Pilots Caused the Biggest Traffic Jam in History!

in March 2021 the ever given container ship blocks the Suez Canal after running a ground strong winds caused the 1300 foot long ship to become wedged across the Waterway blocking all traffic until its freed six days later but our strong winds the only reason for the ever given running aground Suez Canal opened in 1869 it's a major trading route with about 50 ships passing in both directions on a daily basis despite an ongoing Expansion Project much of the canal remains a single Lane forcing ships to travel by Convoy in alternating directions the Suez Canal is 120 miles long it's an artificial waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea it divides Africa and Asia and it's a popular trade route between Europe and Asia it reduces the journey from the Arabian Sea to London by over five and a half thousand miles in 2021 more than 20 000 vessels passed through the canal the canal is owned by the Egyptian governments and operated by the Suez Canal Authority since it was nationalized in 1956 launched in 2018 the ever given is one of the largest container ships in the world it's owned by shoi kizen kaisha and chartered by Evergreen Marine the ships registered in Panama and managed by Bernard ship management the ever given is currently one of the largest ships on the ocean measuring 1 320 feet long and 196 feet wide it can carry over twenty thousand twenty foot containers on Tuesday the 23rd of March the ever given arrives at the ports of Suez she's traveling from Malaysia to the Netherlands the ship joins 19 other vessels anchored at the southern Terminus of the canal and drifts for over five hours before starting her Voyage Through the canal to the Mediterranean Sea the ever Givens Captain Krishnan canterville watches the sun rise over the Red Sea the wind is blowing at more than 40 knots which will make for an uncomfortable Journey a tugboat approaches the ever given at 0549 with two pilots Who Bore the ship to guide her through the 12-hour Journey a ship's pilot is a navigator with an in-depth local knowledge of the Waterway and weather that the ship will pass through it's impossible for any ship's Captain to be highly knowledgeable of local waterways all around world and so most congested or dangerous waterways and ports require a ship to engage the services of a pilot the ever given is scheduled to be the 13th ship traveling north through the Suez Canal it's one of the largest in the Convoy the channel saves a three-week detour around Africa but it's narrow and just 78 feet deep the evergiven skill will be less than 10 feet from the bottom of the canal which leaves little room for error the two Egyptian pilots make their way to the bridge to meet the captain officers and helmsmen at least four nearby ports have already closed because of the high winds and a storm approaching on the bridge there's a dispute about whether the ship should enter The Canal at all given the bad weather the evergiven is carrying roughly a billion dollars worth of cargo including Ikea furniture Nike sneakers and Lenovo laptops global companies need their product to fill orders and keep the economic wheels turning every day of delay adds tens of thousands of dollars in costs Captain canterville is under pressure to sail the evergiven has radar and electronic sensors that technically allow the ship to navigate the canal even in zero visibility and canterville has a lot of experience navigating Suez from the bridge canterville can see about a half a mile ahead the Convoy starts to proceed Northbound through the canal Suez Canal Authority gives them the go-ahead and the ever given joins the procession the lead Egyptian pilot instructs the bridge crew to power forward these two pilots are employed by the sewers Canal Authority their job is to give instructions to the captain and helmsmen communicate with the rest of the Convoy and ensure that the vessel gets through safely although Captain canterville remains technically in charge he surrenders a large amount of control to the two pilots a few miles into the ever Givens Transit the ship begins to Veer from Port to starboard and back again the large vessel is acting like a sail caught by the wind the lead pilot starts barking instructions at the Indian Helmsman the pilot shouts to steer hard rights and then hard left but the ever given is a large vessel that doesn't respond immediately to a change in the position of the rudder and her vast Hull takes so long to respond that by the time it begins to move he needs to correct course again the second pilot objects and the two pilots begin to argue the lead pilot then is a new order Full Ahead this will take the ever given speed to 13 knots which is significantly faster than the Canal's recommended speed limit of 8 knots the second pilot tries to cancel the order which results in another heated argument Captain canterville intervenes and the lead pilot responds by threatening to leave the vessel the lead Pilot's reasoning is simple there are two forces at work wind and water if a ship is not moving then the wind is the strongest force no matter which way you turn the rider the ship will not steer unless water is moving over the rudder so if you want to be able to control the ship you need to move forward so that as you move the water flowing past the rudder can be channeled in different directions if the ship moves slowly through the water the strong wind has more time to act on the ship over a given distance and so the wind blows her off course if the ship speeds up then the effect of water current passing over the ship's Rudder increases and so the water becomes the dominant Force the increase in power provides more stability over the wind but also brings a new Force into play Bernoulli's principle states that the pressure of a fluid decreases as it speeds up the ships traveling through a tight canal and the water sheet displaces is channeled down the side of the ship between her Hull and the bank of the canal it's the same as attaching a large pipe to a small pipe as water moves from the large pipe into the small pipe it speeds up as the water rushes down the side of the ship it speeds up and the pressure decreases this drop in pressure acts in the same way as a plane's Wing the drop in pressure sucks the ever given closer to the bank the faster it goes the greater the pull it quickly becomes clear that the ever given is going to crash and Captain canthaville knows it Captain Muhammad al-said Hassan is the Suez Canal's Chief pilot al-said is a former Navy Captain with almost 40 Years of Maritime experience as the chief pilot Captain al-said oversees four convoys on a daily basis two from the south and two from the north it's his job to coordinate the convoys they ever given us stuck in the worst possible spot a one-way section of the canal Captain RCA drives to the site and Boards a small boat so he can get a closer look below the water line the bulbous bow has been driven deep into the Rock and Sand the back end has also run aground and lodged in the opposite Bank leaving the ship at a 45 degree angle to the shore the force of the