Freeing the stuck container ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal

[256bits]

View attachment 280448

they could use those points of application when the ship becomes unstuck.

 

[Rive]

View attachment 280448

Won't work from front. My idea was about puling on the aft end, at a ~90 degree angle from across the canal.

 

[Astronuc]

According to the Washington Post, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told Egyptian television that officials were preparing for the "third scenario" of unloading containers from the massive ship so that it can be refloated and open up one of the world's busiest waterways. The canal has been blocked for five days now, leaving more than 300 ships waiting to pass through.

Apparently Egyptian President al-Sissi ordered preparations to be made for the unloading of the Ever Given cargo carrier. One option I heard mentioned was bringing in a crane ship, or floating crane, and loading an empty container ship (apparently they found one) one-by-one. I presume the other ship would have to wait to follow Ever Given north, otherwise, they ship would have to reverse or pass the Ever Given assuming the Ever Given and be unstuck quickly.

 

[ardnog]

@ardnog
It would take hundreds of those thin wires to drag that boat free. The boat would need hundreds of additional attachment points welded to the structure over a very wide area.

The upper limit on towing abiltiy will be the strength of the hull itself as opposed to the towing points and cables. Breaking the ship apart would be a really bad idea.

 

[Baluncore]

Breaking the ship apart would be a really bad idea.

Maybe cutting off the bulbous bow forward of a bulkhead would be an economic solution.
I would cut it with shaped charges, then fill the bow with concrete and finish the voyage.

 

[ardnog]

Maybe cutting off the bulbous bow forward of a bulkhead would be an economic solution.
I would cut it with shaped charges, then fill the bow with concrete and finish the voyage.

First of all, you lose bouyancy and then the front goes down.

Second, I don't know if you can do that. This thing isn't a warship.

If you can't dig it out, unloading it sounds like a good idea.

 

[Baluncore]

Second, I don't know if you can do that. This thing isn't a warship.

Yes I could do that. The cut would be diagonal and close to the water so as to disconnect the grounded bow. Why does it need to be a warship?
The cost of fixing it later is trivial compared to the losses accumulating while the canal is blocked.

 

[ardnog]

Yes I could do that. The cut would be diagonal and close to the water so as to disconnect the grounded bow. Why does it need to be a warship?
The cost of fixing it later is trivial compared to the losses accumulating while the canal is blocked.

Becuase you want to cut important bits of it off and sail it around and I don't know if you can do that wth that type of ship. Maybe you do know if you're an expert in that; I'm not and I don't.

 

[ardnog]

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...to-free-ship-stranded-in-suez-canal-authority

This is probably the most detailed report you'll get outside of a specalised journal or egyptian news. Details some of the exact problems they've encounted.

There is damage to the bow, they don't know what type of sand it's sitting in, there's now water under the bow (a good sign), there's an annoyingly placed rock, and they're trying to work out how hard they can pull it without breaking something.

 

[Astronuc]

According to the BBC, "Although strong tides and winds complicated efforts, the tugboats managed to move the ship "30 degrees from left and right", said General Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA)," but apparently the bulbous bow is still stuck.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56547383

If they could move it 30 degress, I'm wondering why they can't be pulling it backwards as well.

 

[ardnog]

If they could move it 30 degress, I'm wondering why they can't be pulling it backwards as well.

Specualtion on my part but it's probably pivoting on the aforementoned rock.

 

[Lnewqban]

With the proper equipment, if available in that area, the sand that is adjacent to the metal could be at least partially liquified via hydraulic vibration or injection of air or water.

 

[Lnewqban]

According to the BBC, "Although strong tides and winds complicated efforts, the tugboats managed to move the ship "30 degrees from left and right", said General Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA)," but apparently the bulbous bow is still stuck.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56547383

If they could move it 30 degress, I'm wondering why they can't be pulling it backwards as well.

Perhaps they pivoted the ship about the bulb?
If so, they had a quarter-mile lever.

