Giant container ship goes sideways in Suez Canal and is stuck. Ships both sides are backing up. Container ships to the east coast will be delayed causing possible back ups of out bound containers not boarded on ships and unable to get inbound containers
Understand that there is a continuing backlog of vessels at West Coast ports.
Apparently, the ship lost control during a sandstorm with relatively high winds of 31 mph. Perhaps the wind was blowing approximately in line with the canal, and when the ship began to lose control and rotate crosswise to the canal, the wind blew more directly against the side of the ship. With the side presenting such a massive obstruction to the wind, the force grew larger as the ship turned crosswise to the wind. Then both ends wedged into each bank of the canal.
So the ship is not just run aground, but also has both ends pierced into the opposing banks of the canal. As the ship rotated into this position, I wonder if each end of the ship created uplift of the vessel as each end plowed sideways into each bank of the canal. If the ends did produce uplift, that force would tend to lift the entire ship and possibly break it in half due to so much weight being supported at only the two ends and not in the center.
I’m reasonably sure there’s backlogs at every major port, but Los Angeles/Long Beach is a disaster right now.
My mom currently handles import orders for her company and they’ve got a group howling that they’re going to miss a shipping deadline because their product packaging is stuck in a container sitting off Long Beach indefinitely. She can only tell them “the ship can’t even berth” so many times.
Believe I read late in the day the ship had been moved and the canal is no longer blocked. That won’t help already-jammed ports, but the way is open for ships bound to the East Coast thru the Suez Canal.
EDIT: I later found out what I read wasn’t accurate. Sorry for the misinformation.
We as railroaders and railroad enthusiasts have very little to no understanding of the maritime trade networks that keep the World Economy humming.
That stuck ship is going to be a big deal to get unstuck. There are reports that it may have to be unloaded to get it unstuck. I think it is causing major heartburn with the canal, ship’s owners, and shipping delays to other ships.
But earlier today, they ran a story saying the ship had been refloated. But it seemed suspicious because they also said they will get it totally unstuck soon. That sounded fishy to me. I suspected they were so hoping to get it moving that they thought it would help to announce that they had done so.
As it turns out, that story was false as I suspected. A new report says this:
"Ship has not been re-floated, authorities admit
The Ever Given is still aground in the Suez Canal and authorities are working to refloat it, an official at marine agent GAC said on Wednesday.
Ahmed Mekawy, an assistant manager at GAC’s Egypt office, said the Dubai-based agent had earlier received inaccurate information that the mammoth container ship had been partia
Maybe this will allow the ports to catch up a bit…
One of the pitfalls of massive 20,000+ TEU vessels. Harder to re-float when aground…Of note Evergreen has ordered some more vessels but these will only have a capacity of 15,000 TEU. I think overtime we will start seeing new vessel orders trend back in size a little bit. 15-18K TEU
Another report. Early Thursday morning local time another dtry tto free the vessel. May shows how idt is locked in sideways. Wonder if wind conditions might have contributed to it going sideways ?
Does the canal use pilots for going thru the canal ?
Reports do indicate that a high wind blew the ship off course and turned it crosswise to the canal. Looking at the profile of the ship, you can see how much opportunity it would present to cross wind.
I think the gravity of this predicament has been slow to sink in. The canal authority may want to consider limiting the length of passing ships to be about 100 ft. less than the width of the canal.
It may be possible with enough pull to just pop the ship loose, and eventually enough pull might be made available. The problem is that you have to attach the pull to the ship in an even distribution of pull points on the ship, or it will just pull a chunk out of the ship.
Have watched a YouTube video or two of vessels transiting the Suez Canal. Vessels do get a Pilot - it is part of the fees they pay for passage. Transit of any of the worlds canals for large commercial vessels is not cheap.
Reports I have read state that the wind was the prime cause of the grounding.
This type of scenario could easily play out in any number of canals. There are spots in the St. Lawrence Seaway near me where a 700’ ship would likely touch both shores.
There is a ship sunk in the American Narrows here that is a popular destination for recreational divers. At 700’, the Roy A Jodery would likely have spanned the waterway. The bow is 150’ down, the stern sits at 240’ - too deep for your average hobby diver.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-egypt-suezcanal-ship-idUSKBN2BH1HH
From the link:
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - A container ship blocking the Suez Canal like a “beached whale” sent new shockwaves through global trade on Thursday as officials stopped all ships entering the channel and the salvage company said it may take weeks to free.
It may require unloading the ship in addition to dredging sand. The size of the ship and number of containers is startling.
400 meters long, 59 meters wide, 224K tons. Egypt doesn’t have any cranes capable of reaching the top containers on the vessel to unload them to another vessel. Pumping off fuel and/ballast to lighten the load risk capsizing the vessel.
That is why salvage contractors earn their money.
Yes of course it will obviously require salvage companies to do the work of unloading the containers and fuel. They could cut the ship in two or more pieces if necessary. They can saw through with a special cutting cable.
But this refloat operation could take a lot longer than the few days they are hoping for. Just having the ship supported mostly on the ends could do a lot of damage that we cannot see from the photos. I think we will be hearing a growing predicted timeframe for refloating the ship. If it gets out to weeks, they may decide the cost of the delay is higher than the value of the ship and its load.
Would a heavy payload military helicopter be able to lift a loaded container?
I saw a piece on CNN Business that they are now saying it could takes weeks or months to refloat the ship. They are trying to move tha sand away from the ship. But who knows how long it will actually take?
Caldreamer
Salvors have been cutting on the Golden Ray that capsized in Brunswick, GA harbor in September 2019 since November 2020. They have managed to get the hull cut in three pieces to be hauled to the scrapper so far; it is expected for the hull to be cut into eight pieces for final disposition.
Smit is one of the contracted salvors for the Ever Given - there is no way the vessel will be cut up on site.
Here is a link to a back hoe trying to move sand away from the bow. Kind of gives a new meaning of gnat and person size.