Posted on 03/28/2021 4:18:54 PM PDT by amorphous
With the costs of the closure of one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries growing by the day, salvage teams hoped on Sunday to take advantage of the full moon and swelling tides to dislodge the giant cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal.
Late Saturday, tugboat drivers sounded their horns in celebration of the most visible sign of progress since the ship ran aground late Tuesday:
The 220,000-ton Ever Given had moved.
Granted, it did not go far — just two degrees, or about 100 feet, according to shipping officials. But that came on top of progress in the days before, when canal officials said dredgers had managed to dig out the rear of the ship, freeing its rudder.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is turning into a science friction story.
I have yet another dumb question: Why not bring in some construction equipment and trench out around the stern so she can back out?
There was a suggestion at another site. I don’t know how feasible it is:
Weld a bulkhead inside where the bulbous nose of the ship starts, then cut it off with underwater welding rigs.
Looks like a test on how to block the canal. They don’t let ships in that are too wide and too deep. EVER. Dang ship there is almost sideways. I smell CHINA or IRAN.
When costs outweigh the benefit of waiting, businesses will just find another way and say “F* ‘em!”.
One would think that something like this would have been planned for, given the importance of that canal.
And if they need extra flotation, park (anchor) one or two ships, or tugs, at each entrance (above and below) the narrow portion of the channel and use their props to pump water into the canal. Four ships or large tugs could probably raise the water level in that section of the canal several feet.
You have to at least consider if this was purposeful.
I’d like to know what is in those cargo containers.
OFFLOAD the overloaded ship. Problem solved.
Apparently, if you don’t make your cargo ship the biggest on the route, you eventually lose the cargos and the ship is retired. Possibly, the company that owns it goes out of business. The first cargo ship had 56 containers. Every port in the US is dredging deeper. Some of them just a few years after they spent hundreds of millions to get 45 foot channels. Now they must be in excess of fifty feet deep. That may be expensive to maintain. Plus, as demonstrated here, all new support tugs must be designed. These are the same size tugs they’ve had forever and they can’t move the ships anymore.
Two things are immediately obvious. If you’re a terrorist or terrorist supporting country, there are two huge choke points that give you outsized leverage. The Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. The next thought is, if you really want to hurt a country, sink the ships carrying its cargos. There won’t be very many of them. All you have to do is load a cargo of explosives on a timer, and ship it. Make sure it’s on the bottom layer. Shouldn’t be that hard to do.
Both the Russians and the Chinese have designed launching platforms that are essentially cargo containers. They’d load them all on the outside of a ship like this. A single ship could carry thousands of missiles. Talk about an awesome first strike!
All the world’s intelligence agencies knew about terrorist plans to use commercial jets as weapons years before 9/11. They didn’t do anything about it because there was no political will to spend the money to defend against the threat. Same with cargo ships, canals and cruise missiles launched from your very own port.
The only thing American politicians are concerned about is getting reelected. Not a cent for defense against “unproven” threats. (Don’t get me started on the vulnerability of our power grid to cyber threats, sabotage and EMP.)
The dredgers that they are using will work faster than mechanical digging equipment with far less risk of damaging the ship. They will use huge pumps to both blow away and suck away the sand bar.
What I find most surprising about this whole fiasco is that the managers of the canal allowed a sand bar to build up in the canal to the point that it was a hazard to navigation.
Nuts. This is longer and heavier than any of our Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. This isn't a swamp pull, there simply isn't enough power to yank it out without removing it off the sand. Not only that, but there isn't a place on the vessel strong enough to support a cable system of any magnitude, as if that would matter.
Give the Mediterranean Sea a Heimlich Maneuver, and that Ever-Given will go shooting out into the Red Sea like a chicken bone.
A nickel holding up billions of dollars.
Worth noting...
Biden cancels pipeline
Gas prices begin to spike
Suez canal blocks oil ships from middle east.
Tonight, reports that a major oil refinery in Indonesia exploded.
This is beginning to seem intentional.
I believe the hold of the Mayflower would not even have filled one of those containers.
BS. I worked with heavy equipment for 30 years. What are the tugs hooking to? There are plenty of attachment points, and common sense dictates using numerous cables.
I can tell you what is in those containers.
Everything. Everything that is man made or grown. Automobiles mostly go by car carriers but I can almost guarantee there will be a couple of POV’s (privately owned vehicles). Everything that is manufactured or grown in Asia that Europeans want to buy.
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