Don't be THAT GUY!

When I started working in the marine industry in the early 70s, Sea-Land’s largest ship held 1200 Teu and was the largest and most advanced shipping company in the world. The Ever Given weighs in at a bit over 20,000 teu, although that is the theoretical limit. Forward visibility regulations cuts down the height of the forward stacks, and stack weight/stability ratio limits have a cumulative effect to bring the total down to maybe 17,000. Just before I retired five years ago the biggest was 14,000 teu.

From what I’ve read and heard from old colleagues, the grounding occurred in the middle of high winds and a sandstorm. As you can see from news photos she is well and truly stuck. One report i read was saying it could be weeks before she can be moved out of the way.
 
I read a report the she was making 13kts in an 8 knot zone to boot. Same ship rammed a ferry in Europe a couple of years ago supposedly while undergoing a full power failure. Company that runs the ship claims the same thing happened in the sand storm.
Something smells fishy here.
 
The past history as well as the speed at the time of the accident are almost no reflection on the company, or crew.

Day to day management of a working ship is usually handled by a management company. These companies exist because all owners charter vessels in and out of their fleets and management companies keep things consistent. I believe the ship management company for this vessel is Schulte Ship Management. Ship management companies typically handle crewing, paying the bills and and insuring the individual ships are kept up to date with various approvals and maintenance. Crewing is very fluid and in all likelihood the crew of two or three years ago is an entirely different group of people than today.

As for speed, within the Suez canal, all ships are under the control of an Egyptian onboard pilot. So unless the final inquiry finds something wrong with the ship, the black eye is on Egypt.
 
Henry Boyd said:
The past history as well as the speed at the time of the accident are almost no reflection on the company, or crew.

Day to day management of a working ship is usually handled by a management company. These companies exist because all owners charter vessels in and out of their fleets and management companies keep things consistent. I believe the ship management company for this vessel is Schulte Ship Management. Ship management companies typically handle crewing, paying the bills and and insuring the individual ships are kept up to date with various approvals and maintenance. Crewing is very fluid and in all likelihood the crew of two or three years ago is an entirely different group of people than today.

As for speed, within the Suez canal, all ships are under the control of an Egyptian onboard pilot. So unless the final inquiry finds something wrong with the ship, the black eye is on Egypt.
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Thanks for your insight!
 
We have a jetboat that weighs 4,000 pounds. Last summer we hit a sand bar at 20MPH in 2" of water, boat draws 18" at that speed and floats at 12". We were 6 feet from deep water. We were 91 miles from nearest town. WE got a rescue crew boat to come and save us. They had a 6000 pound winch they fastened to a tree. It did not move the boat. We got off by unloading the boat including fuel and with a combination of winch and tow boat jerking us. We got off. The container ship is a bit bigger. We got to spend a night on the boat. Water was warm. We tried digging out the boat. Insurance would not pay for rescue but would pay if we abandoned the boat.
 
I think if is an FU to the world from China.
 
Yesterday I heard that it was supposed to be freed on Saturday night Japan time.

It’s going to take more than a little high tide to get that beast off the beach.
 
If you support a 70 foot cruiser at the bow and stern it would probably break in the middle. The container ship is resting on both banks. It will be interesting to see how well it does when the tides start to drop in the next phase of the moon. Off loading the containers will be interesting. Assume weight could be 40,000 pounds a container. Based on our experience in wind more speed gives you more control.
 
northern said:
If you support a 70 foot cruiser at the bow and stern it would probably break in the middle. The container ship is resting on both banks. It will be interesting to see how well it does when the tides start to drop in the next phase of the moon. Off loading the containers will be interesting. Assume weight could be 40,000 pounds a container. Based on our experience in wind more speed gives you more control.
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I would think the 20000 containers on the deck would act as the worlds largest truss and actually keep the boat from breaking at the keel. It seems like that huge dredge they are using should make quick work of freeing the bow. It is one hell of a complicated mess for sure. Makes one really ponder just how fragile the world economy is when a single canal blockage can cause such havoc.
 
The ship splitting wide open is exactly the thing the salvors are worried about. Containerships are only designed for point hull loads like in dry dock when they are empty. This ship is fully loaded, and at the moment has enough water support to keep the structure stable.

Weights vary on containers. The rated MGW load for a 40’ is 30 tonne (30,000 kg), although stacking limitations keep that down to 14 to 15 tonne on average. Unloading containers in place will be a big challenge given the height of the top of the stacks. I doubt there are floating cranes large enough.
 
Carpediem44DB said:
I would think the 20000 containers on the deck would act as the worlds largest truss and actually keep the boat from breaking at the keel. It seems like that huge dredge they are using should make quick work of freeing the bow. It is one hell of a complicated mess for sure. Makes one really ponder just how fragile the world economy is when a single canal blockage can cause such havoc.
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The rating of the ship is based on TEU, or Twenty foot Equivalent Unit. A TEU is a measure based on the twenty foot long container. It is used by the industry because containers come in different lengths (10,20,40,45,48, and 53 foot lengths) and Teu reflects the freight capacity more accurately than a unit count. The pictures suggest the majority of the containers are 40 footers (as is common on the intercontinental trade routes) so there are probably less than 10,000 actual containers. The 20k vessel rating is mostly theoretical because the practical constraints of vessel stability, lashing equipment strength and bridge visibility requirements limit how many can actually be placed on the ship.
 
They're going to have to offload the containers I guess?
 
Henry Boyd said:
Evergreen Marine is a Taiwanese company, and the ship is actually owned by Japanese investors and time chartered to Evergreen. So actually the last people on earth who would be sympathetic to the PRC.
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I had heard the ship has a Taiwanese crew but I had not learned about the Japanese investors.

It’s my understanding that the ship was carrying goods from China to Norway. Sabotage is a concern given the level of this “error”.

Either way it is a real financial disaster.
 
Everyone is going the long way home

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Henry Boyd said:
The ship splitting wide open is exactly the thing the salvors are worried about. Containerships are only designed for point hull loads like in dry dock when they are empty. This ship is fully loaded, and at the moment has enough water support to keep the structure stable.

Weights vary on containers. The rated MGW load for a 40’ is 30 tonne (30,000 kg), although stacking limitations keep that down to 14 to 15 tonne on average. Unloading containers in place will be a big challenge given the height of the top of the stacks. I doubt there are floating cranes large enough.
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If I recall, theory on Edmund Fitzgerald was waves lifted bow & stern, no water in middle broke its back, but Henry might know better.
 
I am starting to see a trend here :)

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Pirate Lady said:
If I recall, theory on Edmund Fitzgerald was waves lifted bow & stern, no water in middle broke its back, but Henry might know better.
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That is one way things can go bad, but by no means the only one. Very few boats do well when taken out of the water. And Containerships don’t do well when subjected to concentrated loads in any combination. My guess is the big concern is maintaining the stability of the vessel and containers. A stack collapse has kind of an avalanche like effect, and given the hull is most likely in an unplanned loading configuration, the results would not be good.
 
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