country, & quite often in poor countries. What's usually needed is skilled people (fly them - in a standard passenger jet) & money, to buy stuff locally. Spending $1 on buying supplies locally will usually buy what it costs $10 or more to ship in as emergency aid.

Oh, and 3-4 days by train & ship.

 

[kato]

People sometimes don't realize how "connected" Europe is. I can be in 75% of Europe within less than 48 hours, using trains as my primary means of transport. That includes at least half of Russia, btw.

And no need to transfer the containers even. Quite a lot of ferry lines and terminals operate train ferries, supporting driving a train straight on the ferry at one end, and off it again on the other side.

 

[swerve]

...
And no need to transfer the containers even. Quite a lot of ferry lines and terminals operate train ferries, supporting driving a train straight on the ferry at one end, and off it again on the other side.

And with passenger trains. I've been on a few ferries without having to get off the train.

You can ship a container from Glasgow to Guangzhou without it ever leaving the train. Or from Stockholm to Sicily, which used to mean 3 ferries. They run across the Bosporus, so your container can reach the Persian Gulf on the same railcar. And within Europe, there are effectively no barriers to cross-border road transport, & ro-ro ferries across every bit of water that doesn't have a bridge or tunnel, & some that do, which also doesn't quite sink in for a lot of non-Europeans, who don't see foreign-registered lorries in their home towns every day.

We really ought to revert to the topic. This digression started out having some relevance, but I fear it's wandered too far.