Suez Canal blockage

Loki

Active member
What?s the problem I?m sure the combined might of the worlds cave diggers would have that barge out in a jiffy. A few (thousand) drag trays, rope and many beers required. Oh hang on we can?t actually go there right now.
A right old pickle and no mistake. Hands up who thinks the driver fell asleep. Gust of wind my
Just for fun  :)
 

pwhole

Well-known member
It seems like the equivalent of trying to drive a giant truck up a country lane without touching the hedge. "It's just too big mate" is what someone should have said. But no-one did, clearly. They will next time, one hopes. Or start digging a bigger one sharpish. I do wonder sometimes about so-called clever people.
 

Loki

Active member
Yes it?s all the clever people that got the world into this environmental catastrophe and it?s going to take cleverer people to get the
World out of it. And a lot of willpower.
 

Fjell

Well-known member
Evergreen used to run smaller ships as a policy. It also helps if the canal is a tad wider.
 

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Mark Wright

Active member
I went down the Suez Canal in the early 90's on an empty 351m x 55m Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC). At 400m x 59m the Ever Given is an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC). 

It was quite an experience, though I did spend an awful lot of the passage abseiling down the inside of the empty cargo tanks checking the thickness of the steel hull.

We had a Pilot come onboard for the narrow bits.

There are Suez Canal Simulators that Captains and Officers can use to gain additional qualifications. The simulators were developed because of the known issues of being blown off course in the Canal and having little room for error on the Bridge when things do start to go wrong.

It has been widened in places in recent years, but sadly not the bit at the Red Sea end.

I use the MarineTraffic app they talk about on the TV for work and I've been watching how things have been progressing. 

There seems to be an awful lot more marine traffic going round the bottom of Africa than I've noticed before.

If they don't manage to re-float it on Sunday's high tide it could have some serious consequences to trade if they then have to start removing 20,000 20' shipping containers. They reckon it could take up to 3 weeks.

The Ever Given is on the link below (if it works)

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:32.583/centery:30.017/zoom:16

Mark
 

Fulk

Well-known member
Yes it?s all the clever people that got the world into this environmental catastrophe and it?s going to take cleverer people to get the

Hi Loki, that?s an interesting observation; I assume that you mean that ?clever people developed the technology and social systems etc. that enabled (some of) the people of the world to get into this environmental catastrophe? . . . but the rest of the (not-clever people?) were quite happy to follow their lead and take on board what was on offer and f*** up the planet? (By default, rather than by design, of course.)
 

Loki

Active member
that?s an interesting observation; I assume that you mean that ?clever people developed the technology and social systems etc. that enabled (some of) the people of the world to get into this environmental catastrophe? . . . but the rest of the (not-clever people?) were quite happy to follow their lead and take on board what was on offer and f*** up the planet? (By default, rather than by design, of course.)
[/quote]

In a way yes. I?m not suggesting everyone else is/was not clever but as you say we all went along with it without thought of the consequences - because no one realised when many technologies were invented what the effect would be.  Even when many of us now know what?s happening the people who have the power to stop us haven?t got the guts to stop us. We all have to wake up and stop consuming everything individually- the governments don?t give a &@??.
 

JasonC

Well-known member
Interesting article in yesterday's Grauniad

Capt Ranjan Chowdhury, who sailed the Suez canal frequently during his 35-year maritime career, said the canal pilots, mandated by the SCA to steer transiting ships and aid tricky navigation on the waterway, contributed to problems.

?The canal pilots play music inside the bridge, and there?s a lack of AIS-supported backup,? he said, in reference to the tracking system used on ships. ?They connect to it with a computer, but the canal pilots are very over-confident when it comes to navigating by sight. Every time they?re eating food, smoking, talking a lot and asking for bribes which keeps them very busy. Navigation is an art, and if you lose concentration for a second while navigating a narrow channel, it should be investigated.?

?We call the Suez canal Marlboro country,? he added. ?If we provide them with a big carton of Marlboro cigarettes they?re happy. Not every captain has done their homework before transiting through the Suez canal.?
 

ttxela2

Active member
Have they tried swooshing something up and down to make a big wave? Something similar worked in our bog the other day  (y)
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I had taken ttxela's comment partially seriously too - a big bang a couple of miles upstream of the boat would surely make a big wave? I'm sure there's enough explosives experts in the world could engineer a 5m-high sideways-only blast to create a one-off tsunami? Low-budget TV channels are full of this shit, 24-7. They could even get some danger-prick to surf it simultaneously and then they'd have another TV hit ;)
 

Ed W

Member
Mark Wright said;

Ever Given is an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC)

Pedant hat on - Ever Given is a container ship (a very big one) and not a ULCC which would be a tanker.

Bigger ships (certainly wider ones such as aircraft carriers) can transit the canal, but every ship that does so has to meet certain dimensional constraints (not just beam and length) before being authorised to do so.  It will be very interesting to see what the inevitable inquiry will find with regards to the causes of this.

At the end of the day, 400,000t of ship has an awful lot of inertia and extremely difficult to unstick even if it grounded at modest speed.  Especially somewhere with next to no tidal range (c.30cm from memory).
 
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