Brew: Everyone hates a traffic jam. It’s cramped, you barely move, and it’s one little accident forcing everyone down to a crawl. It’s just one of those unavoidable evils of modern life. Now, when we get stuck in traffic, we’re just heading home from the grocery store, but what if our cargo was a little bigger than a bag of milk and eggs? What if a traffic jam could bring the whole world to its knees? Today we’re going to talk about the MV Ever Given, 14 ships stuck among 750,000 deadly explosive mines, and the longest traffic jam in sea shipping history. The MV Ever Given was passing through the Suez Canal on the 23rd of March when a sudden gust of strong wind from a large dust storm forced the ship to rotate awkwardly in the midst of its crossing, wedging the 400 meter long ship across the width of the canal. Quiz: He Austin Powers’d it! Brew: Just like getting trapped while parallel parking, I’m sure you have some idea of what the crew was going through the moment that the ship ran aground. The Ever Given, weighing over 200,000 US tons, trapping multiple ships in the Great Bitter Lake in the middle, and even more in the Red Sea to the south. You might have also heard about the MV Ever Given’s… unique path leading up to the... incident. It looks like the cover to Goldeneye on the N64, how wild is that!? Quiz: I don’t get it. Brew: You had to be there. John Scott-Railton, a disinformation researcher, has said that the somewhat hilarious route of the MV Ever Given after it left its designated anchorage was “innocent, but terrible luck”. Whether or not the pathing was on purpose or not, it was not the reason why the cargo ship became stuck. The crew was likely waiting for the right paperwork or payment to use the canal, and the ship happened to doodle a very Pierce Brosnan’y shape on its way to traverse it. Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that the Suez Canal has been blocked, nor is the canal, as it exists today, the first anyone tried to build there. Before the construction of the canal, all trade moving west from China and India had to loop around the bottom of Africa on its way to Europe and the Americas. This voyage took months, but the Red Sea was so tantalizingly close to the Mediterranean. The first time anyone attempted to dig a trench from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean was only 4000 years ago. Senusret III, Pharaoh of Egypt circa 1874 BCE, was the first to commission something that resembled a canal, but it was closed when sand kept filling the trench. The canal was subsequently reopened and closed several times over the course of the 40 centuries between then and now. Eventually, technology advanced enough that a permanent canal could be constructed. The first modern attempt at building a canal in 1799 was stymied by the myth that the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than the Mediterranean. If the canal was built, then they believed massive, catastrophic, civilization ending flooding would ensue. Napoleon himself was told that if he had his engineers dig that trench, the Nile River itself would be washed away in a flood of biblical proportions. Quiz: I can see the hesitation, but that’s not true, right? Brew: Most certainly not. It was by 1847 that French engineer Paul Adrien Bourdaloue determined that there was no significant difference in level between the two seas, and talks for construction of the canal began in earnest. A pilot study of what it would take to complete the canal estimated that a total of 2,613 million cubic feet of dirt would have to be shifted, coming to a cost of over 200 million francs. Quiz: That’s… the equivalent buying power of about 2.1 billion American dollars if we go by the gold standard. Brew: It’s a lot of money! And because it cost a lot of money to build, it makes sense that people want to, y’know, actually use it. Which is why the last time the canal was blocked back in 1967 was such a watershed moment. Israel and Egypt’s relationship was pretty rocky back in the late 60’s after decades of conflict and warfare. When war broke out in 1967, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, and Egypt responded with a war of attrition which entailed blockading the Suez Canal. By closing off the canal, the Egyptian army hoped that Israel’s economy would suffer, and their ability to wage war would be diminished. Not only did they make the canal impassable, they made it an outright deathtrap, filling the trench with debris, sunken ships, and over 750,000 mines. Quiz: That’s a lot of mines. Brew: The only thing worse would be 750,000 yours. Quiz: I wonder if McDonald’s is still hiring. Brew: The point is, the canal was not only impassible, but if any of the ships tried to leave, they would surely die in a fiery bouquet of explosives. The canal’s north and south passages connect in the middle at The Great Bitter Lake, and this was where a group of 14 ships found themselves trapped almost overnight. Ships hailing from Britain, France, America, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were unable to sail out, and their crews unable to disembark, since both sides of the canal were literally active warzones, and they were in no position to apply for visas. There was nothing to do, but wait for the war to end. At first, “We were in a very comfortable prison,” said Captain Miroslaw Proskurnicki. “The first month was like a holiday. The second month was very hard. By the end of the third month, it was terrible.” Quiz: Sounds like quarantine. Brew: In some ways, it’s exactly like quarantine, in other ways, it’s worse. At least we don’t have rockets flying over our heads. The crews would regularly putter around the lake in order to keep their engines running smoothly, and do some maintenance, but there really wasn’t much else to do. So eventually the 14 ships decided to moor themselves together into a makeshift floating platform, and dubbed themselves “The Yellow Fleet” after the colour of the sand swept onto their decks by the dry desert winds. Quiz: Oh that’s cool! It’s like the movie Waterworld. [DEMONS DEMONS DEMONS] Brew: We don’t talk about that movie here. Soon after the Yellow fleet had moored itself together, they began to form their own