quote:

Originally posted by Cookster:

Lined up in single-file the trailer’s would be almost 152 miles long!

And some damn fool would pull out to try to pass them.

Is offloading cargo an option, guess you could get a helicopter to lift off containers and transfer them, enough to get it up off the bottom...

Someones going to be looking for work after this..

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Is offloading cargo an option, guess you could get a helicopter to lift off containers and transfer them, enough to get it up off the bottom...

I don't see that being an option.

They could just blow it up like the Oregon whale. {just kidding}

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
They could just blow it up like the Oregon whale. {just kidding}

It's the Middle East, they might just do that!

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Is offloading cargo an option, guess you could get a helicopter to lift off containers and transfer them, enough to get it up off the bottom...

Someones going to be looking for work after this..

That option would be one of the last...
Way too many containers, you'd need to off-load a significant number to affect the draft and the amount of resources in order to do that, given its current situation, would be monumental and time consuming.

I imagine a combination of tugs and tide rising, wind calming and some high pressure water hoses to loosen the soil around the impacted areas.

I've been through it 4 times in an Aircraft Carrier.
Don't recall the speed but it's pretty slow.

Everything up top gets wrapped up pretty tight.
Then it's a steel beach picnic.
Got a few pics of both sides littered with tanks and such from bygone battles.

Thinking maybe they could offload some of the containers on the bow, not the whole ship.

Figured it would be last choice, combination of reducing some bow weight combined with dredging,

Just enough to get the bow up so a tug could pull it back. Guess it depends on how stuck it really is.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Thinking maybe they could offload some of the containers on the bow, not the whole ship.

Figured it would be last choice, combination of reducing some bow weight combined with dredging,

Just enough to get the bow up so a tug could pull it back. Guess it depends on how stuck it really is.

How're going to get a crane that tall with that capacity next to the ship?

unweighting the bow isn't the only problem. There is ~20' of bulbous bow stuck into the side of the canal. See picture below. Need to pull it backwards.

I know the back hoe they've got digging is so small it's a joke. Ship might be able to ballast the bow (with water in the ballast tanks) to get the stern to raise and that might allow it to free enough to spin the stern back around, then back it out of the mud in the bow. Maybe they plan on clearing enough dirt with the back hoe to bow thruster it back and forth and blow the rest of the mud around the bow out. Who knows. There is A LOT of weight to move around. I just can't see 30 knots of wind having that effect on the ship without a mechanical issue or human error. These freighters never stop and 30 knots of wind in places like this, they still move with it blowing that much.

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Thinking maybe they could offload some of the containers on the bow, not the whole ship.

Figured it would be last choice, combination of reducing some bow weight combined with dredging,

Just enough to get the bow up so a tug could pull it back. Guess it depends on how stuck it really is.

How're going to get a crane that tall with that capacity next to the ship?

No Crane, as asked previously, could they use a helicopter like the S-64 or stronger and move them to an adjacent ship, along with removing water from ballast as Jimmy123 stated, dig out side of canal, just thinking at some point, maybe the last one, removing top weight may be necessary to get clear. Maybe not,

Read where a 20ft container is about 2 metric tons, 40ft is 4 metric tons each, and that is empty. Then again, you might have to take off 100 containers on a ship that big to make any difference, then there is the balancing of the weight so the ship remains stable if you did.


Probably gonna have to get a dredge barge out there and pump out a lot of sand...

The ship is laden full with cargo. It won't have much ballast onboard to pump off. A little, but not much. They'd have better luck pumping off fuel.

And I just don't see a helicopter being viable whatsoever.

They're just going to have to keep digging and working her off.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Balzé Halzé,

A loaded 40' container will weigh up to 60,000#. The containers are designed to be lifted at the top by a spreader with twist locks at the four corners. The spreader has significant weight itself.

Container capacity is generally measured in TEUs, which are 20' containers, a 40 footer counts as two TEUs.

The Suez Canal has a bad case of diarrhea.

Que the music and the dancing Japanese girls.

H&K-Guy

quote:

And some damn fool would pull out to try to pass them.

One of my college buddies, headed home on the weekend for a hot date, decided to pass multiple cars on a two-lane road. It turned out more than just multiple cars - it was a funeral procession of about twenty cars!

I asked him how he handled it. He said he just prayed to God and hoped he would be luckier than the poor corpse in the procession. He made it safely due to time of day and a relatively rural road. (or it could be that God took pity on him, seeing that he was driving a used Ford Edsel! After all, even God wouldn't want your last day on earth being behind the wheel of a sky-blue Ford Edsel.....)

Note: I did ask him if he didn't see the twenty cars ahead of him. He said, "Naw, we was going up a big long hill and half of them had already topped the hill". Maybe God does watch over fools AND little children!

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

And I just don't see a helicopter being viable whatsoever.

OK, but what if they used TWO helicopters?

Let’s do just a little math here. We’ll assume there are helicopters capable of lifting the containers. I have no idea how long it would take a helicopter to grab the container and place it somewhere else, so I’m going to guess 30 minutes round trip or 2 containers an hour. Google says the ship can hold 20,000 containers, so 10,000 hours for a helicopter to offload the containers. 10,000 hours, 24 hours in a day, so about 417 days.

Maybe they only have to move 5,000 containers and they use 4 helicopters, that still works out to 26 days. I have no clue about the logistics of running 4 giant helicopters 24 hours a day for 26 days, but I think it’s safe to assume between refueling, pilots and crew, support, etc the the effort would be extensive.

Possibly fill up the ballast tanks with helium?
or a couple of opposing JATOs?

Actually, like was mentioned, they’ll probably just keep digging her out. One other method might be to build a sort of dry dock around it, enough so, to help float it.

Get Max Hardberger and Jimmy123 on the job, they'll get this straightened out toot sweet!

Assuming that these two are not actually the same person.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
... I just can't see 30 knots of wind having that effect on the ship without a mechanical issue or human error. These freighters never stop and 30 knots of wind in places like this, they still move with it blowing that much.

That ship is 400 METERS long..that’s about 437 yards or 1312 feet and there appears to be nine layers of CONEX boxes stacked on the deck...each CONEX is 10 feet tall...and probably six or so stacked in the holds....so whatever the math is....1312 x 150=196800 square feet of surface on the one side...I’d bet you that a 30knot wind against that amount of sail surface is quite difficult to control in tight quarters like a canal.