 

[ardnog]

Won't work from front. My idea was about puling on the aft end, at a ~90 degree angle from across the canal.

There are even more on the back, but it is harder to get a good photo of their mechanisms. If you look at the stern of a container ship you will see a line of rectangular holes. If you look inside those you will see mooring attachment points and the emergency towing arrangement. You may also see these on the side, particular near the rear.

EDIT: Large ships aver these front and rear as they are maneuvered by tugs in harbor, and for emergency regulations.

 

[Astronuc]

According to the BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/56523659, the bow of ship ran aground on a sand bar as well as impacting the bank. It's not so easy to back up the ship. Apparently the stern had to be dug out, or dredge out, as well.

I went looking for a cross-section or lateral profile of the Suez Canal, which has increased over time.
https://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/English/About/SuezCanal/Pages/CanalCharacteristics.aspx

The Suez Canal Authority plans on further improvements.
https://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/English/About/SuezCanal/Pages/NewSuezCanal.aspx

Still I would think it plausible to work the ship back and forth, while applying thrust to the rear.

The significance of a bulbous bow.
https://safety4sea.com/cm-do-you-know-what-the-bulbous-bow-is-for/

I'm wondering if it would be feasible for a team/formation of skycrane helicopters to lift containers off the ship either to the shoreline, or a different ship. By how much does the weight of the Ever Given have to be reduced to float it away from is stuck position? 10%? It would see plausible to remove containers from the bow/front area enough to lighten the bow and tilt the ship toward the stern.

 

[Lnewqban]

Copied from:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Given

"For maneuvering in ports, Ever Given has two 2,500 kW (3,400 hp) bow thrusters."

Note the location of the two thrusters indicated by marks close to the water-line by the anchors.
The second picture shown in post ##16 seems to indicate that the sand/mud has reached those two cavities.

 

[BillTre]

At one time I worked on a ship that had a through the hull bow thruster and two screws at the stern that were independently powered.
They could make that ship go sideways.
It was a much smaller (and more maneuverable) ship that the Ever Given. It was about 250 feet long and the bridge might have been at the level of the boarding opening by the name on the side, if that high up.

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/03/27/suez-canal-ship-kids-solve-orig-jnd.cnn

 

[Nugatory]

Probably just returning to home port to reload, I'd guess. I just used Google Images to find an empty container ship.

There’s no such thing as an empty container ship except when it’s leaving the shipyard or heading to the ship breakers. Even when there’s no return cargo the empty containers have to go back, so we get a container ship full of empty containers, not an empty container ship.

However, depending on how the containers are removed (this has to be done in a particular order to avoid destabilizing the ship) it may be possible to pile them up on land, dump them onto available barges, truck them away... but 20000 times some number of minutes is a long time even with some reasonable amount of parallelism.

 

[Nugatory]

Here’s a chart from one of the maritime traffic tracking sites. In this part of the canal the channel is dredged on the left-hand side and the right-hand side is shoal water. It’s not just the bow that’s stuck in the bank, a substantial portion of the hull is well and thoroughly aground.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Breaking the ship apart would be a really bad idea.

Easier to get it out in pieces.

The cost of fixing it later is trivial compared to the losses accumulating while the canal is blocked.

That's true, but the people who will pay for the repair are not necessarily those who are losing money because the canal is closed.

I don't know how much one of these ships costs, but I'd imagine between $100M and $200M. So we're quickly coming onto the point where losses exceed the cost of one ship. If there's one thing we've learned in the last 5 days is that extraction will not be simple.

 

[Nugatory]

Easier to get it out in pieces

I am reminded of the horse and Dean Wormer’s office
It floated into this situation and floating it out is by far the easiest solution... breaking a ship into pieces small enough to lift out of the channel with a crane is a seriously big job.

 

[hutchphd]

Two questions:
1) Are the bottom contours the result of prevailing winds and sand or is there geo structure there?
2) Could you sever the bow (in a watertight way) and float it out ..it seems to be less profoundly encircled?

