Suez Canal blocked after 400m-long container ship wedges against both sides of waterway

An interesting time lapse video I saw of the canal traffic piling up and then gradually 'draining' as it became clear the disabled vessel wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Time lapse view of Suez Canal traffic jam

I've read the suggestions about quickly dropping the anchors, and I am not up on my nautical protocols, but if a ship that size started drifting quickly, would dropping the anchors work or even be a good idea? I imagine if you dropped the anchors while the ship was moving (even yawing and pivoting towards the bank) at even a moderate clip it'd be a good way to shear the anchor chains with a ship that big.

The other point I find odd is that the tanker ship is reported to be taller than the Eiffel Tower (324 meters). I don't know if the Suez is consistently wide everywhere but I think it's narrowest points are at about 300m wide. This is kind of asking for trouble I'd think. 300+ meter ocean vessels make a lot of sense to carry maximum cargo and survive the rigors of ocean travel, but they seem pretty dicey floating through such a narrow passage. After this, they will undoubtedly check if there are faster ways to mitigate this (if the cargo were on a segmented barge connected as segments of say 100m in length, a disabled vessel would be simple to clear: release the connections between the segments and use tugs to maneuver the smaller segments out of the way).

Nice post OP.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
As of now, its heading is 103.9 and speed is 0.0 knots as reported by onboard instruments. I don't think it has moved.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Oh well,there goes my theory this was intentional then..
Happy to be wrong this time

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Thanks AM, that is good news..

Appears to have been just been a grand stuff up. That is also good news.

I am sure there is probably a formal investigation already ongoing.... will be interesting to see if we ever get the nitty gritty of this debacle.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Wild how the story has evolved, the incident is now "blamed on strong wind" not loss of power...

An Egyptian official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists, similarly blamed a strong wind in the area for the incident. Egyptian forecasters said high winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting as much as 50 kph (31 mph).

“All crew are safe and accounted for,” said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given. “There have been no reports of injuries or pollution.” The management company denied the ship ever lost power.

The Ever Given’s bow had been touching the canal’s eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against its western wall, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. Several tug boats surrounded the ship, likely attempting to push it the right way, the data showed.

same source as your post... AM...


still waiting for the Marine Traffic site to update and reflect the reuters report....

www.marinetraffic.com...:32.580/centery:30.017/zoom:17

a reply to: beyondknowledge

Possibly, but I think there is a delay on sites such as MarineTraffic.com.

originally posted by: JacKatMtn
still waiting for the Marine Traffic site to update and reflect the reuters report....

www.marinetraffic.com...:32.580/centery:30.017/zoom:17

Yeah, I believe, unlike FlightRadar24, there is a 2 hour delay with MarineTraffic.com so it's not giving us real time updates.

According to VesselFInders it hasen't moved at all yet. They get the information automatically from the ship.

Source

Source

Another MSM failure?

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
According to VesselFInders it hasen't moved at all yet. They get the information automatically from the ship.

Source

Source

Another MSM failure?

Odd...they just 404'd your first link while I was looking at it....can no longer map the boat.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Works for me.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Works for me.

Yeah...just came back up. Doesn't appear the vessel has moved at all.

a reply to: Vasa Croe
I just checked both links and they are working for me. Very strange.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Yeah...just came back up. Doesn't appear the vessel has moved at all.

Reminds me of the time I wasn't at the Bellagio with DB and he got wedged in the hallway.

The couse is changing now. It may be free.

Panama-flagged container ship partially refloated in the canal and traffic expected to resume soon, port agent says.

Port agent GAC said the stranded ship had been partially refloated and moved alongside the canal bank.

From al-j

Cheers

The course in the Vessels link does not match the Map link. It would also have about 1/8 or more of the ship sticking into the banks past the water on both sides if the Vessels heading is correct. I think there is a problem with the reported course.

Edit: The course seems to be changing randomly now. I wonder if that is a problem with the ship or the reporting. Could the navagition system have got a bad heading and ran the bow into the bank trying to correct the error? That would also probably cut the power on impact but as big as that ship is and it was running into mostly sand, the crew might have the order of the two events backward.

Oops.

10 mins ago (14:07 GMT)
Container ship still stuck: marine agent

The Ever Given is still grounded and canal authorities are working to refloat it, according to an official at marine agent GAC.

Ahmed Mekawy, an assistant manager at GAC’s Egypt office, told Reuters that a previous report saying that the ship had been partially refloated was inaccurate.

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

market manipulation? entire episode getting to smell a bit fishy...

The two questions I got:

What's on the ship?

Was anything important scheduled to go through the canal since it has been blocked? If so what?

Oil up 3.37 at the moment... intentional or not Oil is going up more and more the longer it's stuck