Suez: Long term implications ??

[Dushan]

Takes an extra week for one of those big lads to go round the Cape. At least it will give the receiving ports in Europe and the UK time to clear all the congestion that they have now.
Got caught in a sandstorm in the canal once it was surprising how quickly it came and went but the wind was up in the 60 to 70 knot range and the visibility came down to a few hundred feet. If you didn't get tied up to the bank quickly you were at the mercy of the wind, in those days about early sixties each transit ship carried a couple of small boats strung on derricks each with a crew of two and if you had to do an emergency tie up you dropped the boats and moored as quickly as you could. The Egyptians were very efficient though. Don't know what happens now.
I remember an old Captain telling me who had used the canal in the old days when the British ran it that everyone thought that when the Egyptians took over that it would be chaos but the truth of the matter was that the Egyptians were ten or more times more efficient than the Brits and transiting the canal became a much easier and quicker experience.

The "hamseen" windstorms (named after the Arabic word "hamsa" for number 5, because they last five days). Going from Cairo to Alexandria once, it was blowing something fierce, you could hardly see the road. Once in Alexandria one would think it stopped, but it didn't, until we got out of the car and realized that it had indeed stopped, but the windows were completely sandblasted.

[Undried Plum]

The Suez Max rules are based on multiplying the beam by the draft. If that product, in metres is greater than 1,000, then it's no go. There is also a height limitation, known as air draft due to the supension bridge, but there's no limit on length. I suspect that may be reviewed in due course.

I would guess that they'll also review the width of the canal where it is still single carriageway. The global consequences of this cockup are just so immense that it can't be shrugged off as Insh'Allah.

[Dushan]

“Everyone is making contingency plans as we speak,” said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO, according to CNN.

This made me laugh...

[Dushan]

I would guess that they'll also review the width of the canal where it is still single carriageway. The global consequences of this cockup are just so immense that it can't be shrugged off as Insh'Allah.

Good luck trying to enlarge it. The greenies will have a fit. It ain't 1860s any more.

[Dushan]

How many European built cars are not going to be coming off the production lines, for the lack of a $5 Chinese made switch?

You mean the $5 instrument cluster?

[Pontius Navigator]

But security experts are also worried about the potential for piracy, politically motivated sabotage, or even more mishaps as scores of massive freight ships remain stuck in two of the most volatile regions on the planet: the eastern Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa.

Good job flights from John Lennon are suspended

[Pontius Navigator]

I wonder if they have thrusters like the cruise ships. Mind you, we were stuck alongside in Cape Town in an 80,000t cruise ship because of the wind.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I wonder if they have thrusters like the cruise ships. Mind you, we were stuck alongside in Cape Town in an 80,000t cruise ship because of the wind.

From the South East no doubt!

[John Hill]

I wonder if they have thrusters like the cruise ships. Mind you, we were stuck alongside in Cape Town in an 80,000t cruise ship because of the wind.

Presumably that bit of digging under the bow was to clear thrusters?

[TheGreenGoblin]

to free the Ever Given

So, their journos are deferably dyslectix. (Borrowed PN's spell-checker there - did you notice? )

Good to see these Grauniad is living up to its tradition.

[Boac]

Actually I owe the Grauniad an apology - tonight for the first time I saw the name on the bows.

[Pontius Navigator]

And me BOAC, and me.

Suez Canal blocked - live: Ever Given re-flotation attempt fails as US Navy to send team of experts to help

Now here is an idea. Get an SSN from the Med and one from the Red Sea Moor along side and blow main ballast.

[Undried Plum]

Methinks that the hull must be taking hellish stresses and strains which each tidal cycle. She's supported at each end with over three hundred metres of alternating sag and hog bend in between.

High Springs are on Tuesday. High Water is good news for the salvage effort, but there's a 1.85 metre range and with a such a huge hull that's an awful lot of stress/strain, even for a young hull like hers. Two or three Spring/Neap cycles and the hull will have aged by years compared to normal service.

Lightening ship with an ad hoc crane lifting 10,000 boxes, one at a time, would take months. If the hull starts to crack then the salvors, and the rest of the shipping world, will be in a whole new world of hurt.

[TheGreenGoblin]

to free the Ever Given

So, their journos are deferably dyslectix. (Borrowed PN's spell-checker there - did you notice? )

Good to see these Grauniad is living up to its tradition.

See what I unintentionally did there!

Apropos what UP said. I get the feeling that it is likely to take days, if not weeks to resolve this problem. If that hull starts cracking you are talking months to sort out the ensuing mess.

