Grounded ‘Mega Ship’ Blocking Suez Canal in Both Directions

[HeinSdL]

It sure isn't risk free getting through the canal:

Ships Collision in Suez Canal - YouTube

Two container ships collide on Suez Canal - YouTube

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

In that case... with bow and stern lodged firmly in the sand, having the water level fluctuate must be very stressful for the hull.

Only bow is grounded. Stern/rest of vessel is floating (I use the term loosely - maybe floating in comparison to the bow...?)

The challenge will be:

Off-loading onboard fuel and water to reduce the ship's weight. As fuel and water is stored low in the vessel, this will create a highly unstable hull - especially with the excessive loads of multiple containers on deck, while also considering the effect of dreging around the hull simultaneously.

You then see the problem:

The vessel would be lighter, but top-heavy. If it twists in any way, lists or goes over, the boat could break apart - which of course would block the canal for months-to-years, never mind the environmental damage of escaped diesel and whatever-is-in-those-containers.

The ideal way of reducing weight would have been/would be to remove the containers on deck first* (remove loads starting high to low), but the ship is so large, Egypt/the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) does not have any water-based crane that can reach that high.

What a mess...!!!
LittleWing77

*Is there a helicopter big enough to lift a container? (Note: That's just me, wildly speculating)

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by parachute

A ship that big should never gone into a canal.

No? Why?

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Well it's the first time since the Six Day War back in the 60's that anything has happened to close the canal..

It was closed from 1967 to 1975 so this is an out-of-the-ordinary event.

Originally Posted by Mickeyrouse

Well, not quite. Tropic Brilliance grounded and stopped traffic for three days in 2004. And in 2017 OOCL Japan blocked traffic for several hours.

Respectfully, MickeyRouse,

Your two examples are effectively small potatoes.

From the expert projections I've been listening to, if this situation is not resolved via the straightforward initial plan (utilising the current Spring tides), it has the potential to block the canal for estimates of 18 months at least.

Hein, how long did it take for Smit to carve up and cart away that salvage near you...?

LW

[HeinSdL]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Only bow is grounded. Stern/rest of vessel is floating (I use the term loosely - maybe floating in comparison to the bow...?)

The challenge will be:

Off-loading onboard fuel and water to reduce the ship's weight. As fuel and water is stored low in the vessel, this will create a highly unstable hull - especially with the excessive loads of multiple containers on deck, while also considering the effect of dreging around the hull simultaneously.

You then see the problem:

The vessel would be lighter, but top-heavy. If it twists in any way, lists or goes over, the boat could break apart - which of course would block the canal for months-to-years, never mind the environmental damage of escaped diesel and whatever-is-in-those-containers.

The ideal way of reducing weight would have been/would be to remove the containers on deck first* (remove loads starting high to low), but the ship is so large, Egypt/the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) does not have any water-based crane that can reach that high.

What a mess...!!!
LittleWing77

*Is there a helicopter big enough to lift a container? (Note: That's just me, wildly speculating)

Right, though even with just the bow stuck in the sand the bending force on the hull would still be significant, I am thinking. Worse, repeatedly subjecting the hull to this force will rapidly cause fatigue. And then the stern has to be stuck one way or the other otherwise they would have pulled the stern free, pivoting around the bow, unless... that would damage the bow so much as to not do that!

So indeed, the stern might well be 'more or less' floating with only the rudder and the prop getting dug in more and more. And that can't be good for the rudder & prop either!

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

What a mess...!!!
LittleWing77

*Is there a helicopter big enough to lift a container? (Note: That's just me, wildly speculating)

Yes... Chinooks... used to assist in refloating an Anro ship aground in Moreton Bay quite a few years ago by removing boxes aka containers.

But... you need to remove 200 tonnes -give or take- to reduce the draft of this ship by one centimetre...
And most of the boxes on top of those stacks are full of soft toys and bubble wrap...

[HeinSdL]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Respectfully, MickeyRouse,

Your two examples are effectively small potatoes.

From the expert projections I've been listening to, if this situation is not resolved via the straightforward initial plan (utilising the current Spring tides), it has the potential to block the canal for estimates of 18 months at least.

Hein, how long did it take for Smit to carve up and cart away that salvage near you...?