impact has pushed the bow up by 20 feet nothing can pass a couple of Suez Canal Authority tugboats are already at the scene and divers are in the water checking the hull for damage Captain al-said boards the ever given and meets with Captain canterville on the bridge I'll say Eden canterville discussed the evergiver tell the weight of its cargo and the amount of water in its ballast tanks if they can lighten its load the extra points he might help lift it off the bank the ship will float three feet higher for every 20 000 tons of weight they remove the two tags attach cables to the ever given and begin trying to drag it free the ship doesn't budge Captain alsade makes a plan to run 12 hour alternating shifts excavators on Shore will remove the rocky soil around the bow and the stern and tugboats will pull with as much horsepower as possible first on the scene is a single yellow Digger sent by a contractor working nearby the Digger starts scraping Rocky Earth from around the bow after giving their account of the accident to Captain LC the two pilots disembark they continue to argue the lead pilot can be heard saying these vessels are not supposed to enter shipping companies like masks start to forecast the implications on global Shipping they calculate that if the Suez Canal stays closed for less than a week it will be hard but manageable if the situation extends to two weeks it will be catastrophic for global trade the knock-on effect from ships not being where they're expected to be in two weeks time makes it impossible to plan for Global manufacturers using a just-in-time workflow a two-week delay would have serious consequences that Cascade of delays would be felt in the day-to-day lives of millions of people around the world a vessel missing its scheduled arrival at a terminal in Rotterdam wouldn't just create a problem for the European companies waiting for its cargo it would also mean a pile up of all the containers the ship was supposed to pick up for exports factories in China or Malaysia counting on the same vessel to pick up their goods weeks later would need to find alternative options 185 vessels are waiting to pass carrying various Goods tens of billions of dollars in goods are arriving at ports on either side of the blockage on a daily basis Smith Salvage is appointed to free the ever given salvas are like the tow trucks of the high seas they earn a percentage of the value of whatever they Salvage the Smith team arrive on the 25th of March to advise the Suez Canal Authority they have a plan to lighten the ship if Towing doesn't work they locate a crane capable of removing five containers an hour until the vessel is 10 000 tons lighter the crane could arrive the following week Smith explains they will transfer the containers to a lake a few miles up the canal they agree to keep dredging and towing until the giant crane arrives and then start taking containers off if there's no movement Smith brings in the most powerful tugs they can find the Carlo Magno and the Old Guard are days away Captain assayed the Suez Canal's Chief pilot stays on the ever given to support the crew and keep spirits up the Suez Canal Authority Sailors engineers and drivers work around the clock daily checks reveal the ever given shifts only a few feet Captain alsei tells her crew it's a good sign and that it will move more tomorrow the ship's crew run four Mooring lines out to land to stop the bow swinging out too far if it suddenly comes free the help guard arrives on the 28th of March almost six days after the ever given gets stuck there's a super moon which will raise the Red Seas tide to its highest point for weeks to come captain al-said proposes using the tugs to pull as the tide goes out hoping the current would help push the ever given clear the conventional wisdom is to pull while The Tide Rises to its highest high tide Peaks at midnight on the 29th of March crewmen run a cable from the ship to the up guard they coil the cable around full metal bollards to prevent the anchor points from fracturing Under The Strain then the alt guard begins to cool at dawn The Tide is low but tug captains can feel their moving slowly the back end of the ever given drifts away from the bank while the bow remains anchored to the sand the second large tug column Magna arrives and joins the elk guard in pulling from the rear both tugs work for hours against the tide then quitted Lunchtime with no visible progress the Smith team suggests that every given take on 2 000 tons of ballast water in the stern to lift its bow out of the silt at 1400 Captain alcid orders all tags to try again with tide at high water once again the bow begins to move causing some of her Mooring ropes to snap on the shore the last one holds long enough to stop her from swinging across the channel Captain alcid asks Captain canterville to power up the engines and get the ship on a steady course more than 400 ships are waiting to enter the canal the Suez Canal Authority Pilots now work 24 7 for six days to clear the backlog of vessels many ports have received containers waiting to be loaded leaving little to no space to unload ships in order to load the containers piling up on the docks some ports take as long as 30 days to clear the backlog and return to normal operations within the shipping industry the conversation turns to blame and who will pay the damages captain canterville and his crew are still on board they ever given waiting for permission from Egyptian authorities to leave the ship is anchored in the great Bitter Lake while an investigation is launched on the 13th of April an Egyptian court orders the seizure of the ever given the Suez Canal Authority seeks damages of almost a billion dollars from the ship's owner shui kizen kaisha they argue that they mounted a unique operation to free the ship and should be paid for their efforts until the debt is cleared the ever given its cargo and its crew must remain at anchor if the claim is paid the bill would likely be settled by Marine Insurance more than 17 000 cargo containers are still stuck in the great Bitter Lake Nike and Lenovo send lawyers to monitor the proceedings in court recordings from the ever Givens Voyage data recorder are submitted into evidence much like an aircraft flight data recorder the bridge of large vessels is also recorded the recordings revealed chaos and heated arguments between the pilots suggesting the Pilot's actions might have contributed to the accident the case is sent to another court and the Suez Canal Authority reduces its claim to around 550 million dollars the ever Givens insurers announced an agreements in principle to resolve the dispute captain canterville and his crew float idle in the great Bitter Lake for almost three months they are only allowed to leave as their contracts expire on the 7th of July the ever given is allowed to depart after an undisclosed settlement is paid including one tugboat

Channel: Waterline Stories

Views: 223,964

Keywords: decompression sickness, accidents, sailing, suez canal, ever given, ships, suez canal ship stuck

Id: TZXx2xip_pU

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023