[navin]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

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.

I have 0 personal experience in the merchant navy but I have a close friend who was First Officer for about a decade (1980s). All, if not most, of those for Wilhelmsen (Barber). His claim was that although he had a Master's certificate the Norwegians would never give an Indian the Captain's role so he quit, did an MBA, and took a land job. He works in shipping insurance now.

He faced a loss of power twice during his years but has heard of many other instances.

We are both from the same generation so maybe my information is dated too.

[voldemort]

Somebody actually made a website that tells you whether the ship is still stuck:

https://istheshipstillstuck.com

Probably unofficial. Amusing and potentially useful nevertheless.

[embee]

The giant ship stuck in the Suez Canal is costing the global economy an estimated $400 million per hour. The cargo ship the size of the Empire State Building has been jammed in a vital trade route for days.

On average, $9.7 billion in goods travel through the canal, connecting Asia and Europe, every day.


Source: https://www.businessinsider.in/theli...w/81699751.cms

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Mountainman21

What I have heard is that this ship is larger than the permitted size of ships on Suez canal

That is not possible. Vessels will be certified as Suezmax (for Suez canal) and Panamax (for Panama canal). Any other ship will not be allowed to enter the canals.

[Blooming Flower]

Originally Posted by androdev

Suez Canal got Bangalored :-)

Coincidentally, the latest news report says, all the crew members of the ship are Indians!

https://scroll.in/latest/990595/crew...gement-company

[Mountainman21]

Originally Posted by Gansan

That is not possible. Vessels will be certified as Suezmax (for Suez canal) and Panamax (for Panama canal). Any other ship will not be allowed to enter the canals.

As per Suezmax maximum length allowed is 400 meters and Ever Given is also 400 meters so it basically is the max length allowed.

I read on twitter from maritime experts that ideally the length should be lower but I am not expert and don't have much understanding of this concept so I yield.

[TrackDay]

Hoping this situation wont lead to another price hike for fuel.

India is the top importer of crude oil and products via the Suez Canal, higher than China, South Korea or Singapore, according to data from Vortexa, an oil and gas analytics platform. And more than two-thirds of India’s crude comes from the Gulf region.

For India, though, the main hit could be seen on the import and export of ethane with the US, and the imports of crude from Latin America, the uptake of which was recently increased.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/ex...canal-7246170/

Satellite images showing ships waiting to pass through the blocked Suez Canal


Options to move the Ship.


Source:https://www.bbc.com/news/56523659

[abnormalspirit]

World trade and billions of dollars are dependent on this small excavator

[SnS_12]

Four bulk carriers have already turned around and heading back into the Indian Ocean while two LNG carriers in the mid-Atlantic appear to have also changed course. Further tanker charterers are asking for voyage options with routing via the Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal. Diverting around Cape of Good Hope adds 3,800 miles to the journey and up to 12 days extra sailing time.

The Ever Greet, also operated by Evergreen, and the Hyundai Prestige were the first two boxships reported to have changed their courses, making for the tip of southern Africa rather than the Suez Canal. The HMM Rotterdam followed suit today, doing a u-turn around Gibraltar.

So maybe Evergreen itself believes the situation will take days to resolve

[sparky@home]

It was normal route during the seventies, when the Suez Canal was blocked after the war, to go around the cape. In fact, lot of shipping companies used to route their vessel around the cape when shipping was in a serious slump, so with the canal closed, I guess they will have to do that, with no firm knowledge on the opening. SCA will be bending backwards to get the canal opened as it is one of the main income for Egypt. Going round the cape would also mean major disruption in the container traffic eta. This is a nightmare which is being played out. I have transited the canal in VLCC’s, though not fully loaded as we used to partially discharge at Ain Sukhna and then back load from Sidi Kerrir, so large ships regularly transit the canal, and this incident is just another act of nature, something unforeseen.

[Ithaca]

Here are two updates from my professional Shipping WhatsApp groups regarding the incident at Suez.

Kindly note abbreviation SCA = Suez Canal Authority.

Update 1

From (name withheld)

Dear ****** ,

In reference to the grounding incident occurred at Suez Canal dated 23rd of March for MV Ever Given we would like to state the following facts as in below:-

Case:-

Mega Containership Ever Given raising Panama flag, entered the canal during bad weather with wind speed not less than 45 knots, and vessel started her transit voyage northbound from Suez heading to Port said, and during her transit at kilometer 151, and while curving , vessel grounded due to the high wind speed, caused that vessel got out the canal axe which lead to losing control totally and vessel collapsed with the canal side around 0800 hrs. LT , vessels transit in the NB & SB convoys have been delayed till the moment.
4 of Northbound convoys ahead of the grounded vessel exited the canal normally, while 14 vessels on Northbound kept behind the grounded vessel on the 23rd of May.

