Suez blocked.

[JumbleDuck]

Yes, ditto, but research rather than testing. We pumped on the liquid helium to get lower temperatures and then captured the gas in radiosonde balloons that started on top of our cupboards and spread across the ceiling. Eventually there was a liquid nitrogen machine installed in the college basement but helium was still bought by the Dewar.

I worked in a department with its own helium liquefier, so all the gas was captured in a return system, pumped into a small gasholder and then reused. There was a gas meter for each room, and heaven help you if you returned significantly less than you signed for.

General guideline, good from then till now: Liquid nitrogen costs about the same as milk; liquid helium costs about the same as a good claret.

 

[Kukri]

The idea of using some type of shipping container was not completely novel. Boxes similar to modern containers had been used for combined rail- and horse-drawn transport in England as early as 1792. The US government used small standard-sized containers during the Second World War, which proved a means of quickly and efficiently unloading and distributing supplies. However, in 1955, Malcom P. McLean, a trucking entrepreneur from North Carolina, USA, bought a steamship company with the idea of transporting entire truck trailers with their cargo still inside. He realized it would be much simpler and quicker to have one container that could be lifted from a vehicle directly on to a ship without first having to unload its contents.

His ideas were based on the theory that efficiency could be vastly improved through a system of "intermodalism", in which the same container, with the same cargo, can be transported with minimum interruption via different transport modes during its journey. Containers could be moved seamlessly between ships, trucks and trains. This would simplify the whole logistical process and, eventually, implementing this idea led to a revolution in cargo transportation and international trade over the next 50 years.

That was Malcolm.

But there is, and has been since the earliest days of containerisation, a twice yearly meeting of container line Chief Executives. It is called the Box Club, it seldom gets mentioned and it has one absolute rule - nobody ever mentions business or money.

If anyone ever did the US anti trust people and DG of the EU would be on them like a ton of bricks.

It exists to promote standardisation and interchangeability of ISO containers and their associated equipment.

It works.

 

[ProDave]

I see quite a lot of the canal is "dual carriageway" I wonder if this incident will speed up plans to make the entire canal two cuts?

 

[Kukri]

I see quite a lot of the canal is "dual carriageway" I wonder if this incident will speed up plans to make the entire canal two cuts?

Maybe. The middle section was dualled in 2015. This allowed convoys to pass each other under way rather than waiting in the Great Bitter Lake, which greatly increased the throughput.

The intention is to dual the lot, when traffic demands justify it, but the work is funded entirely by Egypt with no foreign borrowings, the middle section dualling is still being paid down, and at the moment the traffic does not justify double tracking the whole canal.

 

[Tanqueray]

Kukri, do you happen to know how 'flat bottomed' or otherwise Ever Given is in the area just aft of the bulbous bow?
I can see a big difference in the effectiveness of waggling the stern to ease the bow depending on the hull shape of the beached forward section.

 

[Concerto]

This 3D graphic presentation of how Ever Given looses control is possibly clearer than the AIS presentation posted earlier in the thread.

 

[Caraway]

They should've had this skipper on the Evergiven

 

[Kukri]

Kukri, do you happen to know how 'flat bottomed' or otherwise Ever Given is in the area just aft of the bulbous bow?
I can see a big difference in the effectiveness of waggling the stern to ease the bow depending on the hull shape of the beached forward section.

Not “immediately” flat bottomed. Her designers will have given consideration to making sure that she does not bring her forefoot clear of the water and pound when in ballast. This is a consideration with most ships. There are no pictures of the Golden class ships in dry dock because - they are too new and any that have dry docked have had to do so in pandemic conditions with nobody around to take snaps.

But the flat bottom starts roughly where the third set of lashing bridges comes on deck - about where the tug is in this picture:


This one which managed to stick herself on the putty in the Scheldt in 2017 is a pretty similar shape but 2/3 the size. The hull form is very close though.

