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

The vessel suffered a black out while transiting in a northerly direction.

GAC Hot Port News

While GAC says 'blackout', apparently another source is saying it was 'high winds'. I'm gonna guess maybe it was a combination of the two.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to turn sideways in the canal. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, described the Ever Given as suffering "a blackout while transiting in a northerly direction," without elaborating. Others blamed high winds for turning the vessel.


Evergreen could not immediately be reached for comment, though Taiwan's state-run Central News Agency quoted unidentified company sources as saying the ship had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea but none of its containers had sunk.

www.kob.com...

Three important oil trade chokepoints are located around the Arabian Peninsula

If the canal remains blocked could lead to a global logistics nightmare.

The 200-mile long SUMED Pipeline transports crude oil through Egypt from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Crude oil flows through two parallel 42-inch pipelines that have a total capacity of 2.34 million b/d. The SUMED Pipeline is the only alternate route to transport crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea if ships cannot navigate through the Suez Canal.

Closure of the Suez Canal and the SUMED Pipeline would require oil tankers to divert around the Cape of Good Hope near the southern tip of Africa, which would add approximately 2,700 miles to the transit from Saudi Arabia to the United States. In 2016, 1.6 million b/d of crude oil was transported through the SUMED Pipeline to the Mediterranean Sea and then loaded onto tankers for seaborne trade.

Grounded!

Source: Facebook

Why are they messing with the bow in that picture? It was going forward when it hit so the bow will be embeded in the soil more than the stern. It is about 3 years old so it might have azipods (directional main thrusters) instead of shafts and props so the main engines can be used to wash away the bank behind and under the stern to give it room to swing away from the bank. They just need to clear the azipods from the soil with a dredge before trying it. When the stern is clear, the tugs can help pull the bow free.

Why was the crew not ready to drop anchors if the power is lost in such a confined area? At least the stern anchor could have stopped the stern from swinging into the other bank.

originally posted by: BrokenCircles
While GAC says 'blackout', apparently another source is saying it was 'high winds'. I'm gonna guess maybe it was a combination of the two.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to turn sideways in the canal. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, described the Ever Given as suffering "a blackout while transiting in a northerly direction," without elaborating. Others blamed high winds for turning the vessel.


Evergreen could not immediately be reached for comment, though Taiwan's state-run Central News Agency quoted unidentified company sources as saying the ship had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea but none of its containers had sunk.

www.kob.com...

Blame high winds on a ship being blown around and on a US President being blown off his feet.

Sure.

originally posted by: TXRabbit
Sounds like something out of a Bond movie.


Well played Blofeld.

Well played....

Oberweltführer Klaus Schwab must be chewing a carpet by now.

Cheers

originally posted by: Bluntone22
If this was on purpose the ship would have been sunk.
Either a drunk driver or mechanical problem

I can imagine the reaction of the company the ship's captain works for.

"You did WHAT ??"

Yeah, as another poster commented, quite a big mess.

Cheers

Here's a satellite view.


files.abovetopsecret.com...

This satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Tuesday, March 23, 2021. A cargo container ship that's among the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic in Egypt's Suez Canal, officials said Wednesday, March 24, 2021, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)

www.chron.com...-20779473

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Yep....... a Laurel and Hardy disaster....

"Well now, that's another fine mess you have gotten us into Stanley!"

Suffering a blackout is losing everything, main boiler, or engines, and all auxiliary generators too...

Happened to me once on a cruise ship... we drifted and bobbed around like a cork for about 24 hours... people got seasick...

It was not fun.... people laying around everywhere with cold wash cloths on their foreheads, etc.. whole ship smelled like vomit..Ha! We wound up missing a port of call due to the delay too.

Those big flat sides of the ship piled high with shipping containers makes a great "sail" when the winds kick up.

Gotta check and see if it is still stuck now...

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Yep, she is still stuck in the Canal....

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: putnam6

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Just double checked news reports... no word of any "taking on water" in ANY reports.

So, wife source was evidently bull shyte...sorry about that post folks.

