How That Massive Ship Got Stuck in the Suez Canal—and Why Nobody Can Get It Out
Hey, YOU try dislodging something that weighs 200,000 metric tons.
Mar 25, 2021
A colossal container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on Tuesday has ensnarled one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in a marine traffic jam.
Two days later, more than 100 container ships are still waiting at each end of the canal as tug boats and dredgers struggle to free the Ever Given, which weighs 200,000 metric tons and stretches 1,300 feet long.
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From what I read it seems that this kind of accident already happened twice in the last few years, even if not of this magnitude.
Maybe I'm naive, but I thought that a ship should be "certified" to cross Suez. With bigger and bigger ships going around and no modernization of the Canal itself, this kind of SNAFU is bound to happen again.
"Yes darling, I served in the Navy for eight years. I was a cook..."
"Oh dad... so you were a God-damned cook?"
(My 10 years old daughter after watching "The Hunt for Red October")
Well if think about it, put a big ship through there, like something bigger than this one and use explosive to block it for strategic point (sunk of course). I mean if i was the enemy, i would try something like this.
Well if think about it, put a big ship through there, like something bigger than this one and use explosive to block it for strategic point (sunk of course). I mean if i was the enemy, i would try something like this.
That actually was the opening move for the Japanese in "The Great Pacific War" by H.C Bywater: blocking the Panama Canal by exploding a freighter full of explosives.
"Yes darling, I served in the Navy for eight years. I was a cook..."
"Oh dad... so you were a God-damned cook?"
(My 10 years old daughter after watching "The Hunt for Red October")
Well if think about it, put a big ship through there, like something bigger than this one and use explosive to block it for strategic point (sunk of course). I mean if i was the enemy, i would try something like this.
That actually was the opening move for the Japanese in "The Great Pacific War" by H.C Bywater: blocking the Panama Canal by exploding a freighter full of explosives.
I was wondering if CCP or the Russia are planning anything like this, things are getting ugly out there now and dont wanna be friends anymore.
In Turtledove's the "Bombs Away" trilogy, the Soviets block both Panama and Suez through two A-bombs loaded on unsuspecting neutral (Greek, I think) freighters,
In Turtledove's the "Bombs Away" trilogy, the Soviets block both Panama and Suez through two A-bombs loaded on unsuspecting neutral (Greek, I think) freighters,
Yeah i can imagine a russia sub shoot a nuke torpedo in that canal, you can get a free car wash, if you get there in time.
Hmm. I've spent half a dozen years in Cairo. Went to War museum as a far as I remember in the early 90's. Gamal Abdel Nasser was very respected about Suez. Passed Suez to northern Nile to Aswan 1 time through canal which was very very narrow. I think they didn't enlarge canal for farmlands.
Back in the day we used to say "If WWIII breaks out, the Suez Canal is not a place you want to find yourself..."
Actually, if war breaks out period, the Suez Canal is not a place you want to find yourself. [:D] Witness the dilemma of the Yellow Fleet.
Between 1967 and 1975, fifteen ships were trapped in the Suez Canal after the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt. The ships became known as the Yellow Fleet because of their appearance from desert sand swept onboard.
During the war, Egypt blocked both ends of the canal to prevent its use by Israel. Scuttled ships, sea mines, and other debris continued to block transport through the canal until the wake of the Yom Kippur War, after which the blockade was lifted. A 1974 clearance operation enabled the ships to leave, after eight years of being stranded.
In early 1975, the Suez Canal was once again opened for international transport, and on 24 May 1975, the German ships Münsterland and Nordwind finally reached Hamburg port, cheered by more than 30,000 spectators. They were reportedly the only ships to have returned to their home port under their own power. For the Münsterland this was the end of a voyage to Australia which had lasted eight years, three months and five days
One of the German ships had a cargo of eggs and fruit. What a mess. [:'(]
ne nothi tere te deorsum (don't let the bastards grind you down)
If duct tape doesn't fix it then you are not using enough duct tape.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the universe-Einstein.
Back in the day we used to say "If WWIII breaks out, the Suez Canal is not a place you want to find yourself..."
Actually, if war breaks out period, the Suez Canal is not a place you want to find yourself. [:D] Witness the dilemma of the Yellow Fleet.
