Re. the question “What’s the Panama Canal like, just as shallow?”,
I’d hardly describe a 20m draught as shallow…

For comparison, Panamax draught is 12m

It’s funny, after I posted a photo of a Skycrane helicopter, which is perfectly capable of lifting the biggest container on the ship, and there are quite a few around, civvi and military, people are still talking about land or water based cranes!
Apparently the incident was caused by a power-failure combined with a very strong side wind that forced the ship across the canal, just an unfortunate set of circumstances at the wrong time.
Some have mentioned winching it; well, an American off-roader with lots of experience winching large trucks out of awkward situations in places like Moab has suggested just that, using a couple of the biggest winches available – the ship’s own.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a35954476/stuck-ship-suez-canal-how-to-free/

I assume the pirates on the east coast of Africa are now in for a bumper Easter as the traffic gets rerouted.

So my conspiracy theory* is the private security companies who guard the ships caused the blockade to push up their prices. Not enough war going on right now for them to make money.

*Other conspiracy theory’s are available!

It’s funny, after I posted a photo of a Skycrane helicopter, which is perfectly capable of lifting the biggest container on the ship, and there are quite a few around, civvi and military, people are still talking about land or water based cranes!

Can a Skycrane lift 30 tonnes?

According to Wiki it has a max take off weight of 19 tonnes?

Some have mentioned winching it; well, an American off-roader with lots of experience winching large trucks out of awkward situations in places like Moab has suggested just that, using a couple of the biggest winches available – the ship’s own.

They are nowhere near the biggest winches available.

So he knows the ground is strong enough to hold an anchor to move the ship?

What’s the ground reaction that you need to overcome? It could easily be thousands of tonnes. They have been pulling with tugs with a total bollard pull of around 1000t and it still hasn’t moved.

A 1000t would part the anchor cable and rip the windlass off the deck.

The problem is it’s not just touched the bottom, it’s run up the slope and lifted itself. Assuming (since they travel in convoy) that it was travelling at the speed limit for the canal of 16km/hr (and like a bike, in a crosswind speed is your friend as the rudder works) it had enough kinetic energy to lift the whole ship 1m. So the bow would have lifted more than that. The photos suggest the nominal waterline is raised by about 2 containers height, so 4m, but the tide may have dropped since it went aground.

All the evergreen ships are called Ever G___ , so perhaps it will be known for the rest of its life as Ever Grounded

Ever Greed.

Some have mentioned winching it; well, an American off-roader with lots of experience winching large trucks out of awkward situations in places like Moab has suggested just that, using a couple of the biggest winches available – the ship’s own.

As gobuchul says those windlasses are nowhere near strong enough. Quite apart from the fact they only use rope rather than wires they are only used for pulling it into dock and even then they have other assistance. The two situations are in no way comparable.

I was actually talking about manoeuvring whilst in the canal – for example when the bow starts heading off towards the bank due to a strong side wind.

I know what you were asking, it just wouldn’t work. Thinking about it I don’t think they work very well once you get some forward speed anyway so that’s why it’s a non starter. It’s been a while and I was just a troglodyte. Plus they are huge power consumers, you need to run up extra generators to run them and can’t just be used at the flick of a switch.

I’ve been wondering how you steer something that big. Does it need to move at a minimum speed of some sort

To maintain steerage you need flow over the rudder, so the prop’s thrust is directing the ship. Once the prop’ stops the flow over rudder is down to whatever speed the ship is moving at, so quickly becomes ineffective if there’s a failure of the engine.

She has two bowthrusters, but these will have stopped if there was a total blackout, even if they were operable, depending in the wind speed and direction, they may not have been much help. Bow thrusters are used to help swing the bow when in port, assisting with berthing and unberthing. The wind probably shoved the stern across the canal, and theat was it.

Suez canal is also pretty shallow near the banks, and with her draught she will have ploughed in bow first, and the wind then shoved the stern across.

The bow thrusters are now next to useless also, running them with the bottom right underneath will make them churn suck up all the bottom material and quickly die.

Apparently they are going to start lightering containers.

That picture shows what a massive task that will be.

https://gcaptain.com/smit-start-suez-box-removal/

They’ll be hoping that they can make use of the gradually rising high tides that happen over the next few days . . . although the tidal range there isn’t huge, every little bit will help. From Wednesday onwards the tides get progressively smaller, which will make the refloat progressively harder.

An alternative viewpoint . . . bigger tides over the next few days will mean that at low water more of the ship’s weight will be bearing on the grounded bow and stern sections (leaving the midships “hanging”) . . . increasing the possibility that the hull could break its back.

What about blocking the canal either side of the stuck ship and pumping water in to raise the water level. Tugs then manoeuvre boat to middle and temporary lock gates are removed?