 

[Tanqueray]

Not “immediately” flat bottomed. Her designers will have given consideration to making sure that she does not bring her forefoot clear of the water and pound when in ballast. This is a consideration with most ships. There are no pictures of the Golden class ships in dry dock because - they are too new and any that have dry docked have had to do so in pandemic conditions with nobody around to take snaps.

But the flat bottom starts roughly where the third set of lashing bridges comes on deck - about where the tug is in this picture:

View attachment 112330

That makes sense - hopefully not too much flat stuff on the sticky then

 

[Bajansailor]

I am just wondering if the Canal Authority might in future insist on ships of this size having a tug at each end when going through the canal?
Although they might have to throw these tugs in for 'free' (as part of the $1 million fee) so that they do not kill their proverbial container goose that lays the golden eggs.

 

[Kukri]

I am just wondering if the Canal Authority might in future insist on ships of this size having a tug at each end when going through the canal?
Although they might have to throw these tugs in for 'free' (as part of the $1 million fee) so that they do not kill their proverbial container goose that lays the golden eggs.

Short answer is “no”. Convoys are now run at 13-14 knots. A few years ago they were much slower but the doubling of the central section means that convoys can pass each other without anchoring in the Great Bitter Lake so the transit time is down to 14 hours or so.

Edited: I was wrong here.

 

[Biggles Wader]

I cant help thinking that is far too fast for a very large ship in a tight channel. Where does the huge amount of water displaced go and what sort of pressure wave is produced? Im not surprised that the ship became uncontrollable and hit the bank.

 

[Kukri]

I think the Canal is fine as it is. There’s ample room. The hydrodynamics have been carefully studied. But ships are running absolutely full now, which isn’t or wasn’t normal.

To illustrate, here’s our girl coming into Felixstowe in September 2019.

Note the draft and the spaces on deck. This is NOT her first European port.

 

[Kukri]

She is due in Felixstowe on the 6th April. (maybe a day or two later...)

 

[Adios]

I think the Canal is fine as it is. There’s ample room. The hydrodynamics have been carefully studied. But ships are running absolutely full now, which isn’t or wasn’t normal.

To illustrate, here’s our girl coming into Felixstowe in September 2019.

Note the draft and the spaces on deck. This is her first European port.

I was thinking it looks like it's been half offloaded somewhere first, if that was the whole load why would they stack it so unevenly (still well balanced overall but the deck stacks are all or nothing), but it popped up that its coming from Rotterdam so guess thats it. Says a lot about the state of our trade that there's not much return cargo, or will it inefficiently go to rotterdam twice in a trip to load up more? I guess we send a lot of empties back for refilling.

 

[Adios]

Apparently it was carrying 9000 tons of ballast water. Seems incredible that it would need to, anyone know the reason for that?

 

[Kukri]

I was thinking it looks like it's been half offloaded somewhere first, if that was the whole load why would they stack it so unevenly (still well balanced overall but the deck stacks are all or nothing), but it popped up that its coming from Rotterdam so guess thats it. Says a lot about the state of our trade that there's not much return cargo, or will it inefficiently go to rotterdam twice in a trip to load up more? I guess we send a lot of empties back for refilling.

I missed a “not” out when I typed that first!

90% of UK boxes go back empty.

Hate to mention the B word but more and more lines are cutting out UK calls.

 

[Kukri]

Apparently it was carrying 9000 tons of ballast water. Seems incredible that it would need to, anyone know the reason for that?

I don’t know, but 9,000 tons is not a lot of ballast for a ship with a deadweight of just shy of 200,000 tons.

It may be that she had taken on some ballast to trim to even keel for the Canal or perhaps to adjust stresses or she may have retained some water in the anti heeling system (when you are loading or unloading a container ship you want her absolutely upright or the boxes will stick in the cell guides, and this is achieved by very rapid transfer of ballast from side to side.

 

[burgundyben]

or perhaps to adjust stresses

Is she likely to be fitted with strain gauges?

 

[Adios]

90% of UK boxes go back empty.

We are india, china is the east india company, china has all the cotton mills, we know what happens next: Servitude.