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Is that ship still stuck?

istheshipstillstuck.com

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Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#901

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes you wonder if anyone has an old aircraft carrier they'd be willing to use as a battering ram. Try to hit it towards the bow to dislodge it.

And if that ram breaks you'll not just have a giant container ship stuck there, but a bloody aircraft carrier as well. :D

Clearly that's when you send in the next aircraft carrier.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#902
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 it is any indication, other ships are turning around and betting on the two weeks journey around Africa.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#903
post #799

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!

I say we attach a giant helium balloon!

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#904

In hindsight, was it a good idea to allow ships that big through the canal? In the future, could they perhaps widen the canal and disallow ships large enough to block it?

Why do I have the suspicion that an engineer raised a concern at some point but was shot down by someone with quotas to meet.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#905
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 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…

Instead of listing possible technologies and solutions to the problem of re-floating the container ship, why not make an ordered list of worst possible outcomes and approach the problem from the least-worst?

I'll start:

1. pull the ship out of the sand by force with a fleet of tugs which tears a hole in the ship causing an angle of loll and to subsequently keel over.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#906

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.

So... you want to be the one responsible if it doesn't go as planned? Further blocking the canal, let alone damages to the ship and cargo on board.

Theres a reason wacky, dangerous ideas happen in the movies and not real life. The consequences of trying to look clever and failing are pretty severe.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy idea : Can we roll it into the water by pulling it over high strength rollers of some sort ? It would be pretty cool to use the same technique that was use to build the pyramids.

Sane answer: No. The ship is 400 metres / 0.25 of a mile long. With containers, it weighs anywhere up to 199 thousand tons. One does not simply attach a few hundred cables, put some rollers under it, and pull with all the tractors you can find in Egypt. Also, it's already in the water. It's just turned sideways and buried the bulb (by the looks) into the canal wall.

Since the sides of the channel are much more shallow than the middle, it's not floating in the water as both ends of the ship are stuck on the bottom.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#908

Principle of maximal irony prediction: the ship rolls over while trying to free it and the suez gets littered with containers, takes even longer to clear it.

A bit off topic, but anyone who ever played SnowRunner or MudRunner can probably relate. Quite often when you try to rescue a truck, you flip it over, and now require another truck with a crane to come over and load the cargo again.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#909

I wonder how much economic damage is caused every day that ship is stuck.

The canal generated 5.61 billion USD in 2020 [0] so it is costing them 15 million dollars a day in lost revenue. Shipping companies now have to go around Africa which costs uses more fuel and has other costs but now they don't have to pay the toll and I'm betting the spread between the toll price and the additional cost of going around Africa isn't very large or Egypt is leaving free money on the table.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal_Authority#:~:text=I...

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#910
> It has cost us $30 billion dollars, so far...

This valuation is based on Lloyd's list's valuation of Suez traffic at ~$10 billion / day, but surely that would require all traffic to be permanently lost (rather than delayed) to add up to a concrete loss. Spoilage might be an issue with some cargo, plus there's other costs to delay, but I can't imagine the eventual loss will be anything close to $10 billion / day (excepting obvious large unknowns like market speculation).

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