Ops-Normal.org

Berdowski likened the current condition of the ship to an “enormous beached whale”.

And we know what happens with beached whales.

While the recognise the time needed to even start unloading, I hope they consult a container handling company.

I guess they will need a proper rig, and one that can unload right across the vessel for trim and balance. As stated the height above water and the unstable platform risks toppling the crane so maybe a jack up platform will be required.

Then you lift the containers and...... Probably need a shed load of lighters to get them away. Possibly need to build a container port on land.

Some one will pay but lots of others will be making a shed load of money, not least the TAs that get their hands on the cargo, make a bus load of scouser look like a vicar's culture tour.

I am not sure that anyone is looking forward to unloading containers.

John, I bet you're wrong. Salvors the World over just wait.

It occurs that the Egyptians might have some new tourist attractions the Colossus of Suez or the Monument of Thieves

TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:00 am

Momentum = mass • velocity
According to the marine insurance intelligence company, AIS data indicates the vessel grounded at a speed of 13.7 knots.

There were fifteen other ships astern of her in that convoy. The blokes on the bridge of the ship immediately behind her did well to avoid running into her.

I'm surprised they were all going that fast. I'm 30 years out of date, but when I was on a Noggie survey boat making that transition the convoy speed was limited to 9kts.

Undried Plum wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:00 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:00 am

Momentum = mass • velocity
According to the marine insurance intelligence company, AIS data indicates the vessel grounded at a speed of 13.7 knots.

There were fifteen other ships astern of her in that convoy. The blokes on the bridge of the ship immediately behind her did well to avoid running into her.

I'm surprised they were all going that fast. I'm 30 years out of date, but when I was on a Noggie survey boat making that transition the convoy speed was limited to 9kts.

suez-canal instructions

The permissible speed:
16 km / hr. for ordinary vessels 14 km / hr. for Tankers.
The New Suez Canal has been equipped with navigational aids: (buoys, bollard pulls
and pilotage stations).
Amended Suez Canal Rules of Navigation, August edition 2015 has been issued.
Electronic Charts have been issued for the new Suez Canal.

If they were doing 13.7 knots then they were speeding! 16 km / hr = 8.6 knots.

5.1 knots above the limit!

The ship behind her was one of Maersk's.

I wonder if they need a higher speed for steerage.

Yon dredger that is alongside now looks as if it could shift a lot of muck.
Eight or nine knots is a decent speed for steering, I used to enjoy steering a tanker through the canal when I was a deck apprentice, not as big as the Evergreen though, the water pressure did a reasonable of job of keeping the hip in the middle very little rudder was needed and when you came to a bend you put about 5 degrees of opposite wheel on and just let the water pressure from the bank slowly take her around the bend. The ships I was on were only about half as long as the evergreen and nowhere near the windage.

Amazing how every media station and newspaper has an expert, they should send them all to the canal and she would be out in no time at all..

1DC, would the higher speed also contribute to bottom suck?

Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:26 am

1DC, would the higher speed also contribute to bottom suck?

Yes, it's called settlement.

QE2 ran aground because the skipper and the pilot had a poor understanding of squat and settlement. There is also a lateral interference effect which would have sucked the Evergreen's
bow to its nearest bank and the same would have happened to the stern when it got within much less than half the beam's distance of the side of the ditch.

When this whole thing is over I suspect that the SCA will conduct a very major review of what they have regarded as Ops Normal. That convoy speed, if true, will certainly have to revert to the 8.6kts that used to be normal. I suspect that they'll also decide to put in a second cut to the East of the single 'carriageway' just like they did a decade or so ago further North.

1DC wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:09 am

The ship behind her was one of Maersk's.

I hope that AP Moeller gives the bridge crew a great big fat bonus. Just think of the consequences if they'd clobbered the Evergreen punt at any speed. Irresistible force meeting immovable object, and all that.

UP, I recall a cruise ship, built in Finland, had to go under the Øresund Bridge at speed so that bottom suck would increase its draught and clear the bridge.

In contrast to earlier claims that strong winds were primarily responsible for the stranding, Rabie said on Saturday they were no longer the key culprits.

“Strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding, there may have been technical or human errors,” he said. “All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -next-week

Probably the easiest way all round for the Egyptians is if someone can be punished, will make it easier on the heads of the people in higher places.
Be interesting to see if they free it tonight, apparently two of Smits tugs are arriving tomorrow so I expect they will want them involved on the final invoice.

I wonder what would happen if they imposed a length limit on shipping to avoid this happening again? How much of the world's shipping would have to take the long route?

Also, if you blocked both ends of the canal, how long would it take to dry up from evaporation? I did see something about the Med wouldn't last long if they could block the Straits of Gibraltar.

When we went through the Suez Canal in an aircraft carrier it was of course expected that we would be spied upon and photographs taken. A Sea Vixen and a Scimitar - it was 1966 - were placed in full view in the bows with clever mock-ups of a non existent weapon on each.