Live data from Hacker News

Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

twitter.com

121–130 of 462 posts

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#121
post #116

In a chapter of "Ninety Percent of Everything", the author rides a container ship through the Suez Canal and relates what it's like, if this has piqued your interest about the shipping industry. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16044961-ninety-percent-...

Aren't they just a dozen Filipinos or Russians keeping the boat clean while the auto pilot makes a slight adjustment every few hours? I'm not sure how exciting it would be.

I haven't read the book, but I have traveled on a container ship through the Suez Canal. It's not really what I would call exciting, but it is fairly interesting. It takes less than a day to transit, and the scenery is relatively varied - you get to see urban areas, some rural farmland, beaches, and full out desert. Both in front and behind are dozens of massive container ships, just as big as the one you're on. It's quite humbling.

All this is in contrast to the rest of the time you are onboard. You are right that not very much happens. The ocean is very, very big. The vast majority of the time you can't see any land, or any other ships. If you don't have a satellite receiver of your own, there is no internet, no news, no nothing. Sometimes there is a storm. Sometimes there is a sunset. Most of the time there's nothing of note. I found it really relaxing, but it's definitely not for everyone. It's also a very expensive way to travel compared to commercial airlines or even long distance rail.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> probably boosting a few African economies. Do you mean some production would shift to Africa, or something else?

Some lucky places can open ports for the giant ships to stop and refuel/resupply, that brings a lot of income. Though maybe I've got the scale wrong, and these ships can just buy more fuel and more food at their departure ports and go around Africa without stopping...

There's already a ton of shipping going around the cape and yeah, giant cargo ships aren't doing mid trip pit stops just for food and fuel.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#123
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't they just a dozen Filipinos or Russians keeping the boat clean while the auto pilot makes a slight adjustment every few hours? I'm not sure how exciting it would be.

I haven't read the book, but I have traveled on a container ship through the Suez Canal. It's not really what I would call exciting, but it is fairly interesting. It takes less than a day to transit, and the scenery is relatively varied - you get to see urban areas, some rural farmland, beaches, and full out desert. Both in front and behind are dozens of massive container ships, just as big as the one you're on. It's…

How does one end up traveling on a container ship?

Is that something you can pay to do?

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#124
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh it's in Wikipedia's "largest container ships" list! [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ship...

In 2016, Prokopowicz and Berg-Andreassen defined a container ship with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 TEU as a Very Large Container Ship (VLCS), while that with a capacity greater than 20,000 TEU as an Ultra Large Container Ship (ULCS) They are gonna run out of larger adjectives pretty soon.

While it's not SI yet, they could still use Hella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella#SI_prefix

I'm all for Hella Container Ship

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read the book, but I have traveled on a container ship through the Suez Canal. It's not really what I would call exciting, but it is fairly interesting. It takes less than a day to transit, and the scenery is relatively varied - you get to see urban areas, some rural farmland, beaches, and full out desert. Both in front and behind are dozens of massive container ships, just as big as the one you're on. It's…

How does one end up traveling on a container ship? Is that something you can pay to do?

Most of the ships have unused cabins, and some shipping companies allow civilians to book them as a sort of quirky cruise experience. There is quite a lot of paperwork involved, and you need to book fairly far in advance, but it's totally doable if you have the cash and the time. When I went it cost around us$100 per night. Going from Europe to Asia takes 3-4 weeks, I think going around the world (both Suez and Panama) can take 6 weeks or more.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#127
Compare the red/black line on the ship's hull and the water line. Under normal conditions, the red/black line is parallel to the water across the length of the ship:

https://www.google.com/search?q=evergreen+ever+given&source=...

In this picture of the ship stuck in the Suez, the red/black line appears to tilt noticeably upwards towards the bow:

https://twitter.com/marceldirsus/status/1374480496789393412

If this isn't some sort of optical illusion, the bow of the ship appears runaground by quite a bit.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#128

According to the Twitter feed there is now a excavator trying to dig out the bow. It really shows off the scale as the excavator looks like a tiny toy next to the massive container ship. https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1374468169784459267/pho...

Picture from another angle. Not sure if it is authentic or photoshopped:

https://twitter.com/lookner/status/1374580367269711875

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one end up traveling on a container ship? Is that something you can pay to do?

Most of the ships have unused cabins, and some shipping companies allow civilians to book them as a sort of quirky cruise experience. There is quite a lot of paperwork involved, and you need to book fairly far in advance, but it's totally doable if you have the cash and the time. When I went it cost around us$100 per night. Going from Europe to Asia takes 3-4 weeks, I think going around the world (both Suez and Panam…

I had no clue - this is fascinating. Do you mind sharing who you booked with?

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#130
post #47

According to the Twitter feed there is now a excavator trying to dig out the bow. It really shows off the scale as the excavator looks like a tiny toy next to the massive container ship. https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1374468169784459267/pho...

Uhhh it's in Wikipedia's "largest container ships" list! [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ship...

I'm surprised Docker is not on that list
Post reply on HN