Had a nanny nap, and checked up on situation, and any new news on the ship...

Still stuck, but no "water" coming in reports, so......

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

I seriously doubt this is an "accident" this is a trial run. If we have any navy ships on the other side this would be a good time to attempt some kind of attack on them.

a reply to: Chance321

Greetings Chance321,

I hear your thoughts too... and had some similar ones myself for a bit..

That is the "nature" of these kind of news events.

They have plausible deniability, even if it is gross mismanagement of the ships propulsion resources.

So far, touch wood, nothing else has further gotten worse, nor possibly better.

At least it hasn't caught fire, or sunk to be wedged super tight.

You wouldn't know if it was a act of sabotage I suppose unless you were one of the bad guys in on the plan from the beginning.

I gotta give the benefit of the doubt, that it was just a really good stuff up with the ships power plant. I hope so anyhow.

Will need to watch the link that putnam6 posted.... to see when the ship gets freed.

Although I imagine we would hear it in the news before any shipping got underway again.

It is just in these very odd and strange times... with all the dodgy things going on, and dipsticks calling world leaders killers without a heart or some such...and recalled ambassadors.... I couldn't help but wonder if something nefarious was afoot as well.

Pravdaseeker

originally posted by: Chance321
a reply to: pravdaseeker

I seriously doubt this is an "accident" this is a trial run. If we have any navy ships on the other side this would be a good time to attempt some kind of attack on them.

Someone on our local radio just said there was recently a terror attack on a ship using RPG's but the ammo didn't strike the hull. He was shown the covered up footage but not allowed to keep it. He said this could be a similar terror attack and they're keeping it under wraps. Interviewed person did say the canal is vary well policed as it generates Egypt near on £20 billion a year in revenue.

a reply to: pravdaseeker
When I saw this on the news this morning,my first thought was that it was intentional.

Last year the UN told us that 2021 would be a year of hunger,famine and food crisis.
A huge amount of food goes though suez.

"Vaccine hesitance" has become a problem for the governments of the world.
How to you sell lots of units of something many people don't want?

You create a false scarcity situation,then human psychology takes over and people start queing up/fighting to get vaccinated..

Huge amounts of covid vaccines transit through Suez.


Hopefully I am just over suspicious,and the situation will resolve fast-but I cannot help thinking this is a planned event.

Speculation I read they may need to remove the cargo to help move the ship. What do you think is in the containers? What would happen if many of those containers held victims of human trafficking, weapons or drugs? If all the speculation ibam seeing is correct this could really be the start of a global sh@tstorm. My belief is that this was not an accident

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
Why are they messing with the bow in that picture? It was going forward when it hit so the bow will be embeded in the soil more than the stern. It is about 3 years old so it might have azipods (directional main thrusters) instead of shafts and props so the main engines can be used to wash away the bank behind and under the stern to give it room to swing away from the bank. They just need to clear the azipods from the soil with a dredge before trying it. When the stern is clear, the tugs can help pull the bow free.

Why was the crew not ready to drop anchors if the power is lost in such a confined area? At least the stern anchor could have stopped the stern from swinging into the other bank.

Yeah....you would think the very first thing they would do is drop anchor once they realized they lost control. I don't know about this ship in particular, but usually, even in blackout as claimed here, there is a manual release for anchors as well.

As seen from the pic, their anchors never moved.

More tugs on the way from the north. I wonder how much stress it can take being pushed sideways before the hull cracks?

Now that would be a

a Laurel and Hardy disaster

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
More tugs on the way from the north. I wonder how much stress it can take being pushed sideways before the hull cracks?

Now that would be a

a Laurel and Hardy disaster

With the bow hitting and burying that deep, you can bet it put some serious stress on the starboard side....easily could have cracked a hull....this one likely has multiple walls though.

I'm waiting for the suitcase nuke inside one of the bottom containers to blow....or some country to take advantage and just put a missile right through the middle and leave the wreckage.

a reply to: pravdaseeker

The ship is now on the move, indicating a resumption of traffic in the waterway, a shipping source and witness told Reuters. Source