Captain Dante Addug must have been uneasy thinking about the 48 hours to come. It was Aug. 30, 2020, and his ship, 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 almost certainly promised catastrophe.
The Gulf was due to arrive at Tangshan, a massive port complex about 100 miles from Beijing, in four days. It was the height of pandemic gridlock ...