Relatively clearly drifting around at anchor at the start, since ships that size can't drive sideways that way if not tethered. Good on the visualization to show the heading!
Interesting sequence. You can see the pilots being dropped off on a couple of ships (blue icons) and then the Ever Given. Once it has a pilot, it circles to get proper spacing with the ship ahead and sequences into the canal.
As the ship goes through the canal, it goes towards the east bank (consistent with a strong gust of wind blowing it off course) and then veers into the west bank. Looks like they overcompensated when they were blown off-course.
> it goes towards the east bank (consistent with a strong gust of wind blowing it off course)
Apparently the wind was coming from the east, so it was more likely the opposite, a lull.
The ship was oversteering to the left the whole time because of the strong wind. When there was a sudden lull in the wind it got too close to the left side. The bank effect might have then pushed the bow away and pulled the stern in, resulting in the ship getting wedged.
[1] has a good description of the situation and the bank effect.
I'm amazed the ships behind can stop in time and that there wasn't a horrible multi tanker/container ship accident. My understanding is that the momentum these large vessels have mean that it can take 3 or more km for them to stop.
didn't the ship lose power before running aground? If so that means the ship would still be coasting and there would be time to warn the ship behind to stop. It'd be much worse if the ship was intentionally steered into the canal banks.
I'm not sure if they strictly need to be warned. Every ship of such size runs lots of radars already. They probably noticed the ship slowing down already, and adjusted their own speed.
Fixed wing pilot here. Handheld radio checklist item before I head out for flight. Even though my plane has redundant comms. Comms don’t work in a failed power scenario!
Marine VHF radio. Ships are supposed to maintain a listening watch on Channel 16. Modern radios also have DSC capability to automatically alert when another ship signals distress, even if they’re working a different frequency.
And yes, a large ship would also be monitoring AIS and have onboard radar.
It would be much shorter in these circumstances. Your link is talking about 400,000 ton tanker ships. Container ships like the Ever Given are closer to 200,000 tons. And the cruising speed of a container ship is around 24kts, though I think they run slower than that nowadays to conserve fuel. The speed limit in the Suez Canal is nominally 8kts, but the Ever Glued was reportedly going 13kts when it ran aground. I would guess that that isn't unusual. With half the speed and half the mass, the stopping distance would probably be more like half a kilometer.
apparently it was a problem as they were going ~13 knots as it was at the beginning of the canal. The first one Maersk Denver did ok slowing down gradually but the second one Asia Ruby almost crashed into it or ran aground as well
Looks like a pretty standard holding pattern. They seem to have carved out a sort of area that other ships don’t come into much, then they drift with the currents and winds until they approach the outer bounds of their “parking space” and bring it back in a bit.
It all seemed normal enough to me until it started going in without a tug like those other container ships in front of it.
Then it looks like it lilted to the left and must have over corrected and ended up in its current position.
Couldn’t help but laugh as the tugs started coming in. What a hopeless situation but such a natural response. Everyone comes over and starts checking out the mess.
How are the ships that were already in the canal (behind Ever Given) staying in place? Did they just drop an anchor - it doesn't look like there is that much space to swing on it? Are there hard points that they could tie to? Or did they just run aground as well?
37 comments
[ 0.26 ms ] story [ 89.1 ms ] threadAs the ship goes through the canal, it goes towards the east bank (consistent with a strong gust of wind blowing it off course) and then veers into the west bank. Looks like they overcompensated when they were blown off-course.
Apparently the wind was coming from the east, so it was more likely the opposite, a lull.
The ship was oversteering to the left the whole time because of the strong wind. When there was a sudden lull in the wind it got too close to the left side. The bank effect might have then pushed the bow away and pulled the stern in, resulting in the ship getting wedged.
[1] has a good description of the situation and the bank effect.
[1] https://archive.is/pmUEm
ref: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sci....
And yes, a large ship would also be monitoring AIS and have onboard radar.
In the absolute worst case, they would fall back to flaghoists, blinkers and semaphore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoPmPhwLq4
apparently it was a problem as they were going ~13 knots as it was at the beginning of the canal. The first one Maersk Denver did ok slowing down gradually but the second one Asia Ruby almost crashed into it or ran aground as well
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:5630138/zoo...
It all seemed normal enough to me until it started going in without a tug like those other container ships in front of it.
Then it looks like it lilted to the left and must have over corrected and ended up in its current position.
Couldn’t help but laugh as the tugs started coming in. What a hopeless situation but such a natural response. Everyone comes over and starts checking out the mess.
Maybe each needs a stern tug?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoPmPhwLq4
"QAnon’s Suez Canal Dick Ship Conspiracies Are Getting Wilder and Wilder"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8n9q/suez-canal-qanon-carg...