Suez canal blocked by a massive ship • Hacker News Board

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#261

Post by VBprogrammer » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 10:53 AM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #259

lmilcin wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi. Skipper here (nothing of the size of the ship in question, obviously:). Ships of ANY size are hard or impossible to maneuver when they are going slow and have a blackout. The size doesn't matter. The control surfaces only work when they move with regards to water. The ship that does not move is uncontrollable with rudder and it needs to use something else to help it maneuver. This something else can be a tugboat…

For ships that have turbo-electric drive trains rather than big shafts, I wonder if it would be possible to vector the propellers somewhat for better maneuverability, the same way that rockets use gimballing engines? Probably not worth the maintenance though, with sealant and salt water considerations.

This is common on cruise ships. They spend so much of their time going in and out of port the extra manoeuvrability is worth it in requiring fewer tugs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuth_thruster

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#262

Post by lmilcin » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 10:54 AM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #259

lmilcin wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi. Skipper here (nothing of the size of the ship in question, obviously:). Ships of ANY size are hard or impossible to maneuver when they are going slow and have a blackout. The size doesn't matter. The control surfaces only work when they move with regards to water. The ship that does not move is uncontrollable with rudder and it needs to use something else to help it maneuver. This something else can be a tugboat…

For ships that have turbo-electric drive trains rather than big shafts, I wonder if it would be possible to vector the propellers somewhat for better maneuverability, the same way that rockets use gimballing engines? Probably not worth the maintenance though, with sealant and salt water considerations.

Anything else than straight shaft with a propeller on it is a loss of efficiency and reliability.

When the fuel efficiency and reliability drive your competitiveness that is a huge issue.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#263

Post by yreg » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 10:55 AM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #23

If you go to vesselfinder you can follow the drama in real-time! Seems it's still stuck: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9811000

How does it look like normally? I guess full of ships anyway?

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#264

Post by speexmex » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:01 AM UTC

brisky wrote: post #241

I think this could possibly be the black swan event.

Experts said this will be solved in at most 3 days.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#265

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:02 AM UTC

nickkell wrote: post #36

Let's hope all those backed up ships aren't stuck as long as these chaps: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet

> Cargo: Eggs, fruit

Yikes.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#266

Post by vbezhenar » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:03 AM UTC

Swenrekcah wrote: post #247

m3kw9 wrote: post #245

Damn, imagine having to go around South America as a detour.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, the Suez is in Egypt, so the detour would be around Africa.

Considering the threat from Nigeria pirates, they probably will just wait until everything resolves.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#267

Post by dmos62 » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:03 AM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #163

onion2k wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the Suez Canal a huge bomb is just going to make it bigger and easier to navigate in one spot. A huge bomb to one side of the canal would displace rock and mud in to the channel and make it shallower. That would be enough to close it to large ships until it could be dredged again. Although, if terrorists really wanted to wreak havoc in the canal they could scuttle a large ship while it's sailing in it. That would…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet : some ships were stuck for eight years after the 1967 war closed the canal at both ends with sunk ships.

> In October 1967, the officers and crews of all fourteen ships met on the Melampus to found the "Great Bitter Lake Association" which provided mutual support. Crew members continued to regularly meet on board their ships, organized social events, founded a yachting club and held the "Bitter Lake Olympic Games" to complement the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Life boat races were arranged and soccer games were played on the largest ship, the MS Port Invercargill, while church services were held on the West German motorship Nordwind and movies were shown on the Bulgarian freighter Vasil Levsky.[2] The Swedish Killara had a pool.[3]

> In time, it was possible to reduce the number of crew members on board the ships, and in 1969 the ships were gathered into several groups to further reduce the number of crew necessary for their upkeep. Those crew that were left to maintain the vessels were rotated every three months. In 1972, the last crew members of the German ships were finally sent home, with the maintenance of the ships left to a Norwegian company.

They even introduced a postal system!

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#268

Post by jq-r » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:03 AM UTC

u678u wrote: post #116

carols10cents wrote: post #34

In a chapter of "Ninety Percent of Everything", the author rides a container ship through the Suez Canal and relates what it's like, if this has piqued your interest about the shipping industry. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16044961-ninety-percent-...

Aren't they just a dozen Filipinos or Russians keeping the boat clean while the auto pilot makes a slight adjustment every few hours? I'm not sure how exciting it would be.

I've never travelled through Suez, but did some other canals like Panama and Kiel. Autopilot won't be used there I'm sure. Canal Authority requires having a Pilot onboard and he gives commands to the Helmsman.

Even on the open sea I've never seen that the autopilot actually steers the ship, it will only keep the heading, and sound an alert when there is time to change heading. So the watchkeeping Officer will set new heading and steer the ship in a new direction.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#269

Post by dmos62 » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:05 AM UTC

willyt wrote: post #192

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be crappy terrorists because shipping delays don't cause terror the way real terrorism does.

No they’d be geniuses because they would cause economic losses to powerful people a lot like how the good Friday agreement came about quite quickly after the IRA broke every office window in the finicial district of London with a truckload of fertiliser. No-one was killed and glaziers rates went up 10 times for a few months. It caused a big disruption to the financial district but most ordinary people weren’t that bo…

> letting off bombs in the metro doesn’t acheive anything

Well, it terrorizes. Terror not achieving anything is a bold statement. Maybe you'd prefer to argue that it's not efficient or productive.

Re: Suez canal blocked by a massive ship

#270

Post by cycomanic » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 11:05 AM UTC

zests wrote: post #67

capableweb wrote: post #23

If you go to vesselfinder you can follow the drama in real-time! Seems it's still stuck: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9811000

This link is extremely interesting. Keep zooming out all the way if you haven't already.

Apparently 30% of all container traffic go through the Suez canal. Around 51 ships per day.