ecosystem, a micronation of sorts. began to form their own ecosystem, a micronation of sorts. Each of the ships took on a specialized duty to keep the entire flotilla running. The Polish freighter became the fleet’s post office, and the British held soccer tournaments. They threw together a jerry-rigged hospital, a movie theatre, and on Sundays, they even hosted church, although it was “more of a beer party” according to Captain Paul Wall— because the German vessels were sent free beer from the breweries back home. Speaking of which, the crews of the Yellow Fleet consumed an immense amount of beer over the course of the years they spent trapped in Bitter Lake. Captain Zdzislaw—sorry for butchering that name—said in an interview that “In three days we tried Norwegian beer, Czechoslovak beer and wine and Bulgarian beer and vodka”. The stranded crews drank so much that they would often joke that the lake, which was 40 feet deep, was actually “35 feet of water, and 5 feet of beer bottles” The crews filled their time with whatever they could, and would regularly hold sailing races, swim meets, bingo tournaments, host games of cricket, and go water-skiing on surfboards dragged along by lifeboats. It was also so blisteringly hot that they would often cook steaks on top of steel 35 gallon drums. They even hosted their own “Bitter Lake Mini-Olympics” in 1968 during the Mexico Olympics. There were events ranging from weightlifting, water polo, rifle shooting, high jump, and obviously swimming. Sailor Uwe Carstens, kept a silver medal he won in their sailing competition. He said “The idea came mainly from everyone, driven by our desire to do something. We heard about the Olympics so decided we’d do the same on our ships.” At Christmas time, they lowered a Christmas tree and a piano into a smaller boat, which meandered around the lake playing classic seasonal tunes. Eventually, they gave themselves a name, “Great Bitter Lake Association” and made special badges and a club tie. Collectors even place great value on the custom stamps the crews made during their time in Bitter Lake. The canal was eventually reopened in 1975 after the thousands of explosives were removed from the passage. All but two of the ships in Bitter Lake had to be tugged out, since their engines had succumbed to the ravages of time, but as expected, the only two vessels that were in any shape to leave on their own terms were German. Quiz: Ooh, some classic German engineering. Brew: The two ships left Port Said on the north side of the canal and continued on to Hamburg, where, when they landed, completed the longest sea shipping voyage in human history, 8 years, 3 months, and 5 days. To return to the events in 2021, the crew of the Ever Given tried to maneuver out of their predicament to no avail, the bow was wedged into the side of the canal too deeply for them to escape. To remove the ship, the Suez Canal Authority, also known as SCA, brought in tugboats to, well, tug the ship free. Quiz: As tugboats do. Brew: That would’ve worked best if the ship was still free floating, but the Ever Given had run completely up on the sandy bank on the side of the canal. Kind of like when a car gets stuck in a snowbank, the more they pushed, the further the ship was driven into the side. Wedged harder and harder. The SCA decided to bring in our favourite little excavator, to give digging out the ship a go. Quiz: Oh the memes! I’ve never seen a more memeable boat since Boaty McBoatface! Brew: The SCA, fearing longer disruptions, brought in their big guns. Two larger sand dredgers called the Mashour, and the 10th of Ramadan. The larger of the two is capable of removing around 70,000 cubic feet of sand an hour. Osama Rabie, the Suez Canal Authority chief, said that the Mashour’s work is what allowed the tugs to actually do their jobs. The dredgers suctioned out tons of sand and silt that was holding the Ever Given’s bow in place. While that was happening, a set of tugboats pushed against the portside stern, while another pushed on the starboard side bow. Eventually, when enough land had been removed, and tides were high enough, the tugboats were able to finally rotate the ship such that it could restart its engines, and get the heck out of dodge. On March 29th, the ship was freed! With 14 tugboats, 2 dredgers, 1 plucky backhoe, and 6 non-stop days of effort, the SCA managed to move the ship "30 degrees from left and right” to finally refloat the vessel. Quiz: It’s funny how much 30 degrees can matter in the grand scheme of things. Brew: Hey folks, since we wrote this, the Ever Given has been freed from its sandy prison, but not from legal action! The ship has been impounded for the foreseeable future by the Suez Canal Authority pending compensation payments from the Japanese company that owns the ship, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. How much they will have to pay is still being worked out, but Lt.-Gen. Osama Rabie has said he is looking for at least 900 million US. Since the ship is impounded, their cargo can’t be delivered either! The Ever Given is now looking for ways to transfer their cargo to other ships. Some argue that the companies with cargo on the vessel should share the cost of recovery, some argue that it’s not their responsibility, but one way or another, it’s gonna be a while before everything is sorted out. Suez Canal memes, and The Yellow Fleet are fun byproducts of a long shutdown of the Suez Canal, but there are other, more ill effects felt all across the globe. About 10% of the entire world’s shipping passes through that 120 mile long ditch, and every day that it’s closed costs shipping companies over 9.6 billion dollars. If you’re still waiting for that PS5 you might be able to blame the skipper of the Ever Given for that. Even now that the Ever Given has been dislodged, people are still losing millions in fuel and personnel costs regardless if they chose to wait for the blockage to clear, or to send their ships around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, a trip that adds weeks to any sea voyage. This whole episode really just serves as a case file as to how interconnected we are these days. How one little gust of wind in Egypt, can turn the whole world upside down.
