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Stuck container ship blocking the Suez Canal
- Thread starter kingofnerf
- Start date
So apparently they do have pilots, but they are considered advisors, the skipper still commands the helm.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/29/suez-canal-pilots/%3foutputType=amp
FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah
I wonder if physically, there are some upper size limits being reached here that would simply be unmanageable in high winds?
This is probably going to be something they end up having to do, unless they can widen the whole canal to accommodate the new super ships. In the link I shared above the pilot with 30+ years experience spoke about the length and weight of the new ships and how it's gotten harder in the last few decades.
I am no engineer but just line the canal with tires on horizontal axles so that the hull can harmlessly bounce against the tires as it flows through the canal. Like bumper car tracks.
SanAntonioCock
GCF Top Poster
I could be wrong but the ships now are much bigger than when it was built 152 years ago
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I have been widened and improved several times through the years. Most recently in 2015.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Suez-Canal
When first opened in 1869, the canal consisted of a channel barely 8 metres (26 feet) deep, 22 metres (72 feet) wide at the bottom, and 61 to 91 metres (200 to 300 feet) wide at the surface. To allow ships to pass each other, passing bays were built every 8 to 10 km (5 to 6 miles). Construction involved the excavation and dredging of 74 million cubic metres (97 million cubic yards) of sediments. Between 1870 and 1884 some 3,000 groundings of ships occurred because of the narrowness and tortuousness of the channel. Major improvements began in 1876, and, after successive widenings and deepenings, the canal by the 1960s had a minimum width of 55 metres (179 feet) at a depth of 10 metres (33 feet) along its banks and a channel depth of 12 metres (40 feet) at low tide. Also in that period, passing bays were greatly enlarged and new bays constructed, bypasses were made in the Bitter Lakes and at Al-Ballāḥ, stone or cement cladding and steel piling for bank protection were almost entirely completed in areas particularly liable to erosion, tanker anchorages were deepened in Lake Timsah, and new berths were dug at Port Said to facilitate the grouping of ships in convoy.
Plans that had been made in 1964 for further enlargement were overtaken by the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, during which the canal was blocked. The canal remained inoperative until June 1975, when it was reopened and improvements were recommenced. In 2015 the Egyptian government finished a nearly $8.5 billion project to upgrade the canal and significantly increase its capacity; nearly 29 km (18 miles) were added to its original length of 164 km (102 miles).
It makes you think they weren't watching the compass in the canal and lost their bearing when the winds moved the ship and they were maybe blinded by the sandstorm.
Kinda like a pilot flying on instruments who flies into a mountain after losing his situational awareness.
That would seem more believable than strong winds moving a 220K-ton ship that far.
Kinda like a pilot flying on instruments who flies into a mountain after losing his situational awareness.
That would seem more believable than strong winds moving a 220K-ton ship that far.
I beleive you need to check your sarcasm meter...but since you seem interested...has the width of the canal kept up with the length of the boats since the building of the canal? Like SAC said it is thankfully the first time but this has shown a potential weakness of the canal
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FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah