The guy I feel sorry for is the Master. He is probably craving sleep, suffering RSI on the keyboard with a phone glued to his ear with blurred vision reading another missive beginning “we are grieved and pained in this days of high costs and low freight rates…”
And to cap it all off he may stumble on correspondence from a deranged Swedish correspondent.
3 Likes
If I were him I would be putting a “Barges with cranes wanted, good pay for moving containers off my ship and bonuses for not stealing them” in the Red Sea Craigslist Help Wanted.
Good thing you didn’t mention the R*C, that would have this post shuttered from view like mine was.
I haven’t transited the Suez in probably 12 years…what’s the typical gap between following vessels? Just wondering how quick the reaction time of the bridge team on the Maersk Denver had to be to avoid a much worse problem?
Well, aren’t there parts of either/both the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal where there are locks parallel to one another?
How about access roads for machinery?
AFAIK the Suez Canal has no locks.
It has been many years since I have transitioned the Suez Canal and I haven’t missed it at all. The Suez Canal lights that used to be required included a red light below the stern light functioning as a brake light. I would be prepared to bet that there was a white knuckled moment on the bridge of the Maersk Denver.
2 Likes
This is an interesting case. MS Ever Given, LOA 400 m, B 56 m, draft 16 m, proceeds north in the Suez Canal, which is about 300 m wide, but has to stay in the 200 m center section of the canal due to draft restrictions. Outside that section depth is reduced from 16 - 10 - 5 - 0 m with a soft, sandy bottom. Suddenly the ship turns starboard and runs aground up on the sloping canal side to end up locked into canal side at 45° blocking the whole canal. The ship must have pushed aside plenty mud in the process. So 100 m of the ship’s fwd part is now resting on/in solid ground/canal floor of sand/mud of 150 m length. There is no way to pull her back or trim her on the stern. Let’s face it. The ship is stuck! Only way to get her floating again is to pull her back into the center of the canal away from the mud in the side. Some tugs should pull her aft and then - FULL SPEED ASTERN - and you are afloat again. Good luck!
Also many years since I have transited that lower bowel of a waterway.
‘Helper’ boats lowered on to the deck whose immediate job was to void their bilges and shit tanks everywhere and then demand food and cigarettes.
Anybody notice any similarities between the terms Gypo and Gypsy?
Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, Lagos has already claimed the title of ‘The place that God would insert the tube if he wanted to give the world an enema’.
I guess that the Sewage Canal is just a resection really.
Lot of posts on here so may have missed it; anybody remember this?
Before my time, obviously.
Suez Crisis - Wikipedia
3 Likes
I went through the Suez and the crew of the helper boats set up a gift shop in one of the alleyways to sell souvenirs to the crew. Little statues of pyramids and camels etc.
1 Like
This is fantastic, this is how it all falls into a massive mess.
Bunch of shoreside dickheads dictating how ships should operate and then it all goes belly up because the envelope has been stretched too far.
Ah, but the Captain is in charge! Therefore we are not responsible (El Faro anybody?).
At least, so far, no seafarers killed on this particular clusterfuck.
Hope the guy in the digger at the bow has insurance though.
And a lifejacket.
RAMS?
PLI?
3 Likes
Yeah, I remember those!
Took some home for presents for the family; opened one up and it was stuffed with used bandages.
Washed though.
Damn, that was a memory that was dredged up from way on down.
1 Like
2 Likes
The ghost of Ralph Nader?
Is tailgating an acceptable marine risk?
Also; what on earth are the local disaffected doing?
Or rather, why are they not doing anything at all?
Doesn’t matter who, whom or why; RPG. Drones. IED. Top Gear Toyota full of fertiliser. Mis-declared DG’s on board.
Yet there it sits.
A premier piece in a premier game but nobody is making any moves.
Damn, must stop watching conspiracy programmes.
Or, is that what they want me to think?
1 Like
“Dutch firm Smit Salvage and Japan’s Nippon Salvage had been appointed by the ship’s owner and would work alongside its captain and the Suez Canal Authority on a plan to refloat it.”
1 Like
I wonder if the canal authority will restrict these giant box boats from entering the canal in certain conditions after this?
Wind and draft restrictions maybe?
1 Like
Doubt it. Wonder what the result will be for insurance and transit fees
That’s for sure We went through about 30 cartons before everybody was happy. When we got back to the US the captain handed out the rest of cigarettes to the crew in response to the bullshit we have to do just because we are supposedly rich Americans . All-these strangers get free cartons But the crew is expected to pay for them. Nope
In yesterday’s phone call with my father, we joked about how many cartons it’s going to take to get that mother of all container ships unstuck. Wouldn’t be surprised if that little excavator was running off them…
He also told me a story of how the captain once gave him just a handful of packs instead of whole cartons to hand out. The locals almost threw him to the Canal.
2 Likes