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Is that ship still stuck?

istheshipstillstuck.com

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Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#831

Post by tim333 »

londons_explore wrote: post #89
6nf wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only about the center third of the channel is actually deep enough for this massive ship. Both ends of the ship is stuck in several meters of sand. So far they've only managed get two bulldozers on to try and dig it out but progress is slow.

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?

I don't think the "2 bulldozers" was a serious plan. Just what they happened to have nearby where someone thought to give it a go.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#832

Post by tim333 »

ivanhoe wrote: post #797
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…

>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 really stuck. Not just that, but don't forget the inertia. The moment the ship gets unstuck the force needed to get it moving, multiplied with the ship's huge mass would create such a huge momentum that it would be very hard to stop it from hitting the other shore with the s…

The hull looks pretty tough but it's gonna be a job getting enough pull to drag the thing.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#833

Post by masklinn »

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…

> 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.

One thing many people are missing is the Suez Canal is not concrete, it’s sand, so the canal “walls” are not vertical they’re a relatively gentle 3:1 slope (4:1 in wider areas). Meaning only the center half of the canal is flat and “at depth”, the ship started hitting sand 30-40m from the edge of the canal. By the time it reached the visible edge it’s half-sitting on sand half wedged into it.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#834

Post by tim333 »

Aperocky wrote: post #525
eternalban wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wow, costs $300K to transit through the canal per ship by fee alone? That is capital intensive. It's amazing that more ships are not simply sailing around Africa.

They do sometimes depending on oil prices and how much of a hurry they are in https://www.imarest.org/themarineprofessional/on-the-radar/i...

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#835

Post by tim333 »

krick wrote: post #608
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…

Ok, since everyone is sharing their solutions, and nobody named the most obvious one, I'll do it: just nuke it from orbit.

I'm at a seaside resort in Egypt so I could get a bucket and spade and head up there to dig it out. Might take a while though.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#836

Post by BasDirks »

hunter2_ wrote: post #601
samizdis wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people have suggested unloading the ship. I don't think you realize the infrastructure required to unload a ship. It seems, though, that a partial unloading is being considered by a professional in the field according to quotes in an article in The Guardian [1]: However, Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, a specialist dredging company that has sent a crew to the scene, said data so far suggested “it is not real…

Perhaps the classic beached whale clearing technique [0] would work. [0] https://youtu.be/V6CLumsir34

I cried, fantastic.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#837

Post by eCa »

Sudophysics wrote: post #792
samizdis wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people have suggested unloading the ship. I don't think you realize the infrastructure required to unload a ship. It seems, though, that a partial unloading is being considered by a professional in the field according to quotes in an article in The Guardian [1]: However, Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, a specialist dredging company that has sent a crew to the scene, said data so far suggested “it is not real…

Ok, I know it sounds crazy. But what if they put a correctly sized explosive(s) deep enough below and along the spine to blow and then fill the area with water, reducing the rheological load? We're talking about 100 feet underneath the canal bed, and do it with a shaped charge that'll be more optimal for the task. Just thinking about fast <1 week methods.

If they can dig a tunnel along the boat a 100 feet deep, that would probably be enough to set it free. No need for a boatload of C4 then.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#838

Post by chaps »

rtkwe wrote: post #632
lhorie wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good example of how terrible people are at judging scale. Some numbers getting thrown around downthread say there's something to the tune of 10,000 40ft containers. To give a bit of a sense of perspective, that's like trying to clear out some 200 football fields worth of semi-trucks, except they are stacked, packed full of stuff, and have no gas or wheels. And all of them are perched atop a ship that…

For moving containers off the best bet would probably be heavy lift choppers, the ship is large enough you could have several working on it at once and then just drop them off nearby to be loaded onto barges or something. A huge undertaking but it any weight taken off the Evergreen is less digging they have to do and the time is so expensive. Also it's less middle of nowhere there's a pretty large airbase nearby it l…

Like the OP said, folks really aren't understanding the scale of this problem.. If they manage to do a single crate per minute, that's still just under seven days to do them all.

An empty forty foot shipping container on its own weighs about four tons and their max supported weight is 33.5 tons, so the problem is somewhere in between for every single container. A Mi-26 helicopter, a "heavy transport helicopter" can only lift 14.5 tons, so there will be crates that can't be lifted.

Even if it was possible, and ignoring the logistical issues, you can't ignore the safety issues. Doing it quickly across seven days is going to lead to human and equipment failure, and somebody's bound to get hurt or killed. Considering how many eyes are on this right now, what do you think is going to happen the first time someone dies?

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#839

Post by michaelt »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #572
michaelt wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has 20,000 TEUs (twenty-foot-container-equivalent-units). Weight-wise, the average container could be lifted with a military heavy lift helicopter: The ship carries 20,000 tons, i.e. 1 ton per TEU, and a CH-47F can lift 11 tons. Although a TEU can weigh up to 26 tons, so you couldn't lift the heaviest ones. The problem is speed: A ship-to-shore crane at a properly equipped port can do a lift every 2 minutes. Ports…

Why is everyone assuming that we can do only one container at once? The ship is long, at least few can be done in parallel.

Outside of Vietnam war movies, it's very unusual to see helicopters flying in close proximity.

I suppose it's possible you could find a bunch of pilots confident in cargo handling, landing on ships, and close formation flight all at once. Or that the ship is large enough the helicopters would practically be independent of one another?

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#840

Post by goldenkey »

cm2187 wrote: post #799
Sudophysics wrote: post #792

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I know it sounds crazy. But what if they put a correctly sized explosive(s) deep enough below and along the spine to blow and then fill the area with water, reducing the rheological load? We're talking about 100 feet underneath the canal bed, and do it with a shaped charge that'll be more optimal for the task. Just thinking about fast <1 week methods.

Works in cartoons!

Can we just drop some anvils while we are at it? Why ask Tesla to help when ACME has never let us down?
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