[rijo_tj]

UPDATE: The giant ship that blocked the Suez Canal has now been moved alongside the bank of the waterway, potentially easing the disruption to the trade route.

Courtesy: Bloomsberg Twitter

[NevGin]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Just a few comments on the bow thruster. As soon as a vessel starts moving forward the effectiveness of bow and stern thruster reduces greatly. For them to be effective you have to have very little forward speed.

Tugs easily outperform any bow thruster! These days harbour tugs are incredible powerful. These vessels have special strengthened section where the tug can push against. So it is not just towing they can assist by pushing the vessel sideways as well.

Jeroen

Absolutely correct. And I was incorrect when I thought it was the bow thrusters thinking the speed would be less than 5 knots through the canal. But I believe it is higher. The bulbous bow itself causes currents which when goes behind pivots the ship. This ship being so broad the bow got stuck. Wonder if there was enough place to have tugs both sides then given the width of the vessel.

[Jeroen]

Last night I read that finally the Egyptian canal authorities did what everybody does when facing a maritime disaster: call the Dutch!

They have contracted to Smit Salvage, part of the Boskalis group. The Dutch, I am very proud to say, are and have always been the most experienced salvage masters of the world.

I worked for SmitLloyd early on in my career. In those days there was Smit (Ocean towage), Smit Salvage (Salvage) and SmitLloyd (offshore anchor handling and supply vessels). All belonging to the same parent company. We often worked together on various salvage and long haul ocean towage jobs.

The Suez Canal has a narrow deep water bit in the middle, but toward the shore size there are sizeable shallow shelves or tableaus. So it is not just a straight bank, you really need to stay in the appropriate middle section of the canal.

So this vessel is not just stuck in the side of the canal with its bulbous bow, it is actually stranded across a sizeable section of its hull on this shelve/tableau.

As I mentioned vessels make their way, typically unassisted, though the Suez canal. For a vessel to have proper steerage you need to have a decent minimum speed, or the rudder is simply not effective. typical transient speed for the Suez canal is 8 knots, about 15 km/h. With the size and weight of this vessel that is an enormous momentum.

If this vessel is still stuck (I see some remarks that the managed to re-float it) the salvage crew will inspect the vessel and make calculations how to best off load some of its cargo and fuel. That needs to be done with some caution and a lot of science. If a vessel is (partly) grounded, the stresses on the hull can be very different from normal. Off loading cargo and or fuel from the wrong position can cause stress on the hull to increase, ultimately cause damage to the hull. Another factor is environmental protection. There is always danger of fuel leaking, so the salvage team will have to assess that aspect too and take appropriate preventive actions.

Some might remember the salvage of the Russian Atomic Submarine, the Kursk. That was salvaged by a Dutch company too; Mamoet. Actually Mamoet had never salvaged anything before or after. They are a heavy lift company. The Russians approached Smit Salvage and they were happy to take on the job.

But as this was an extremely risky job, they wanted some some very specific contractual guarantees. The Russian did not want to play ball, enter Mamoet. They took on the job, but essentially contracted the actual design of the salvage method and execution to Smit Salvage. Who got paid handsomely, with virtually no risk. All the risk was carried by Mamoet and its flamboyant Managing Director van Seumeren. big ego, big balls, big luck and he carried it off. It was off course an interesting case of heavy lifting and salvage technology that had to brought together in this case.

Jeroen

[navin]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

More likely the ship suffered some kind of propulsion failure that caused her to drift and run aground at the banks. I feel for the Master. I'm quite sure in some hours the tugs will pull it clear.

There would have been a pilot aboard as well. Egyptian pilots are shameless mercenaries. Stories abound about the "bribes" the ship crews have had to offer before the pilot boarded.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Ships on very rare occasions do suffer from total black outs. Which means electrical power is lost and everything shuts down. Obviously, ships have emergency back up generators that come on line.

It is pretty rare for these things to happen.

Not as rare as we'd think. Ships have lost all power (even backups) and sometimes in a storm (just about the worst time to do so as the ship is then totally at the mercy of the elements).

Originally Posted by Jeroen

you really need to stay in the appropriate middle section of the canal.

So this vessel is not just stuck in the side of the canal with its bulbous bow, it is actually stranded across a sizeable section of its hull on this shelve/tableau.

If this vessel is still stuck (I see some remarks that the managed to re-float it) the salvage crew will inspect the vessel and make calculations how to best off load some of its cargo and fuel. That needs to be done with some caution and a lot of science. If a vessel is (partly) grounded, the stresses on the hull can be very different from normal. Off loading cargo and or fuel from the wrong position can cause stress on the hull to increase, ultimately cause damage to the hull. Another factor is environmental protection. There is always danger of fuel leaking, so the salvage team will have to assess that aspect too and take appropriate preventive actions.

You are pretty well informed Jeron. The ship has over 20,000 containers (I think 24,000 or so). Offloading containers in the middle of the canal is no easy task (minor hull damage notwithstanding). Offloading fuel might be even more detrimental.

Freight rates that were already high and rising have gone up steeply since this grounding. Additionally, there is a worldwide container shortage and with so many ships stuck that is only going to get worse.

Given the economic impact of the above, they would be moving heaven and earth (literally) to have this resolved; hopefully, today itself.

If it wasn't such a serious issue, it might well look comical.

[neelkumar]

Meanwhile this:

Track of ship before getting stuck

Source: Vessel Finder

[sgmuser]

Is there any way to find who is the driver? oops captain, which country is he from? our pre-conceived notion! :-)

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by navin

Not as rare as we'd think. Ships have lost all power (even backups) and sometimes in a storm (just about the worst time to do so as the ship is then totally at the mercy of the elements).

