Suez Canal blocked by grounded megaship

[The Larch]

They say they'll have to unload the ship before they can unbeach it. It already takes a few days to unload one of those, when in port, it will take much longer in the current situation...

I suppose the Cape of Good Hope is going to become trendy in the next few days.



Strong winds, though.

It's indeed becoming a popular destination. 

[Josquius]

I guess we are lucky it comes whilst everything is way down due to corona with the shipping industry particularly wrecked. Read some interesting pieces not too long ago on perfectly serviceable ships being scrapped as it was cheaper to buy a new one in a few months than keep them going, return legs running empty, etc..,.
Could cause quite the little economic mess in normal times.

[jimmy olsen]

It gross tonnage weight is 220,000.

To put that in context, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (which then kind of set the scale for battleship building) limited battleships to 35,000 tons.

An Iowa class battleship, one of the largest ever built, was about 60,000.

A Yamato, the largest battleship every built, is 70,000 tons

Size:

Ever Given: 400m long
Yamato: 256m long
Iowa: 260m long
Nimitz CVN: 330m

That is just insane. And it has a crew of 20.

Wikipedia says the Gerald Ford is 100k tons and 333 meters longs and it's the largest warship ever built. Crew 4539

[mongers]

It gross tonnage weight is 220,000.

To put that in context, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (which then kind of set the scale for battleship building) limited battleships to 35,000 tons.

An Iowa class battleship, one of the largest ever built, was about 60,000.

A Yamato, the largest battleship every built, is 70,000 tons

Size:

Ever Given: 400m long
Yamato: 256m long
Iowa: 260m long
Nimitz CVN: 330m

That is just insane. And it has a crew of 20.

Wikipedia says the Gerald Ford is 100k tons and 333 meters longs and it's the largest warship ever built. Crew 4539

OK, so it's 227 more inefficient than the container ship?

[HisMajestyBOB]

It gross tonnage weight is 220,000.

To put that in context, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (which then kind of set the scale for battleship building) limited battleships to 35,000 tons.

An Iowa class battleship, one of the largest ever built, was about 60,000.

A Yamato, the largest battleship every built, is 70,000 tons

Size:

Ever Given: 400m long
Yamato: 256m long
Iowa: 260m long
Nimitz CVN: 330m

That is just insane. And it has a crew of 20.

If a submarine sank just one of those, the skipper would not have the record for most tonnage sunk, but they would be top 10. If it was a US submarine, it would immediately take the top spot, beating the USS Tang's record by some 104,000 tons or so, with one ship.

[celedhring]

They say they'll have to unload the ship before they can unbeach it. It already takes a few days to unload one of those, when in port, it will take much longer in the current situation...

I suppose the Cape of Good Hope is going to become trendy in the next few days.

Strong winds, though.

It's indeed becoming a popular destination. 

[Syt]

Could any of our (ex-)naval personnel here kindly confirm?

https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/1375392047155310592

Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Fun fact: although the Ever Given is jammed athwart the Suez Canal it is NOT jammed athwartship, as this has a different technical meaning.

#TheMoreYouKnow

[Duque de Bragança]

They say they'll have to unload the ship before they can unbeach it. It already takes a few days to unload one of those, when in port, it will take much longer in the current situation...

I suppose the Cape of Good Hope is going to become trendy in the next few days.

Strong winds, though.

It's indeed becoming a popular destination. 

Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama approve.

[Sheilbh]

Portugal: vindicated.

[Sheilbh]

Satellite view of the blockage and the queue building up

[grumbler]

Could any of our (ex-)naval personnel here kindly confirm?

https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/1375392047155310592

Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Fun fact: although the Ever Given is jammed athwart the Suez Canal it is NOT jammed athwartship, as this has a different technical meaning.

#TheMoreYouKnow

This is correct.  Something that isn't on a ship cannot be athwartships.  It isn't really a "technical" term, just jargon.  A passageway is referred to as an "athwartships  passageway" if it goes from one side of the ship to the other.

[Sheilbh]

My dad's take is surprisingly nuanced.

His initial thought was to fire the captain never to return. But he then said he's been worried since when he was at sea at the size of ships going through the Suez and had a bit of sympathy because he thinks the canal administrators have always been pushing it. His thought was basically given the size of the ship and the lack of depth in the canal it wouldn't take much of a blow of wind and there's very litttle you can do to adjust course because of the lack of depth.

He wondered about the pilot though - because he's sailed ships through Panama, Kiel and Suez where you're require to have a pilot - and said this is the sort of thing the pilot should be pretty alive to.

[The Larch]

So the 30 mph gust of wind could have been a real issue then? 

[Sheilbh]

So the 30 mph gust of wind could have been a real issue then? 

Yeah - because of the size of the ship v the canal. At sea you'd do stuff with the engine to counter it (I am not an expert here), but the canal isn't deep enough to do that for a ship of that size. Argaubly the pilot should be alive to the conditions and might be able to adjust appropriately to avoid the problem but basically once you got into difficulty it'd be very tough to correct in the canal because of depth.

[Agelastus]

So the 30 mph gust of wind could have been a real issue then? 

Yeah - because of the size of the ship v the canal. At sea you'd do stuff with the engine to counter it (I am not an expert here), but the canal isn't deep enough to do that for a ship of that size. Argaubly the pilot should be alive to the conditions and might be able to adjust appropriately to avoid the problem but basically once you got into difficulty it'd be very tough to correct in the canal because of depth.

So I have done (another 5 minutes) research and it seems the Guardian is the "first page of results" source reporting 31mph as the wind speed - other sources are, as I noted earlier in the thread, saying 40 knot (46mph) winds and a sandstorm (which seems to have originated from the original Reuters Feed.)

While not, of course, unimpeachable or to be 100% trusted, Wikipedia's article is quoting 40 knot winds.