Suez Canal blocked by grounded megaship

[The Larch]

Biggest Tetris game ever.

Also, basically just a big mobile platform to stack containers on.

Apparently being an operator for the kind of cranes in the last picture is an extremely lucrative job. 

[Admiral Yi]

Apparently being an operator for the kind of cranes in the last picture is an extremely lucrative job. 

A long time ago, maybe even 10 years ago, I read an article about crane operators in Long Beach, California striking.  IIRC the average crane operator pay was 250K.

[Berkut]

Biggest Tetris game ever.

Also, basically just a big mobile platform to stack containers on.

Apparently being an operator for the kind of cranes in the last picture is an extremely lucrative job. 

I can't find the article now, but I recall that previous to the rise of container ships, dockyard workers were a HUGE source of jobs. Container ships, and the associated mechanization of loading and unloading them, basically destroyed that entire industry.

Its kind of like being a sailor. That used to employees an insane number of people. But now the human labor hours per ton of shipped goods is some tiny, tiny fraction of what it used to be - a single massive container ship carries the cargo of god knows how many 1950s era cargo ships, and is crewed by a fifth of the crew.

The other big difference this has made is radically reduced the amount of just plain theft going on - estimates are that as much as 15-20% of all goods shipped prior to the mechanization of the worlds shipping into containers ships (which are easily secured and tracked) were lost to theft.

[Grey Fox]

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.

and there is 11 of them.

[celedhring]

I feel like they might need a few more diggers and lads on site.

Plus I fully expect that to become a meme: "me doing yoga"/"my lockdown stress levels" format.

I'm pleased to report that at least on Catalan twitter, this has indeed happened (although not very good examples so far).

[Syt]

Small note: before I came to Austria I thought about traveling a bit, and had the romantic notion to book passage on a cargo ship - some companies offer the service. You'd get your own cabin, and obviously wouldn't be expected to work. Caveats are that e.g. if the ship leaves port after a stop and you're not on it - tough luck. So it's not exactly a sightseeing trip.

Then I looked at the prices ... ranging between 1500 and high 3000s depending on length of trip. So that idea kinda died.

[celedhring]

Small note: before I came to Austria I thought about traveling a bit, and had the romantic notion to book passage on a cargo ship - some companies offer the service. You'd get your own cabin, and obviously wouldn't be expected to work. Caveats are that e.g. if the ship leaves port after a stop and you're not on it - tough luck. So it's not exactly a sightseeing trip.

Then I looked at the prices ... ranging between 1500 and high 3000s depending on length of trip. So that idea kinda died.

A friend of mine did it and shot a documentary about it. Not the most entertaining filmic material...

[Valmy]

Michael Palin did that in the 1980s when he did his around the world in 80 days miniseries. It also was not that entertaining in itself, you really needed the jokes about America's trade deficit to keep it fresh.

[Zanza]

I read the economic damage to world trade from this blockage is 400 million dollars. Per hour. 

[The Larch]

Biggest Tetris game ever.

Also, basically just a big mobile platform to stack containers on.

Apparently being an operator for the kind of cranes in the last picture is an extremely lucrative job. 

I can't find the article now, but I recall that previous to the rise of container ships, dockyard workers were a HUGE source of jobs. Container ships, and the associated mechanization of loading and unloading them, basically destroyed that entire industry.

Wasn't that one of the themes in the 2nd season of The Wire?

[The Larch]

I feel like they might need a few more diggers and lads on site.

Plus I fully expect that to become a meme: "me doing yoga"/"my lockdown stress levels" format.

I'm pleased to report that at least on Catalan twitter, this has indeed happened (although not very good examples so far).

Yeah, I've seen it around already.

Different meme, but I liked it. 



Edit: Another sign of the times, the joke Twitter accounts. 

[Sheilbh]

Wasn't that one of the themes in the 2nd season of The Wire?

My favourite Wire season.

And definitely true in Liverpool. Everyone used to work on the docks (or in the merchant navy) - which has almost all gone. There's still some working docks.

Containerisation caused a huge amount of unemployment - and less opportunities for something to fall of the back of a wagon

[Iormlund]

In that season I'm the guy making the presentation about the Rotterdam systems upgrade that's going to get them all laid off. 

[Solmyr]

[crazy canuck]

Admiralty lawyers around the world are salivating.

Admiralty insurers, not so much.