God appears to have intervened on the side of wharfies at Sydney’s Port Botany after a freak storm at sea damaged millions of dollars worth of robot container cranes that are supposed to take their jobs.

Damage to the machines will not stop hundreds of jobs at Patrick’s operations at the port eventually being replaced, but it is likely to significantly delay their departure.

Patrick plans to replace straddle cranes at Port Botany with computer-controlled carriers that no longer need human drivers.

The damage was caused when a ship carrying a batch of the AutoStrad carriers en route from Poland to Australia was struck by a ‘‘significant storm’’ in European waters, the company said. Each of the new movers has a price tag of about €1 million ($1.52 million).

Thirty of the automated carriers were on board and the supplier Kalmar has told Patrick’s parent, Asciano that the majority were damaged.