[John Hill]

Too late!!!

[TheGreenGoblin]

U'Plum you know you could do this:-

Get two bigg(ish) tankers, empty them then load to capacity with water. Park one each side of the unfortunate vessel, weld lugs on and tie the vessels together. Pump water out of tankers.

You can do it and we will split the dosh on account of I supplied the brains.

You name is John "SMIT" or I am a Mongolian gird...

Talking of Eastern savages, them Rooskies are suggesting this idea...

As world trade feels the ripple effects from a blocked Suez Canal, with many ships taking the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope, Russia is giving another plug for its preferred alternative: the Northern Sea Route.

For a long time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been promoting the passage along the country's Siberian coast as a competitor to the Suez Canal, and Russia is seizing on the route's shutdown as an opportunity to play it up again.

Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear agency, recently gave three reasons why the Northern Sea Route should be considered as a viable alternative to the Suez Canal Route.

As per Rosatom's English Twitter handle, the first reason was that the Arctic passage provides "way more space to draw peculiar pictures using your giant ships.” (This post provides context, but may not be suitable for all audiences.)

The second reason, according to Rosatom is that "If you get icebound, we have icebreakers, well to break the ice."

Rosatom is the passage's official infrastructure operator.

As for the third reason, the company posted an image from the movie series "Austin Powers" with the show's main character stuck in a shuttle car, reversing back and forth in a narrow tunnel. Following a popular meme, they photoshopped over the car with an image of Evergreen's Ever Given.

Due to global warming, the Northern Sea Route is becoming increasingly free of ice. Moscow plans to use it for exporting oil and gas to energy-hungry markets - especially in East Asia. On Thursday, Russia's weather monitoring service pointed out that in some years, the route will be almost completely be free of ice in the summer months, as it was in 2020.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/ ... -sea-route

[TheGreenGoblin]

Momentum = mass • velocity

Just re-emphasising UP's earlier very pertinent points...

Salvors have warned that an operation to refloat the Evergreen containership grounded in the Suez Canal may take “several weeks”.

Boskalis chief executive Peter Berdowski revealed the potential time frame, which threatens to keep blocking a key shortcut between Europe and Asia, in a Dutch TV interview.

“We can’t exclude it might take weeks depending on the situation,” he said, according to Reuters.

The Boskalis company Smit Salvage has been appointed to lead the salvage operations on the 20,388-teu Ever Given (built 2018) along with Nippon Salvage.

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

The containership is fully laden with an estimated 20,000 teu on board. Initial attempts to refloat the Ever Given are focusing on redistributing the ship’s ballast and using the tide. There are eight tugs involved in the salvage operation.

But Berdowski said salvage operations might have to be stepped up.

“It’s an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand,” he said.

The removal of fuel and containers along with a dredging operation will require additional heavy equipment being brought to the site which will add to the salvage time.

The removal of containers is likely to prove particularly challenging given the enormous height of the stacks.

Some have even suggested that a prolonged salvage operation could even put the safety of the Ever Given's hull at risk.

Potential difficulties

The potential difficulties in the salvage operation have been outlined by Concirrus.

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

Combined with the weight of 20,000 teu on board, that is likely to mean the ship is currently “hard aground”, the company said.

Concirrus also pointed out that the vessel grounded at high tide so the next high tide will make little difference to its current grounded condition.

https://www.tradewindsnews.com/casualti ... 2-1-987316

[John Hill]

Mr Goblin, the solution to this problem is obvious...

There are literally hundreds of ships waiting to go through the canal and they only need marshalling to clear the way. Dozens of ships should be positioned in the canal the nearest at a safe distance from the stranded ship. The ships should be suitably positioned and anchored with their bow towards the ship. Anchors holding and engines engaged 'full astern' would send a big wave of water down the canal to lift the naughty Never Green!

[Alisoncc]

+1 John

[TheGreenGoblin]

Mr Goblin, the solution to this problem is obvious...

There are literally hundreds of ships waiting to go through the canal and they only need marshalling to clear the way. Dozens of ships should be positioned in the canal the nearest at a safe distance from the stranded ship. The ships should be suitably positioned and anchored with their bow towards the ship. Anchors holding and engines engaged 'full astern' would send a big wave of water down the canal to lift the naughty Never Green!

If the ship was called the Never Green, this Green Goblin would suggest that they pull out the plug in the canal and let the desert reclaim the ship like it did Ozymandias's Wreck!

Ozymandias
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”