Is that ship still stuck? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#501

Post by Alupis » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:35 AM UTC

bkor wrote: post #290

blhack wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 20,000 containers on the ship. Assuming you needed to remove 1/4 of those containers to get it to rise far enough to get off of the sand, you need to move 5000 containers. Assume that it takes 5 minute to connect a bridle to a container, hook it to a helicopter, and move it...and then also assume that the helicopters can run 24/7 and never have to refuel, that they can hot swap in pilots, and that there is…

Just a small correction: 20.000 TEU is not the same as the amount of containers. TEU is the number of twenty foot equivalent. There will be enough 40 foot containers on there. If it was going to Europe there will hardly be any empty containers. Amount of actual containers is probably the 20.000 divided by 1.6 or so, though it's not a given that any vessel is fully loaded to max capacity. Sometimes need to deal with r…

The weight is more of an issue. Heavy lift helis cannot lift a fully loaded 20ft container (weighing up to 67,000lbs), let alone a 40 footer.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#502

Post by suzzer99 » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:36 AM UTC

Transfinity wrote: post #451

zepearl wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Detonate a small but still relatively powerful bomb upstream (or maybe multiple small but staggered ones), to create a small tsunami-like wave, which in turn will move at least the ship's aft/stern (as the ship creates in the canal a "V"-like shape which will therefore concentrate most of the wave's force in that area) when it hits it. Almost guaranteed to work, theoretically.

IIRC the banks of the canal aren't very high above the water level.

Raising the banks for say 1/2 mile on either end of the ship might not be impossible? Maybe?

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#503

Post by cm2187 » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:36 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

But naively, I’d think you just need to apply the opposite force to the force that got it stuck. Surely that didn’t break the hull.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#504

Post by _ph_ » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:37 AM UTC

adflux wrote: post #155

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Love the armchair engineers who think they're gonna solve this better than billion dollar companies

Yes, most here are armchair engineers, though quite a few actual engineers around, so you never know. But the embarassing point is: the billion dollar companies currently also don't seem to have an idea about the possible solution :p. I am pretty optimistic that they will come up with a reasonable plan soon, but there is a nonzero chance that someone here will come up with a good idea. Sometimes it quite helps to be at a distance.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#505

Post by Denvercoder9 » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:37 AM UTC

float4 wrote: post #446

the8472 wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Again the infrastructure to do this rapidly doesn't exist. The UAE used several sand-vacuuming ships to build their artificial islands, wouldn't those do the job?

The dredging for that project was done by a Belgian and a Dutch company, and I don't think they left their ships and equipment there afterwards.

That Dutch company has now been called in to fix this, though.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#506

Post by yebyen » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:38 AM UTC

nullserver wrote: post #443

RantyDave wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. It's long, fat, and like the pharaohs ... buried in Egypt.

Snip snip. Just cut the tip off.

Well the front's not supposed to fall off. The front fell off in this case, but it's very unusual.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#507

Post by xg15 » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:38 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Dumb question: How about evacuating and then blowing up the ship?

Yes, the loss of the ship and all its cargo will be immense, but that seems to be dwarfed by the damage the blocked canal causes.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#508

Post by dragontamer » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:39 AM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #507

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Dumb question: How about evacuating and then blowing up the ship? Yes, the loss of the ship and all its cargo will be immense, but that seems to be dwarfed by the damage the blocked canal causes.

Then how do you clean up 220,000 tons of debris?

Turns out: the container ship __itself__ is the easiest way to move all of that debris out. And its already packed and loaded.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#509

Post by 1123581321 » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:40 AM UTC

jacob2484 wrote: post #456

Quite the arrogance here of mostly software devs trying to out -solutionize marine/shipping experts who undoubtedly have been consulted and are already looking for the quickest way to resolve the situation. With billions of dollars in stake, I'm sure even the most expensive experts are involved.

I think the people chatting would have to be involved in some way for amateur theories to be problematic.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#510

Post by Aperocky » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 12:41 AM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #507

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Dumb question: How about evacuating and then blowing up the ship? Yes, the loss of the ship and all its cargo will be immense, but that seems to be dwarfed by the damage the blocked canal causes.

The wreck would continue to sit in the canal...