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These large ships are not like pleasure boats -- each one is tracked throughout its voyage and port-calls by Shipping news media. Of course, there is still a risk of hijacking or piracy, and certainly smaller exposions (one or two containers).

I must respectfully disagree. I'm an attorney who has had some cases in admiralty, and had some exposure to the international shipping industry...and let me tell you, there are a LOT of big ships out there being run by some really sleazy "businessmen", moving unannounced from port to port just ahead of creditors and admiralty marshals out to seize them for debts owed. The shipping news media not only misses a lot of what goes on, it sometimes actually helps out shady operators (who are also their advertisers and subscribers) with disinformation and rumor-mongering.

I could go on about things I've seen with my own eyes: safety regulations ignored to the point of ships putting to sea with completely inoperable lifeboat davits painted over with shiny white paint, to nighttime seizures of 40,000+ ton ships by skeleton crews/goon squads hired by "financial consortiums" (with harbormasters bribed with a few cases of Heineken to look the other way), to ships changing their names and destinations in mid-ocean to satisfy someone who finds their contract suddenly inconvenient (and yes, there are false sinkings reported). The lawlessness of the modern shipping industry is one of the biggest unreported business stories of the new century.