I don’t know if this chart is genuine. But if it is, it’s not going anywhere…

Ahhh, ok I get it now… #evergiven pic.twitter.com/523MlyO9B3

— gletham Communications (@gletham) March 27, 2021

Is this what marketeers call “Positioning your brand?” Asking for a friend

hi,my father,an old engineer from China is worried about the stranding. Here is his advice.The weight of the bomb and the gap between each line must be calculated by the experts! pic.twitter.com/hsr5SJjhFr

— baiiiiiibai (@baiiiiiibai) March 28, 2021

That chart appears to be accurate according to the latest position, it’s by the KM151 red channel buoy and the little inlet. There’s very shallow water to the east of the channel. Depths on the chart will be lowest astronomical tide (LAT) so high tide (I believe it’s tidal there) will give a bit more water

What about blocking the canal either side of the stuck ship and pumping water in to raise the water level. Tugs then manoeuvre boat to middle and temporary lock gates are removed?

^^If they can get two countries to give a dam,I think this could work, 🙂

Where’s my coat?

What’s the ground reaction that you need to overcome? It could easily be thousands of tonnes. They have been pulling with tugs with a total bollard pull of around 1000t and it still hasn’t moved.

A 1000t would part the anchor cable and rip the windlass off the deck.

I was reading some back of the envelope calculations assuming a friction factor on sand of 0.5.

If the vessel has a mass of 200,000 tonnes and 1/3 of that mass is now supported by the sand at the bow (and to some extent the stern?), this means (crudely) that 33,000 tonnes-force is required ((200,000 * 1/3) * 0.5) to start moving the vessel.

The most powerful tug in the world can only pull 470 tonnes-force for some context.

I was out mountain biking with my lad, he was hit by a cross wind on a jump and is now wedged in good. Six days later he is still there, I might need to get a crane in to lift him off.

If the vessel has a mass of 200,000 tonnes and 1/3 of that mass is now supported by the sand at the bow

It won’t be as much as 1/3 as the draft is 14.5m and the exposed waterline is about 1/3 of that, so 2/3 is still supported by buoyancy, so maybe 1/6 on sand. But the total mass is a bit more as the dwt tonnage is just the cargo. Difficult to find the mass of the ship but probably about 30,000 tonnes.

Freeeeeedom

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56559904

Not been following. Did they get another ship to go at it full tilt then handbrake turn thus refloating it with a “wave of awesomeness” as suggested earlier in the thread?

“It’s not the first time a Dutch super tug has produced a happy ending”

The chart extract @jam-bo has posted is very interesting. It looks genuine, from Navionics, although it contradicts the official Suez Canal data which suggests it should have both sides battered at 1:3. The way the chart shows it is inviting the kind of accident that occurred – a big shallow shelf for an off-course ship to run up onto. If it had been more like the official profile the ship would be more likely to scrape along the side and be deflected back into deep water.

Moving the stern away from the bank, as recently reported, seemed counter intuitive at first. If the canal is as on the chart and the bow didn’t move, it’s just putting more ship on the shelf. But it gives them the chance, on the next tide, to drag the ship back out the way it went in – perhaps using its own engine and prop as well as tugs.

Update – AIS image on the latest BBC article suggests the bow has moved and the ship has effectively pivoted on the shelf.

that ties in with a report that it was sitting hard on a large rock under the grounded bow section. the salvage guy in that report seemed keen to emphasis it was far from over.

I guess the key question is have they moved it enough to get traffic through.

I guess the key question is have they moved it enough to get traffic through.

I can’t see them allowing traffic through until they’ve moved the Ever Given to a safe location – The canal Authorities will look like total fools in front of the whole world if they allow a situation when another ship could crash into this one..

I can’t see them allowing traffic through until they’ve moved the Ever Given to a safe location – The canal Authorities will look like total fools in front of the whole world if they allow a situation when another ship could crash into this one..

According to the news as soon as tides allow (about now actually) it’s going to be moved to a wider part of the canal that has a holding area and traffic will then be allowed to flow.

Wouldn’t the waves from other big ships, potentially cause it to become even more beached?

Right big lad, get the wing mirrors folded in and the foot down. My Tacx axle is probably on that ship and it’s already late.

Vesselfinder.com shows it back across the canal now, the bow is a little bit further from the shore. High tide this morning has passed.

if you look now, it shows it as underway, heading north at 2.5kts. started moving at 13.04 UTC.

#evergiven ship floated successfully in #suezcanal pic.twitter.com/lCvc67v9KZ

— ⚓ Capt. Yousif ⚓ (@CaptJoo2023) March 29, 2021

started moving at 13.04 UTC

That must have been a minute after I was looking at it wedged on vesselfinder.com ! Should have stayed watching.

how nervous do you think the captain of the first ship through to be let through will be.

don’t **** it up….

Breaking news: Footage at the time of the ship’s grounding has emerged.

has Johnson claimed credit yet ?

I’m so pleased it’s finally back under way. Excitedly told my wife; she couldn’t have given me a more withering look.