Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

581–590 of 593 posts

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#581

Post by lolc »

themaninthedark wrote: post #577
lolc wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how the report in the linked article is related to Ever Given. It certainly isn't of the fateful trip because it's about a southbound journey.

It contains a report of the behavior of the local Pilots that are supposed guide the ship through the canal. Last line before the report >Read this Statement and ask yourself – can such incident lead to accident like grounding or collision? If the professionals are not doing their job and even causing issues on the bridge; i.e. >As soon as the master picked up the VHF and called Ismalia Port Control on Ch8, the pilot…

I find that the difficult conditions at the time are sufficient to explain the accident. Maybe we'll learn that there was unprofessional behaviour by a pilot. But until such time, that is unwarranted speculation.

The linked article is a hodgepodge of random factoids and hearsay. It even confused the poster into thinking the report was from the Ever Given. Doesn't look like a good source to me.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#582

Post by berkes »

rswail wrote: post #545
berkes wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boskalis is the company who brought the tugboats, engineers, diggers and whatnot over there in days. This is not a random guy commenting. This is an end-boss in charge of the entire operation.

They brought over a few tugs, but the large majority were Egyptian. Not belittling Boskalis' work in the operation, but don't think that the Egyptians don't understand maritime operations in the canal. And I'm guessing that the operation was overseen by the Suez Canal administration, not Boskalis. Not saying that there wasn't delegation, but I'm guessing a joint management operation between the canal, the ship's mana…

I'm sorry if it sounded like Boskalis "saved the day". I was trying to make the point that his is not a random internet person commenting on stuff. Not trying to imply that he's the one running the entire operation.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#583

Post by m4rtink »

Someone wrote: post #433
m4rtink wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past ships already got stuck on the Bitter Lake - for quite some time! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet

I think those were unloaded during the ‘delay’. If they weren’t, I guess the Wikipedia page would have mentioned something about life on the Münsterland, carrying eggs and fruit.

I would assume any perishable cargo was quickly lost to spoilage during the ongoing conflict and the rest of the cargo just staying there. There are actually interesting stories about how the crews of the stack ships got to know each other and how they spent their time during the uncertain time after the channel became impassable - they did theater plays, did sports competitions, fished for food, etc.

Over time as the political situation cleared up a bit most of the crew members were repatriated with just a periodically rotated skeleton crew watching over the ships staying behind.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#584

Post by xyzzyz »

pradn wrote: post #207

A great Twitter thread with many articles/resources if you want a critical lens at the global logistics supply chain. https://twitter.com/CharmaineSChua/status/137586855212986368... I found this article on the impact on super-sized ships on logistical infrastructure useful and fascinating. It describes how the creation of ships too big to fit in the Panama canal (post-PANAMAX ships) was received by 1) Panamanians 2)…

> Policy makers in the US aren't able to pick just a few cities to focus investment in.

Policy makers in the US aren't even able to repeal Jones Act, with its disastrous consequences for US shipping industry. You can't expect much from them.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#585

Post by rattray »

xyzzyz wrote: post #584
pradn wrote: post #207

A great Twitter thread with many articles/resources if you want a critical lens at the global logistics supply chain. https://twitter.com/CharmaineSChua/status/137586855212986368... I found this article on the impact on super-sized ships on logistical infrastructure useful and fascinating. It describes how the creation of ships too big to fit in the Panama canal (post-PANAMAX ships) was received by 1) Panamanians 2)…

> Policy makers in the US aren't able to pick just a few cities to focus investment in. Policy makers in the US aren't even able to repeal Jones Act, with its disastrous consequences for US shipping industry. You can't expect much from them.

What is the Jones Act and what are its consequences, disastrous and otherwise?

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#586

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

willyt wrote: post #574
Jenk wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh gosh why didn't the expert sailors whom all have many years of experience think about this trivial matter? Or could it be that navigating a 400mx60m, 220,000 tonne, 60m tall ship through a canal that is barely double the width with only 4m clearance is just a tad more difficult than that?

Well quite, that's why they might have waited for more favourable conditions instead of trying to take such a big ship through in force 7 'near gale' with poor visibility due to a sandstorm. Seems like a risky thing to do, no? Here's the risk assessment: Can you see where you are going? No. Is it harder to go in a straight line than normal? Yes. Is there anything nearby to hit? Yes. But the crew of the ship never do…

As long as we're idly speculating...

Vessel has a schedule. Has to arrive at a certain berth at a certain time and is expected to only stay there for a certain maximum number of hours because another vessel will be arriving to take its place. Especially if they're already running late, there will be a lot of pressure to keep that schedule and that can lead to doing things that are usually safe, right up until they aren't.

The history of transportation, hell, the history of Mankind, is full of examples.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#587

Post by tjalfi »

rattray wrote: post #585
xyzzyz wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Policy makers in the US aren't able to pick just a few cities to focus investment in. Policy makers in the US aren't even able to repeal Jones Act, with its disastrous consequences for US shipping industry. You can't expect much from them.

What is the Jones Act and what are its consequences, disastrous and otherwise?

The Jones Act[0] requires that goods transported by water between US ports to fly under the US flag, use ships constructed in the US, owned by US companies, and be crewed by US citizens. This results in a substantial cost increase for water traffic. It's otherwise quite cheap to transport goods by water but because of the act highways and trucks are used instead. An OEDC study[1] found that repealing the act would benefit the economy from $19-64 billion.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920

[1] https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/local-c...

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#588

Post by xyzzyz »

rattray wrote: post #585
xyzzyz wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Policy makers in the US aren't able to pick just a few cities to focus investment in. Policy makers in the US aren't even able to repeal Jones Act, with its disastrous consequences for US shipping industry. You can't expect much from them.

What is the Jones Act and what are its consequences, disastrous and otherwise?

You got a good response from someone else below, but here is an example of insanities Jones Act leads to. There have been companies running LNG vessels, sailing from Russia to Northeastern US, selling Russian natural gas there, and then sailing south to buy American natural gas in southern states for much lower price, and than sailing back east to sell it in Europe or further east. Northeastern states buy expensive Russian gas instead of cheap American gas, because there is no vessel that could ship gas from south to north: because of Jones Act, it would have to be American built American operated vessel, and such vessel quite simply does not exist.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#589

Post by oasisbob »

spoonjim wrote: post #496
oasisbob wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are probably better ways to say this. If you're familiar with the industry, perhaps you could better inform the conversation. Personally, I've always been surprised by the amount of fruit, flowers, and other perishables that do economically come in via air.

Flowers, yes. Fruits, short of the exotic, name them.

Alphonso mangos. Many other "exotics", which oftentimes just means they need special processing to clear APHIS based on their country of origin.

Landing here in Seattle, I've seen planes unload huge amounts of fruit and produce, probably bound for asian groceries stores.

I've seen high-value WA apples travel by air to India. I was a bit surprised by this one too.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#590

Post by srverma »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #377
srverma wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your recommendations for real news? I've heard FT, WSJ, and the economist, and am looking to finally commit and sign up instead of relying on free. You get what you pay for is true in this case, and I don't wanna put drama based narratives in my head, which form my perception of the world.

The FT: - Good if you care about mostly business in the developed world (Europe and US). - Really, really, really good features, solid visualisation, and a fairly wide breath of writers in terms of opinions. The Economist: - Very opinionated, but extremely diverse coverage of lots of different parts of the world (I've never come across a better English language source on Africa, for example). - Weekly, so if you only…

Thank you, this is insightful. I fall squarely between FT & Economist, so I may end up subscribing to both, but given Economist is weekly, this might be a better match for my lifestyle.
Post reply on HN