Vessel Specifications:-
Vessel Name: Ever Given
CVN: 16301108
Year Built: 2018
Month Built: 9
Vessel Type: Containership
Detailed Vessel Type: Fully Cellular Container
Status: Fleet - In Service
DWT: 199,489
GT: 217,612
NT: 100,439
LOA (m): 399.99
Beam (m): 59
Draught (m): 16

Actions taken by SCA:-

On the 23rd of March 2021 SCA has sent two tugs MOSAED 3 & MOSAED 2 as attempts trying to refloat the vessel.
On the 24th of March SCA decided that 13 vessels of the Southbound convoy to enter the canal as early SB convoy to anchor at the great bitter lake while the rest of vessels transit in the north and south to be postponed.
The floatation efforts continued and included towing and pushing the grounding vessel using 8 large tugboats; largest of which is BARAKA 1 with a towing power of 160 tons, and 2 owned dredgers (Mashhour & 10 th of Ramadan ), one of them dredging at the bow and other in the stern trying to unlock it from both side of the canal.
M/V ASIA RUBY III & M/V YM FOUNTAIN were escorted back Suez Anchorage, while M/V MAERSK DENVER is yet to be escorted out.
View of nature of the bottom of the canal at this position , the refloating process became more complicated and not easy process hence, dredging still running to dredge under bow and aft of the containership to give more possibility to free the ship by assistance of the biggest SC Tugs , external tugs of the salvors .
Expectation of completion of dredging process by tomorrow Friday 26th March 2021.
Till the moment SCA are giving hard attempts to re-float the vessel again.

How the Incident affected the navigation in the canal?

Navigation in the canal still blocked and only some vessels have transited the canal from Port Said to bitter lakes waiting for the containership to re-float again.
Congestion is currently happening at Port Said, Suez, and the great bitter lakes.

Current Situation:-

A quite number of vessels still waiting for the grounded vessel to resume transting in the canal and numbers to be as follow:-

Northbound Convoy:-
23rd of March’s convoy : 14 vessels.
24th of March’s convoy: 32 vessels.
25th of March’s convoy: 28 vessels.
26th of March’s convoy: 37 vessels.
Total : 111 Vessels.

Southbound Convoy:-
24th of March’s convoy: 21 vessels.
25th of March’s convoy: 25 vessels.
26th of March’s convoy: around 36 vessels.
Total: 82 vessels.

The Great Bitter Lakes:-
43 vessels at the great bitter lakes.

Grand total: 236 vessels

Expectations:-

As per SCA expectations degrading process most probably be completed at early Friday .
According to the capacity of SCA transit in normal days is 97 vessels in total with average vessels DWT 100 K distributed on 16 hours of transit time which usually start around 0400 LT. Hrs at Suez and 0330 LT. Hrs at Port said.
As per current situation and after the challenge is being resolved, it is expected that vessels transit will resume around the clock for the different types and weights of vessels, expected to be around 75-90 vessels per day.
As per current numbers congestion is nearly to be cleared within 1.5 to 2.5 days once the vessel is being refloated again.
Any additional 100-120 vessels will take around another 1-1.5 days to clear the canal accordingly.

For any further inquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thanks and best regards

Second update received a few hours earlier at 1930 hours India time.

Update 2

AS RECEIVED
@## Egyptian authorities have successfully freed the stranded container vessel the Ever Given after it blocked one of the world’s most strategically significant waterways, the Suez Canal.

The ship had become wedged in the banks of the canal just outside the southern port of Suez, effectively closing the canal to all vessels.

After working round the clock, Egyptian authorities finally freed the bows from the bank at midday local time and have now moved it alongside the canal bank.

Authorities have indicated that they expect traffic to resume as soon as the vessel has been towed to a new position.

The waterway is a key transit route and is particularly vital to any Black Sea grains or oilseed exporters, as it slashes the time taken to connect Black Sea ports with key destination markets in the Middle East or Asia.

Typically, sailing from the Black Sea to China would take around 33 days via the Suez Canal, versus 60 days if the vessel is forced to steam across the Mediterranean, around Africa, and across the Cape of Good Hope.

Do spare a thought & prayer for the seafarers onboard the vessel in question. As a seafarer myself, I sympathize with them and hope / pray no one else has to undergo the trauma they are experiencing now.

[balenoed_]

Pardon me for this naive question, Is this channel a 2 way traffic? or only East bound? If 2-way, then traffic on both sides are affected? and is there "suffcient" enough width for 2 ships to pass?

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Pardon me for this naive question, Is this channel a 2 way traffic? or only East bound? If 2-way, then traffic on both sides are affected? and is there "suffcient" enough width for 2 ships to pass?

It seems like the Suez Canal is made up of two lane (channels) and single lane (channel). The two lane, two way path was the result of work carried out a few years back. The stuck ship is well south of the section of the canal that has two lanes (channels), so there is no way for other ships to bypass the stuck ship .

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal


Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-to-move-ship

[TwerkyC0ffee]

This interesting infographic shows the ship's trajectory until it got stuck in the Suez:

Link

Source: r/CatastrophicFailure on Reddit

On a related note, a truck named EVERGREEN has blocked Taiwan's highway too





Link

Source: r/Wellthatsucks on Reddit

[atmosphere]

I understand that this is a ultra large Carrier ship, massive tonnage, size and weight hence the difficulty in securing it free from its beached state. Maybe its naive question but would'nt it attach a heavy winch line on the back of Evergiven and have other bigger ships close by try to pull it free, maybe ships can tag for more power. Or maybe this is stupid but with $45 billion lost and counting thought i ask.