Grounded ‘Mega Ship’ Blocking Suez Canal in Both Directions

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

The pilot would probably be to blame but they are saying there was a complete power failure. Lots of big ships are diesel electric like locomotives. They have lots of separate massive generators that supply juice to the electric propulsion. No juice, no go.

Covid-19 strikes again...

[HeinSdL]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Covid-19 strikes again...

No!! I was just beginning to enjoy this thread!

Covid

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

No!! I was just beginning to enjoy this thread!

Covid

Just using the 5G theory.. there were claims of an electrical failure..
But.. staying on the light side here in Portugal Social Media is suggesting sending the President down.. being a keen swimmer its reckoned he could tow her off with the rope between his teeth..

[MicHughV]

I wonder if they could angle those tugs in such a way, that they could use prop wash to blow away the sand around the bow ??....even use the ship's bow thrusters....???

Ok, I'm digging here....watching and waiting with interest...

[Wander4Wonder]

This seems to complicate cruisers taking the route around South Africa as it will increase the commercial traffic going around the cape and potentially the amount of floatsam (containers and such) around there from the rough waters.

[Pelagic]

Update
Reports of some flooding in bow sections

https://youtu.be/Yzdxnuk-2pM

[LittleWing77]

Just listened to yet another report.
(I know. Pathological. We have a weather advisory here today. Torrential rain and winds and not much else to do.)

So the Ever Given carries twenty thousand (yes, that's 20,000) fully loaded containers.

Another problem is that low tide precedes high tide - and since this is Springs, the low is a lowest-low in the range. So all the low tide is doing is settling the bow deeper in the mud...

Who was the poster two pages back who said this is a cluster f*?

+1 Yep. This is a DEFinitely a cluster f*!

LW

[Belezar]

Someone earlier was mocking the excavator. That is pretty big. The problem is reach. The ones with much reach can’t move large loads. The max reach you can get with an excavator is probably around 65 ft. Drag lines would have more reach, but big ones are not very mobile. Even an excavator like shown would have to be dismantled to move over the road. There are much bigger excavators, but they don’t have the reach and aren’t easily moved.

[IslandHopper]

A birds eye showing some good resolution.....

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by BlueH2Obound

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.

Maybe Vladimir, Poisoner of Underpants, can be persuaded to send a few Russian heavy-lift helicopters? I doubt he will lose any sleep worrying about the safety of the flight crew.

[Pelagic]

I am pretty sure Smitts salvage will take a pretty conservative approach to freeing the ship by suction dredging both ends so they are afloat.

They probably have already removed as much water ballast as they dare in case she gets top heavy and capsizes.

Next biggest worry when they back and twist her back into channel are the stresses damaging hull and large cracks develop

My guess is that they will prep for maximum success and wait for max high tide next week before trying again.

[Woodland Hills]

Any status reports on the livestock carriers? Do they have sufficient food and water to wait another week?

[IslandHopper]

Given the latest attempt was not successful the US Navy in the Middle East plans to send an assessment team of dredging experts to the site as soon as Saturday.....

The move comes after the Egyptian government agreed to accept an offer of help relayed through the US Embassy in Cairo.

"The Biden administration is tracking the situation closely," a US official told CNN Friday.

"As part of our active dialogue with Egypt, we have offered U.S. assistance to Egyptian authorities to help re-open the canal. We are consulting with our Egyptian partners about how we can best support their efforts."

The US military often sends assessment teams to disaster situations overseas to offer technical expertise when requested. There is no indication yet of any further assistance beyond the team going to Egypt.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

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....

Ship's hull bend and twist all the time with each and every passing swell. And the swells are much greater than a meter or two in displacement, more like ten or fifteen in heavy seas. The stresses in mild bottom conditions like sand are comparatively much less and far less dynamic then when at sea.

[Montanan]

Many memes are proliferating.