It should be a very rare event, if its not there is something amiss. I have been in the merchant navy as (Chief) engineer for nearly ten years at the beginning of my career. I have experienced it only once if I recall correctly.

We were running at full power somewhere on the Atlantic ocean. Onboard this particularly vessel we had a shaft generator that could take the complete electrical load, so there was no need to run auxiliary engines. So the main engine drove, through a pneumatic clutch, the main generator.

The clutch started slipping due to a pneumatic problem, that meant the generator tripped and as luck would have it, our emergency back up generator, which was supposed to start automatically in just such an event, failed also. So we had a total black out. Luckily one of our engineer happened to be in the engine room. We had an unmanned engine room. But as luck would have it, the second engineer was just doing his rounds when it happens. We got everything sorted within five minutes. Middle of the ocean, decent weather, so no danger.

One of the biggest problems with black outs is when caused by the fuel. Diesel fuel can be infected with bacteria and fungus. The problem is that the dead bacteria skeleton can clog up filters and you also have a water in fuel problem to content with. Ships have been lost due bacteria!

Originally Posted by navin

You are pretty well informed Jeron. The ship has over 20,000 containers (I think 24,000 or so). Offloading containers in the middle of the canal is no easy task (minor hull damage notwithstanding). Offloading fuel might be even more detrimental.

See above, former chief engineer and I have been involved in quite a bit of salvage work, notably during the tanker war in the Persian Gulf. Used to jump on burning tankers. Madness, but I was young, single and it me made a lot of money. The credo of SmitLloud was Anywhere, anytime, anyway!

To offload the containers you need to get some barges and cranes. Offloading fuel is usually pretty straightforward. You just need hoses and fuel barges and pump it out. The tricky bit can be if it is heavy fuel as you might need to heat the fuel. But again, there are solutions for that too. Being out in the Suez canal means, if anything they have a high ambient temperature which helps with the heavy fuel.

If the worse comes to the worse (e.g. a dead ship) the salvage crew will have special mobile submergible fuel transfer pumps. They will open up the tanks and lower the pumps into the fuel. They will bring portable generators for electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic power, whatever is needed. This particular vessel still has its auxiliary power it seems, so it can provide its own electrical power to the fuel pumps.

Note: i left the merchant navy in 1986 so my knowledge and experience is pretty dated.

I have posted about my previous experience here and there on the forum as well; e.g.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...ml#post3301395 (The R-E-A-L BHP Giants: Maritime (Ship) Engines)

Jeroen

[JoshMachine]

Meanwhile, here's a video showing the disaster and the flurry of actitivity around it:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myLtng4c0EU

Just thinking aloud, what's the impact for ships who cannot traverse this route through the canal? Do they have to go round Africa's southernmost tip?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Just thinking aloud, what's the impact for ships who cannot traverse this route through the canal? Do they have to go round Africa's southernmost tip?

Yes, that is the only alternative.

According to Bloomberg:

A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows there’s about $9.6 billion worth of daily marine traffic halted by the massive container vessel that lodged in the Suez Canal earlier this week, blocking transit in both directions.

The figure is based off an assessment by Lloyd’s List that suggests westbound traffic is worth around $5.1 billion a day and eastbound traffic approximately $4.5 billion. The industry journal concedes that these are “rough calculations,” however. There are about 185 vessels waiting to transit the waterway, data compiled by Bloomberg show, while Lloyd’s estimated 165

Source:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...premium-europe

The Suez canal shorten the Europe-Asis vv route by approximately 6000 km.

So that is quite the distance and also you need to go around South Africa and a much more southern route in general across the India ocean. So weather apart from distance starts to play a bigger role.





Jeroen

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by neelkumar

Meanwhile this:

Looks like the ship is anchored, going by the movements in circles. Other ships nearby can also be seen going in circles. This one being the biggest, is more affected by the winds.

[manishk123]

Nothing that a couple of cruise missiles can’t solve!
Gosh! I have to stop playing these video games 😀

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So that is quite the distance and also you need to go around South Africa and a much more southern route in general across the India ocean. So weather apart from distance starts to play a bigger role.

So, safe to assume that apart from the direct economic cost of the stranded ship not able to carry out its own duty (cargo transfer etc.), it is also likely to face indirect cost of other companies suing it for obstruction of their own duties?
Or does insurance takes care of it?

Must be mind-boggling numbers, given the huge amount of trade dependency on such mega tanker transportation.

[apachelongbow]

What prevents Suez canal from banning unassisted transit? Can't they put railway locomotives like the Panama canal and guide ships along? And it's high time Egypt widens the narrow passage or puts in alternate routes to prevent such a blockage considering the massive economic impact caused.

[yogesh.8984]

Originally Posted by sgmuser

Is there any way to find who is the driver? oops captain, which country is he from? our pre-conceived notion! :-)

Just got the notification on MoneyControl app that the crew of Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal, are all Indian.

Here is a link.

[DriverR]

Originally Posted by sgmuser

Is there any way to find who is the driver? oops captain, which country is he from? our pre-conceived notion! :-)

Suez Canal: Owner of cargo ship blocking waterway apologises

As per this article, all crew are Indian, which means the Captain is Indian as well.

[From the article:. "Shoei Kisen Kaisha said the Ever Given's 25-member crew, who are all Indian nationals, were safe and that no oil leaks had been detected."]

(Ackward callback to the "Bangalored" joke someone mentioned earlier!)