LW

Well, the Costa Concordia timeline was: accident Jan 2012, refloating July 2014 (skilfully performed by the Americans! Titan Salvage amongst others, the Dutch lost the work primarily based on price), dismantling complete July 2017 (done by Saipem and others).

The risk with the current grounding I think is that time really is of the essence, these hulls cannot be bent like bananas too often. A 1 or 2 meter tidal difference will stress & fatigue the bow a lot....

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

*Is there a helicopter big enough to lift a container? (Note: That's just me, wildly speculating)

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Yes... Chinooks... used to assist in refloating an Anro ship aground in Moreton Bay quite a few years ago by removing boxes aka containers.

But... you need to remove 200 tonnes - give or take - to reduce the draft of this ship by one centimetre...

And let's guess: There are no Chinook helicopters anywhere proximate to the Suez Canal...

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

And let's guess: There are no Chinook helicopters anywhere proximate to the Suez Canal...

Iraq? Afghanistan?

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Iraq? Afghanistan?

Oh yeah. Euch. That would present a particular sort of dilemma, now, wouldn't it?

Contingent upon whether they would actually be useful (my own wild speculation, remember and as you pointed out - potentially 2,000+ containers to shift) then I expect the whatever-military would have to freely offer them, their use and their pilots...

Hm.

[LittleWing77]

Sorry for being so morbidly fascinated by this.

Seems they're gearing up to re-deploy the tugs as soon as the dreging is complete (and coordinate with local high tide...?)

Anyone know what time that would be in GMT?

Here's the update from Al Jazzera:

2 hours ago (10:20 GMT)
Suez Canal Authority: Tugging operations to resume as soon as dredging is complete

Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said that tugging operations to free the stranded container ship will resume after completing dredging operations to remove up to 20,000 cubic meters of sand.

The authority said dredgers had gotten within 15 metres of the bow of the ship and that they could only safely get as close as 10 meters.

The authority estimated that dredging operations were about 87 percent complete.

[GordMay]

The 'Ever Given' is about 6 miles North of Port Suez.
The predicted tide times today on Friday 26 March 2021 for Suez are:
first low tide at 3:23am, first high tide at 9:30am, second low tide at 3:52pm, second high tide at 9:55pm. [about 7-1/4 Hrs from 'now'].
Sunrise is at 5:46am and sunset is at 6:04pm.
➥ https://www.tide-forecast.com/locati...t/tides/latest

However, I think they are aiming for a Saturday high tide.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The 'Ever Given' is about 6 miles North of Port Suez.
The predicted tide times today on Friday 26 March 2021 for Suez are:
first low tide at 3:23am, first high tide at 9:30am, second low tide at 3:52pm, second high tide at 9:55pm. [about 7-1/4 Hrs from 'now'].
Sunrise is at 5:46am and sunset is at 6:04pm.
➥ https://www.tide-forecast.com/locati...t/tides/latest

However, I think they are aiming for a Saturday high tide.

Thanks, Gord - You Info Wizard!

I've been studying the overhead pics. Seems that the Flood tide would/will really help.

As the bow went in (effectively) turning to starboard with the stern down-tide further off to starboard, practical first principles would be to attempt moving it off the same way it went in - i.e. tug pulling stern to starboard with another tug pushing to starboard on stern port-side.

Since the flood tide seems to move in the same direction, they would get both lift and direction in their favour....

Fingers crossed!
LW

[Mike Crothers]

The C&D Canal in Maryland and Delaware restricts ships from passing the canal in fog. I wonder what they would think of sending a ship into a sandstorm?

[BlueH2Obound]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Yes... Chinooks... used to assist in refloating an Anro ship aground in Moreton Bay quite a few years ago by removing boxes aka containers.

But... you need to remove 200 tonnes -give or take- to reduce the draft of this ship by one centimetre...
And most of the boxes on top of those stacks are full of soft toys and bubble wrap...

The CH-47D can only lift about 22,000 lbs. A typical 40' shipping containers weights approximately 9,000 lbs . . . empty. So I would guess that many of those shipping containers would have to be partially emptied on the ship in order to allow Chinooks to lift them off. PLUS, they are tightly packed, and lifting an external load where there is a significant risk of the load "hanging up", or catching on something is NOT something that I would personally like to do . . . Coming from a '47 pilot, Aviation Safety, and Aviation Accident Investigation Officer.