Suez canal blockage

[Bruce]

Anyone think the ships nav system was hacked given the pre grounding route and the sideways blockage?

[EarleyBird]

Went to sea for 30 years. There is a Suez Pilot onboard when you make the transit. Possibilities...draft was reported incorrect, casualty in the Engineroom, Steering gear failure. Captain is ultimately responsible for his vessel. Might of taken over Command. Bittersweet Lake in the middle. Ships going one way or the other can anchor,wait for tugs to push her into deeper water or lighten her up to be pushed or pulled. EarleyBird

[Tony Meola]

They said it was the wind storm. Had to be a hell of a storm, and if it was that bad, why did they even try.

[Yannis]

Now they're saying that oil price might go up because of the accumulated delays.
I wonder all those tugs, can't they do something?

[Amberjack]

It was a "limit" ship, maximum size allowed in the canal so they were operating with thin margins for error. Add in marginal weather, possible inattention, maybe a mistake and you have an accident, just like with an airliner crash. Still, I admit Bruce's theory of a navigation system hack crossed my mind. There are a lot of agendas at play in the Middle East.

[Marshall Mahoney]

It's a bad day when your screw up can actually be seen from outer space...

[Carl]

It's a bad day when your screw up can actually be seen from outer space...

Now THAt is just too funny...

It's gonna cost all of us...but have to say that's a good laugh.



I think what I love about this latest worldwide tragedy that was resolved by the best of the best...it was handled mostly by Mother Nature and a rising tide.

Perspective on the green movement...

[Hueso]

Since 2014:

https://ctc.usma.edu/attacks-in-the-sue ... l-at-risk/

Easy terrorism.

[Tony Meola]

David

Lets hope they have stepped up security.

[Bruce]

One doesn't have to fire missiles or shoot bullets anymore. China, Russia, US, Israel, etc has proven warfare is just a few key strokes.

The prelim from the canal authority is that it wasn't weather related, it wasn't as bad as everyone said, but it could have been used as a cover.
Prelim report crew had blackouts.

Not sure like everything else we will ever know the truth.
Never went to sea as a commercial mariner, but in watching utube video's from a guy called MAOKI(?) who is a top engineer, there are so many redundant systems.

[Amberjack]

OK, on the other side of the world from the Suez Canal can somebody from the NYC area tell me what that ferry was doing in Bushwick Inlet this weekend? The inlet looked about the size of a bathtub with no room to turn around.

[Carl]

The Ferry runs from the highlands to Manhatten.

The Ferry either hit bottom causing problems or had problems and hit bottom...in either case, the ferry started taking on water then drifting into Bushwick inlet.

[Amberjack]

Thanks Carl, that makes more sense than the idea they voluntarily entered such a small place.

The long string of italics was unintentional, guess the button stuck. Memo: preview before submit.

[Amberjack]

Thanks Carl, that makes more sense than the idea they voluntarily entered such a small place.

The long string of italics was unintentional.

[Yannis]

We have a more permanent canal blockage, so now everyone who wants to come to the Aegean has to go around the Peloponnese.
Expected to last until late '21 or early '22!


https://www.flickr.com/photos/191620136 ... ed-public/

[Rawleigh]

Ouch! Not much room to work in there either. How long is that canal and when was it dug. I have seen pictures of cruise ships going through it. Not much room for error!

[Yannis]

It was dug in the 1890's.

The boulder drop was a result of a mild earthquake. The problem is that as they pull the silt, there is more that falls on them as the banks are not coherent. There is a major bank reconstitution needing to happen that takes time. If you travel by car on the north side of the Peloponnese all the soil is of that kind, kind of chalky, whitish and poorly coherent. They had to re-design the motorway that runs from Athens to Patras through a new route because of this. They just couldn't widen the old road, as the soil was collapsing on them...
Anyway, the ones that are principally hurt are the Italians who cannot reach the Aegean easily. This might mean that we may have less tourists in the islands, which for me is very good!

[Amberjack]

This is a really interesting article about the challenges of navigating large cruise ships in Alaska waters. The Evergiven with its propulsion system is probably similar to the Royal class cruise ships.

https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/04/22 ... -megaship/

[Tommy]

As one would expect, a lot of finger-pointing going on. How would you like to have been the master standing between two Egyptian pilots barking out conflicting orders?

From Shippingwatch.com:

A quarrel between two pilots on board Ever Given over how the ship should be steered through harsh weather in the Suez Canal may have led to the grounding, reports Bloomberg based on court documents.