Between 1967 and 1975, fifteen ships were trapped in the Suez Canal after the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt. The ships became known as the Yellow Fleet because of their appearance from desert sand swept onboard.
During the war, Egypt blocked both ends of the canal to prevent its use by Israel. Scuttled ships, sea mines, and other debris continued to block transport through the canal until the wake of the Yom Kippur War, after which the blockade was lifted. A 1974 clearance operation enabled the ships to leave, after eight years of being stranded.
In early 1975, the Suez Canal was once again opened for international transport, and on 24 May 1975, the German ships Münsterland and Nordwind finally reached Hamburg port, cheered by more than 30,000 spectators. They were reportedly the only ships to have returned to their home port under their own power. For the Münsterland this was the end of a voyage to Australia which had lasted eight years, three months and five days
One of the German ships had a cargo of eggs and fruit. What a mess. [:'(]
Among the current pile-up there are at least 10 ships with live animals onboard. If they don't uncork the Canal is going to be messy.
"Yes darling, I served in the Navy for eight years. I was a cook..."
"Oh dad... so you were a God-damned cook?"
(My 10 years old daughter after watching "The Hunt for Red October")
Chancellor Gorkon to Captain James T. Kirk:
You don't trust me, do you? I don't blame you. If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.
It will and may have already caused problems for the "Just In Time" inventory system for many places. I wonder how much air freight is flying small, lightweight but important goods. I also wonder if the Siberian Railway is being used as a new Northern Silk Road.
Expect some shortages and price increases of the good affected.
I think that they have to get a lot of those containers removed. That will provide a lot of work for truckers. I don't know if the ports in the area can offload other ships and then move the goods by truck and/or rail to a port and then load onto another ship. I don't think that there is rail transit from the Gulf of Aquaba through Israel/Jordan to Turkey to Europe otherwise that would be an option. Iraq to Turkey then on to Europe as well. But that would also be a lot of trains and if the gauges are different . . .
Seek peace but keep your gun handy.
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ; Julia Child
Everything north of the blockage should be able to turn around and get back out, they are all at the Great Bitter Lake. There are two parallel waterways to the north of the lake. To the south there is only the original cut so they run batches of ships in convoy 'one way' at a time.
However, it's obviously the case that for all of those ships which were mid-journey and expecting to use the canal, they are now suddenly faced with the significant additional time and cost - whether they choose to wait things out at either end of the blockage, or whether they choose to take the long Cape of Good Hope route instead. And for any ships which were carrying livestock or perishable items, the additional repercussions might be very significant too.
Any ships choosing to switch to the round-Africa route will also almost certainly need to put into port somewhere en route to take on additional fuel. This will incur additional delay. Plus, there are some crew contracts that will have to be re-negotiated if they expect these ships to remain manned.
Also, whether the affected ships sit it out near the canal until it's over or whether they take the longer alternative route, there will now be serious logistical knock-on effects. These same ships will have been booked to collect new cargoes on specific dates, all of which will very likely now need to be rearranged - and that's nowhere near as easy as it might sound. Plus, the receivers of the goods which are currently being carried by these ships will now have to rearrange the delivery logistics. And many ports around the world will face associated logistical difficulties.
I keep going back to thinking: how can this have been allowed to happen? After all, we're all now seeing the very serious repercussions of it having happened. Any competent risk assessment should, long ago, have implemented mechanisms to minimize to near-zero the chance of this sort of occurrence, plus it should have put in place effective provisions to fix things if it did somehow happen.
And it's hardly as if there were freak and extraordinary conditions behind this incident. We're told that there were pretty strong winds. The geography of the Gulf of Suez, the Med, and the Sinai means that there are very often pretty strong winds in this area.
But these really large container ships only happened in the past ten years when they doubled in size. The wind speeds were only 31 mph or something like that. What they might need is auxillary engines and screws in the front for maneuvaring which might have help the bow of the ship from running into the sand.
There are new places where the ships can go both ways, traffic management will have to plan frantically for the movement of all of the waiting ships when the do get the stuck one moving. Bring up some barges with cranes to start offloading some of the container to lighten the load. Where is the Zeppelin fleet when you need it?
Seek peace but keep your gun handy.
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ; Julia Child
; Julia Child