Man that thing is stuck

 

[Vanadium 50]

I am reminded of the horse and Dean Wormer’s office

Seven years of college down the drain.

It floated into this situation and floating it out is by far the easiest solution

Certainly true, but now that the bow ballast tanks are filled with water, it's no longer in the same condition as it was at the start of all this. I think it will take a mixture of lightning and dredging and tugging and pumping to undo all this.

 

[Astronuc]

Ever Given ship partially freed in the Suez Canal, authority confirms
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/29/africa/suez-canal-refloating-intl-hnk/index.html

The stern has been freed and the ship rotated away from the west bank. They are waiting for high tide and hope to align the ship with the canal, then tow it north to the Bitter Lakes.

The high tides will begin to lessen this week.

Edit/Update: Bloomberg - Giant Ship Finally Freed, Allowing Canal to Reopen: Suez Update
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/progress-made-moving-ship-more-045211868.html

The Ever Given container ship stuck in the Suez Canal was finally pulled free, allowing the crucial trade route to reopen to traffic.

The vessel is now fully afloat, the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement. The ship was moving north from where it was grounded, according to ship-tracking data and television footage.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ever-given-freed-from-the-suez-canal-2021-3

 

[geordief]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56567985

"Suez Canal: Giant ship blocking Suez Canal finally freed"

Now f off

 

[hutchphd]

Hooray for the full moon!

 

[ardnog]

I like how the weight of the ship and number of containers changes randomly from day to day and site to site and even on the same site, because they have no idea how the multiple different measurements for weight or containers work. They've had a week to look it up or ask an expert. A very standard lack of technical research for certain news agencies.

 

[ardnog]

Seen video. Under tow, very low in the water, down at the bow, listing to port. Fortunately no boxes have fallen overboard ... yet ... nor does it appear to be getting lower in the water. Route from here would have been Rotterdam Felixstowe Hamburg but whole thing needs to be inspected.

 

[hmmm27]

Ah well, another crisis averted ; meanwhile, back at the Kardashians...

Was anybody else waiting for somebody to say "Ya know... a low yield thermonuclear weapon would clean that right up" ?

 

[geordief]

Ah well, another crisis averted ; meanwhile, back at the Kardashians...

Was anybody else waiting for somebody to say "Ya know... a low yield thermonuclear weapon would clean that right up" ?

No,but I thought it

And I know who would have wanted to do it pretty sharply

 

[ardnog]

No,but I thought it

And I know who would have wanted to do it pretty sharply

The insurance company, because acts of war aren't covered, and they're probably finished.

 

[Astronuc]

On March 29, the Ever Given container ship arrived at the Great Bitter Lake, effectively clearing the Suez Canal.
https://www.vox.com/world/2021/3/29/22356580/ship-stuck-suez-canal-free-unstuck-ever-given

The ship has now been towed to Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, about midway through the canal, where it will undergo an inspection, the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Osama Rabie said, according to state-run Al Ahram newspaper.

“The outcome of that inspection will determine whether the ship can resume its scheduled service. Once the inspection is finalized, decisions will be made regarding arrangements for cargo currently on board,” charter company Evergreen said, according to CNN.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/suez-canal-fallout-what-caused-the-ever-givens-grounding-answer-will-be-expensive-for-some/ar-BB1f7wsp?li=BBnb7Kz

Egyptian government officials, insurers and shippers are awaiting reports on what caused the grounding. A determination of fault will likely lead to years of litigation to recoup the costs of repairing the ship, fixing the canal and reimbursing shippers for the disruptions they faced, said Capt. John Konrad, the founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain.com.

 

[BWV]

We will know more when this interview airs

 

[256bits]

A determination of fault will likely lead to years of litigation

More nail biting drama to ensue, and not all tongue n check . Should be interesting.
I blame the canal guys for operating a defective product in today's era of large ships.