Suez Canal blocked by grounded megaship

[Legbiter]

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.

Yeah the cargo ships have become hyper optimized and the shipping canals not so much. 

[Sheilbh]

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.

Yeah and I think his point was you'd have to pre-adjust, or you're kind of fucked. But his view was that would be something you'd probably hope the canal pilot would manage more than the captain because the local conditions in all the major canals will be very different from just sea sailing (which is why they all mandate a pilot).

[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. 

First sea shanties become trendy again, now this. 

[Sheilbh]

Up next: scurvy

[The Larch]

Just read an evaluation on how much the ship's current cargo is worth. Almost 10 billion dollars. 

[Maladict]

Just read an evaluation on how much the ship's current cargo is worth. Almost 10 billion dollars. 

There's a reason pirates still exist. Plenty of opportunity for them too, come to think of it 

[Berkut]

Just read an evaluation on how much the ship's current cargo is worth. Almost 10 billion dollars. 

There's a reason pirates still exist. Plenty of opportunity for them too, come to think of it 

I don't think so though - at least not in the traditional sense.

Pirates today don't capture a ship and steal the cargo. They capture the ship and steal and ransom the crew.

I mean....wtf would you even do with a cargo that size? You could not offload it. The ship cannot be hidden, it fucking shows up on satellite!

[The Larch]

Interesting article on how something like this was bound to happen, and how the modern shipping industry works:

I've sailed the Suez canal on a cargo ship – it's no wonder the Ever Given got stuck

Researching the global shipping industry, I saw how modern mega-vessels offer the efficiency consumers demand, at a price

However grim and difficult life these days is, I'd still prefer to be sitting on dry land in lockdown than trying to do a three-point turn on the Suez canal with a 400-metre cargo ship under my control. Wouldn't you? The grounding of the Ever Given container vessel in the Suez canal has provoked both hilarity and genuine concern. Vessels have got stuck before in the canal: at its narrowest, the "ditch in the desert", as crew on the container vessel I travelled with in 2010 told me, is only 300 metres wide. It's tight. That's why ships must wait at either end to be sent through in a slow convoy. But the Ever Given is longer than the canal is wide, and it is stuck sideways. A simple shunt off the banks will not work.
(...)
Transiting the canal saves ships more than a week and many fuel costs compared with the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope. The canal is a huge money-spinner for the Egyptian government, earning it several billion dollars a year. When I went through on Maersk Kendal in 2010, as research for a book I wrote about the shipping industry, the transit cost $300,000. That fee included 14 hours of sedate trundling down what is actually rather a dull canal, once you've had an hour or so of excitement at seeing sand and palm trees, and realise you've got 13 more hours of them to go. It also included an obligatory "Suez crew", who joined for the transit and had their own cabin, and a pilot who took control of the ship. This is standard procedure in modern shipping: ships often take on pilots in harbour areas or tricky passages because they have better local knowledge. Technically the pilot took command of the bridge, though the pilot we had was too busy eating his way through the entire menu, and dozing, to be particularly commanding. The second officer had to keep waking him up for instructions.

Although the official reason given so far for the Ever Given's plight is that it was blown sideways by wind, I do wonder. In the vast majority of maritime accidents, human error is at fault. And no wonder: seafarers, working in ever smaller crews on ever larger ships, are knackered. Most on my journey were old enough to remember when they could stop for lunch in port. Now, ships are rarely in port for more than several hours, and those are busy. As we entered the canal, transiting south with our mostly empty boxes to collect made-in-China consumables and essentials such as medicine, the second officer was operating on three nights of three hours' sleep, and would have no sleep during the transit. There is, as the Ever Given demonstrates, much to look out for during the passage.

I think of those tired workers often, when I read about crew who have been stuck on their ships for the entire pandemic, forbidden from setting foot ashore, unable to go home. Even 10 years ago, the Filipino crew I sailed with called their job "dollar for homesickness". So among the jokes and references to beached whales, I think of the crews on the 150 ships stuck behind and ahead of the Ever Given.

Over the years, ships have been getting bigger and bigger, the better to bring us 90% percent of world trade – even if most people probably think that their breakfast cereal and electronics and clothes and fish arrive by air. In fact, modern shipping is so efficient, it's cheaper to send Scottish fish to be filleted in China and back again than it would be to do the filleting at home. But that efficiency comes at a price: of ships reliant on this one waterway to get to the bounties of Asia, and of crews who spend months away from home, missing the births and birthdays of their children, to bring us what we need, and what we think we need.

[Maladict]

I don't think so though - at least not in the traditional sense.

Pirates today don't capture a ship and steal the cargo. They capture the ship and steal and ransom the crew.

I mean....wtf would you even do with a cargo that size? You could not offload it. The ship cannot be hidden, it fucking shows up on satellite!

No they won't steal the cargo, but the ransom is more likely to be paid if the cargo (and the delay) is worth that much.

[Razgovory]

Well according to QAnon Hillary Clinton owns the boat, Monica Lewinsky was the captain and it had a cargo of trafficked children.

[Solmyr]

[viper37]

Well according to QAnon Hillary Clinton owns the boat, Monica Lewinsky was the captain and it had a cargo of trafficked children.

But no pizza?

[Syt]

"from the Orient"

[Admiral Yi]

Now that's reporting.

[The Larch]

The guy can't catch a break, he's in the middle of every logistical nightmare on the globe.