Live data from Hacker News

Is that ship still stuck?

istheshipstillstuck.com

581–590 of 1001 posts

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#581
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…

If you unload 20,000 TEU's onto rail cars it takes 5000 cars, double-stacked. That's 50 100-car trains. It'll take weeks to months to load and unload all that, if a proper rail depot is available to take it. It takes huge cranes to reach across a megaship and into its hold. That'd have to be build. On sand. The idea that there's any quick way to manage the cargo of this ship is whistling in the dark.

I think the idea is that they would only partially unload. Get enough weight off the bow to help move it out.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#583
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you build a temporary barrier around the ship and the section of the canal, bring in some massive pumps, and temporarily raise the water level around the ship? Edit: Something like this https://www.hydrologicalsolutions.com/aqua-barrier-cofferdam...

In the middle parts of the ship it is probably not grounded, so you might have ropes below the hull with large inflatable balloons on both sides below water level, to give the ship extra lift. Then on a high tide, with oil & water removed, maybe some dredging on the sides where it needs to rotate to, and.. go!

Someone get the old man and that little boy scout from Up on the phone, stat!

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weeks are measured in what I'd call, a lot of money. Is it a consolidation of funds sort of issue? Anybody responsible for getting it fixed?

Egypt is bleeding money right now. It earned roughly USD 15,360,000.00/day from Suez passage fees in 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal_Authority#Revenues

I think this is the hidden story here. Egypt doesn't have a particularly strong economy, its stock market (unlike the US) is 40% below 2018, it's currency fell more than 50% vs USD in 2016 and has only recovered a few percent, and it (like the US) appears to have significantly more debt than ever before. And the entire globe is still somewhat covid-depressed economically.

When governments, banks and major companies are highly leveraged, all it takes is temporary system shocks to collapse the whole thing. It's not just the lost canal revenue, it's tons of companies in the region that can't get their goods to international markets which slows capital flows, tax revenue, import/export tariffs, etc. Will be interesting to see the effects.

https://tradingeconomics.com/egypt/currency https://tradingeconomics.com/egypt/external-debt

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#586
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of amazing that in 48 hours, an event happens that threatens one of Egypts major income streams and political power sources, and the maximum they can spare is 2 bulldozers... Like why not call in the army, rent every bulldozer in the district, and within 12 hours you'll have 30 on site and be able to move a lot of sand quickly to free it?

In fairness, the US couldn't ramp up mask or ventilator production very fast when the coronavirus was going to tank the entire economy.

That’s not fairness. Chinese expatriates bought up a lot of the world’s stock of masks early on when the pandemic was limited to China. Also, ventilator shortages ended up not being a thing. Keep up. The world is not as simple as “America bad.”

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#587
post #164
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…

People think I'm joking but we should bomb it to smithereens. The crater would probably just fill up with the water flow.

This was my idea but I figured I’d get laughed out of the comments. Glad I’m not the only one considering it.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#588
post #63
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 but what about heavy lift helicopters moving containers off 1 by 1?

Containers are apparently quite heavy. No helicopter currently in production can lift the weight of a fully loaded container on its own. https://www.aerotime.aero/27542-Could-helicopters-solve-the-...

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#589
post #379

Can't wait for elon to offer a solution...

Tell him Egypt is planning to use a hundred Ford F150s to drag the boat, and see how quick he can get a comparable number of Cybertrucks and/or model Ss and 3s to show up.

(Realistically, Egypt would probably use bulldozers if they actually wanted to go that route.)

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#590
post #263
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…

Lloyd's List estimated that every day Suez is closed costs US$9 billion ($400 million per hour). If it could be done technically and open up the canal, it would be cheaper for insurance companies to buy the ship, it's cargo, buy all nearby property and then blow the whole ship up.

With so many ships going through every day for decades it’s a wonder this never happened before.
Post reply on HN