BY DANIEL LOGAN

Published: 28.06.21 at 09:37

A quarrel between two Egyptian pilots may have contributed to the Suez Canal being closed for traffic for nearly a week in late March, writes Bloomberg based on the testimony of witnesses in a trial in Egypt trying to place responsibility between the parties for the costly incident.

The two Egyptian pilots who, on behalf of the Suez Canal Authority, SCA, were tasked with steering the large container ship Ever Given through the important waterway, disagreed on how the ship should be guided in the harsh weather. "One argued that the ship should be run at a much higher rate of speed to place greater water flow over the rudders. The other argued to run at a slower speed to avoid a catastrophic event should the weather created a steerage problem (40 MPH winds during a dust storm)."


********************************************************************
From Splash247.com
June 25, 20219 185,854  3 minutes read


Bickering Egyptian pilots have been blamed for this year’s most high profile shipping casualty.

As preparations get underway to get the giant 20,388 teu Ever Given moving again, three months after its dramatic grounding in the Suez Canal, reports have emerged of what happened on the fateful day of its stormy transit through the key waterway linking Europe with Asia.



Bloomberg Businessweek reporters have been in court listening to the proceedings between the Suez Canal Authority and the Japanese owner of the Ever Given. Yesterday the magazine published an in-depth, 6,000 word article looking at how the Shoei Kisen-owned ship become lodged across the canal for six days in March.

Based on testimonies from multiple court hearings in Egypt, the two pilots from the Suez Canal Authority onboard the Ever Given do not come out of the article at all well.



The Wall Street Journal suggests the preliminary deal calls for about $200m in compensation


Splash reported on Wednesday that an agreement in principle has been reached over a compensation claim between the SCA and Shoei Kisen. No dollar figure has been made public, nor an official timeframe for the ship’s departure. The Wall Street Journal suggested the preliminary deal calls for about $200m in compensation, while in a televised interview on Thursday night, SCA chairman Osama Rabie said he believed an agreement could be reached within 15 days.

“It may take some further time for the agreement to be concluded, for the vessel to be released from arrest and prepared for onward transit,” ship operator Evergreen Line said in a statement.

The ship was arrested on April 13 and has remained at anchor on the Great Bitter Lake ever since.

Claims adjuster WK Webster suggested in an update this week: “We can expect that the final settlement agreement will be concluded shortly which should then permit the vessel to continue upon its intended voyage and finally allow Cargo Interests to take delivery of their long-awaited cargoes. It is anticipated that once the vessel departs the Great Bitter Lake, the sailing time to Rotterdam, the next scheduled port of call, will be 9/10 days.”

While the SCA has been at pains to lay the blame on the ship and its crew, yesterday’s Businessweek article paints a very different picture of the moments leading up to its grounding.

The ship entered the canal in stormy conditions, with strong winds. A seafarer who was on a ship further ahead in the convoy told Splash that he experienced gusts of wind that day of up to 50 knots. The master of an LNG carrier the day prior had taken the decision to delay transiting, fearful of the inclement conditions.


A few kilometres into Ever Given’s transit, placed 13th in the 20-ship convoy, the 400 m long ship veered from port to starboard and back again. In response, according to court documents seen by Businessweek, the lead SCA pilot instructed the helmsman to steer hard right, then hard left.

“The Ever Given‘s vast hull took so long to respond that by the time it began to move, he needed to correct course again. When the second pilot objected, the two argued,” the article states.

The lead pilot then gave a new order: “Full ahead.” The ship sped up to 13 knots, five knots faster than the canal’s recommended speed limit. The two pilots continued to argue, with the lead pilot even threatening to leave the ship.

The increase in power created unforeseen problems in the shape of what is known as Bernoulli’s principle, whereby a fluid’s pressure goes down when its speed goes up. The ship’s prow ended up lodged on the right bank of the canal, thrusting shipping into the mainstream media for the following week.

As the two SCA pilots readied to leave the ship in the wake of the accident, the pilots were heard to still be arguing between themselves.

“These vessels are not supposed to enter,” the lead pilot said.

“Why did you let it enter?” his colleague responded.

The lawyer representing the ship’s owner submitted recordings from the Ever Given‘s voyage data recorder into evidence.

The SCA, for its part, continues to deny its pilots were to blame for the accident.

[Rawleigh]

If I were Evergreen I would want my money back!!!!!!! Where is Uncle Vic when you need him!

[Bruce]

You would think that the minute the two pilots started to argue with weather conditions as they were, the master would have taken charge.
Seems the bridge was in a Charlie Foxtrot moment.