# Breaking News: Suez Canal blocked by a mega-sized container vessel \[Cleared\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 23, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516 "2021-03-23T21:52:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/61 "2021-03-24T13:29:21Z")
You’d use a floating crane most likely, like [these guys](https://www.weeksmarine.com/equipment-division/cranes) they can discharge containers down to a barge for removal. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/62 "2021-03-24T13:35:13Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > There’s this cutting-edge technology called “anchors”. This is what they used to right the USS Oklahoma, after lightening the ship as much as possible, so it was pretty much an empty shell. It took them over 3 months to build it. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Oklahoma_Righting_01.jpg/320px-Oklahoma_Righting_01.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Oklahoma_Righting_01.jpg/320px-Oklahoma_Righting_01.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/63 "2021-03-24T13:38:58Z")
The container ship is aground, not capsized. The goal is to just get it going in the same direction as the canal so it isn’t blocking traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/64 "2021-03-24T13:40:08Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > You’d use a floating crane most likely, like [these guys](https://www.weeksmarine.com/equipment-division/cranes) they can discharge containers down to a barge for removal. Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that. Good call. Knowing how tightly supply chains are scheduled, I wonder how long it will take to clear the backlog of ships that’s building up while the canal is blocked. If it was already operating at full capacity, then there’s at least a day’s worth of ships stacked up at each end, and more ships arriving every day. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/65 "2021-03-24T13:45:26Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If it was already operating at full capacity, then there’s at least a day’s worth of ships stacked up at each end, and more ships arriving every day. Somebody somewhere is calculating the cost and delay of circumnavigating Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/66 "2021-03-24T13:48:41Z")
They wouldn’t need to unload very much probably. Right now there are casualty specialist naval architects working out just how much mass is required to be lifted from the bow or stern to decrease the ground reaction sufficient to permit her to be pulled off. IME it won’t be nearly as much as you think. It can also be done with heavy lift helicopters. By working out how much “out of draft” the vessel is, they can calculate quite precisely how much weight is resting on the bottom. By combining that with the estimated area of the hull resting on the bottom and applying known estimates of friction coefficients they can calculate how much they need to reduce the ground reaction to be below the total bollard pull of available tugs. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/67 "2021-03-24T13:54:54Z")
> [@cardinal\_fang](#): > > Vessel Finder shows… You know, that’s one of those weirdly compelling websites. 1. There’s a _Mongolian_ ship among all the vessels waiting down south of Suez (the _Servus_). No picture and no information available on it, either. 2. “_Red Sea Brigand_” is maybe not such a great name for an “Offshore Tug/Supply Ship”. Granted, I guess the south end of the Suez Canal is _pretty_ far away from the Somali coast, but still… 3. There’s at least a couple of big yachts stuck down there. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/68 "2021-03-24T13:58:57Z")
A 30 knot crosswind on something that large and un-aerodynamic, hell yeah it’ll blow you over if you’re not constantly correcting. So I can see it – power failure, lose steering, ship weathervanes in the wind and wedges in. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Somebody somewhere is calculating the cost and delay of circumnavigating Africa. Adding to it that if you have to cool your heels all the way back to the Gulf of Aden for a while, some dudes in Somalia may get ideas… Someone at Evergreen meanwhile is definitely sweating at the idea of what kind of stupendous bill they’re gonna get from the Egyptian government. > [@Alessan](#): > > I didn’t know Francesco Schettino was working again. Hey, at least it’s still right side up. (seriously, having it intact and seaworthy gives a better chance of clearing things up in hours or days instead of weeks/months) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/69 "2021-03-24T14:03:35Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Adding to it that if you have to cool your heels all the way back to the Gulf of Aden for a while, some dudes in Somalia may get ideas… True. But the pirates are pretty much inshore concerns. Drive 200 miles straight out to sea, then parallel the coast until well past Somalia and all will be well. In ordinary times, that extra 200+ mile detour is cost prohibitive to cheap-ass ship owners, so the governments pick up the tab for a stunningly expensive, but still inadequate naval presence. When you’re already deviating umpteen thousand miles around the bulk of Africa, the extra 200 to avoid pirates is peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/70 "2021-03-24T14:04:22Z")
No actually the vessel’s hull underwriter is sweating on that. And in my professional estimation it won’t be a massive claim relatively speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/71 "2021-03-24T14:04:42Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Chance in a million. [A million-to-one chance succeeds nine times out of ten.](https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Million-to-one_chance) > Traditionally, one has to say “it’s a million-to-one chance, but it might just work!” to invoke this rule. It also has to be exactly a million to one - none of this fiddly “995,351 to 1” business, or whatever other number you might end up with. So while the list of things that people have accomplished with million to one chances is quite impressive, the list of things they have failed to accomplish with odds a few percentage points off in either direction is probably a lot longer and involves a lot more fatalities. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/72 "2021-03-24T14:07:16Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > **[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Given#/media/File:EVER_GIVEN_(49643352087)_(cropped).jpg)** , it’s 1300 feet long, and with a full load of containers, looks to be maybe 150-200 feet tall. Not going to do the math this morning, but a 40-knot wind will create a LOT of lateral force on something like this. The math seems easy if you convert to SI units. Air weighs about 1 kg per m³. 40 knot is about 17 m/s. 1300 x 150 ft is about 21,000 m². So 17 m/s x 21,000 m² x 1 kg/m³ = 375,000 kg of force per second, every second, one third more if you assume a height of 200 ft or around 475,000 kg of force per second every second. (Would that be almost 5 million N? 🤨) Oversteering or understeering to counter this pressure is a wrong mistake and I believe that is no longer measured in N but in million $. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/73 "2021-03-24T14:08:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > “A gust of wind hit the ship.” > “Is that unusual?” > 'Oh, yeah. In the desert? Chance in a million." Maybe they can tow it beyond the environment. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/74 "2021-03-24T14:11:50Z")
And bear in mind that an average modern tug is around 50 tonnes bollard pull. So it’s like ten tugs pulling the ship sideways. It’s not so bad if it’s even, but if you get a microburst that is pressing on the bow more than stern or vice versa things can get tricky fast. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/75 "2021-03-24T14:12:49Z")
They’ve been using that canal since 1869. You mean to tell me that they didn’t realize before they even tried that a ship of that size wouldn’t fit through?! Unbelievable! 😳 ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/76 "2021-03-24T14:18:39Z")
Yep that’s totally what happened. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/77 "2021-03-24T14:21:04Z")
Oh, it can easily go through with room to spare… It’s just not supposed to go in _sideways_. If there is a problem you are supposed to quickly drop anchors, or at worst ground parallel to the shore, to prevent such a thing. But that requires having control. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/78 "2021-03-24T14:27:12Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Oh, it can easily go through with room to spare… It’s just not supposed to go in _sideways_ . You can say that about a lot of other situations too. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/79 "2021-03-24T14:37:31Z")
One of my all-time favourite videos, that I only discovered recently (thanks to a tip-off on this board IIRC). Hey, if the front falls off it will probably unwedge itself! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516/80 "2021-03-24T15:11:19Z")
[Supposedly](https://www.gac.com/news--media/hot-port-news/efforts-to-refloat-grounded-vessel/) it’s been partly refloated and its direction turned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel-cleared/938516.md?page=5)