Suez blocked.

[Kukri]

This thread has been fascinating. With a few on here with specialist knowledge and Kukri being spot on with his thoughts . Who needs the media!
I noticed today on the radio all the "experts" coming out of the woodwork to give their 10p worth yet were silent until the ship was freed. ?
@Kukri , if you don't mind may I ask what your occupation is, or what you do ?

Never mind me! Frank Holden is your man! Before he took up the Imitation of Tilman on a full time basis, with occasional farming holidays in Tasmania, he was Master Under God for decades.

Me? I’m the commercial manager for a fleet of seven of these elderly ladies. 5,610 TEU, so one quarter of the size of the “ Ever Given” They were quite the ocean greyhounds, when they were new, and ran on the express service to East Asia from NW Europe, at 25.5 knots, but that was in 2001.




We have been tramping around on North South routes on charter ever since we got kicked off the high profile East West stuff by the new 9,000 TEU ships, which were kicked off by the new 12,000 TEU ships, which got kicked off by the 16,000 TEU ships, which got kicked off by these:


In fact this one was right in front of the Ever Given (she’s the same size and on the same service) when the Ever Given had her misfortune.

In the days of my youth I was jumping on and off these:




Back in the days when you could make an honest living in the salvage trade, but ships are too d**n safe nowadays!

Then I spent a couple of decades playing with really lovely ships in Hong Kong, etc.

“Life’s Hell in the East!”:



The masterpiece - well, her and her sisters, running trials:



Same ship 28 years later, after she developed middle age spread and put on a bit of weight and a third crane.


I’ve never worked for a company with “dry” ships, which is a silly idea invented by incompetent bullying people in offices, and this is her bar, at the age of 28. That’s her ancestor, on the bulkhead.


Talking of bars, here is our little cruise liner in Milford Sound in New Zealand:



and at the Fremantle America’s Cup in 1987 (she’s the little one in the middle, just ahead of the dead posh “Vistafjord” which is ahead of the original “Love Boat”...)

 

[Kukri]

I would like to thank the true experts on this thread. I have felt much better informed reading this than looking at other media. Also thank you for putting up with us idiots making suggestions that we thought were funny, that must have been very annoying!
Thank you again.
Allan

Not at all; it is funny!

Nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged, there was no pollution, and a ship found herself in an undignified position (bit like this one, in the Schelde) for almost a week at a time when the world’s media didn’t have much to do.!

That’s almost as much fun as it gets!

 

[Kukri]

The owners of this salvage tug, a long established family company with the reputation (entirely justified) of being the nicest people in Dutch shipping, and who would not dream of sitting down to a meal without saying grace, have a tradition of nicking something from each ship they bring in safely, which is why on the wall of their lovely house on an island in North Holland you will find a Picasso that once belonged to Aristotle Onassis. Mind you, they did put the fire out and save the ship, the crew and the cargo, and it was a big ship and a big fire.



Having been in the business for quite a long time, long before L. Smit & Co’s Sliepdienst got started with their new fangled steam tugs, they also had one of these, from a rather earlier salvage. I’ve never seen another. Useful on a sailing ship if your officer of the watch is illiterate:

 

[Frank Holden]

Andrew, minor correction - the farm is in NE Victoria and I haven't seen the sea since December 19..... retired for 14 days shy of 15 years.... I'm the boring old phart down the far end of the bar droning on about the 'good old days' to whoever will buy him a beer.

Halal meat? Friend was a meat inspector in Victoria years ago.... they were doing a sheep order for export..... frd end of the sheep to some arab country.... the hindquarters to Israel... Imam and a Rabbi standing together each doing whatever Juju their religion required......

 

[Tanqueray]

Groundwater flows downhill from areas with a higher water table to areas with a lower water table. If there is no flow then the water table is level.

Over hundreds of years seepage from the sea saturates all coastal rocks and soils up to sea level. Rainfall over the land seeps into the ground and raises the water table above sea level, this causes the water to flow towards the sea. If there is no rain over the land then the water table will be horizontal at sea level and there will be no flow. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean don't have waterproof linings but they don't drain away because the surrounding rocks and soils are already saturated up to sea level.

If you took the digger a few hundred yards from the canal bank, which is say six or eight feet above water level, and dug a hole ten feet deep then it would fill with water up to the same level as the canal water. This may take some time depending on the permeability of the soil but eventually it would reach this equilibrium level.

Thank you very kindly for the explanation, much appreciated

I always suspected that the South African in 'Ice Cold in Alex' was a lying barsteward - now I can prove it!

 

[Tanqueray]

The owners of this salvage tug, a long established family company with the reputation (entirely justified) of being the nicest people in Dutch shipping, and who would not dream of sitting down to a meal without saying grace, have a tradition of nicking something from each ship they bring in safely, which is why on the wall of their lovely house on an island in North Holland you will find a Picasso that once belonged to Aristotle Onassis. Mind you, they did put the fire out and save the ship, the crew and the cargo, and it was a big ship and a big fire.

That's one nice hull!

 

[Frank Holden]

Back on track.... did I read somewhere that Ever Given was doing 14 knots before the incident?

Looking at Marine traffic all the southbound traffic is plodding along at between 8 and 9 knots which is sort of how I remember it years ago when that would have been 'full sea speed' for many ships...

So I imagine that is the norm... even today.

However.... I recall being told by a pilot that 'big' - 'big' back when I still had the day job - container ships going up the Melbourne river to Swanson Dock would be doing 8 knots on 'Dead Slow Ahead' ..... while the speed limit on the river was 5 knots...

So.... what is Dead Slow Ahead on these 20,000 teu ships?

 

[Tanqueray]

Back on track.... did I read somewhere that Ever Given was doing 14 knots before the incident?

Looking at Marine traffic all the southbound traffic is plodding along at between 8 and 9 knots which is sort of how I remember it years ago when that would have been 'full sea speed' for many ships...

So I imagine that is the norm... even today.

However.... I recall being told by a pilot that 'big' - 'big' back when I still had the day job - container ships going up the Melbourne river to Swanson Dock would be doing 8 knots on 'Dead Slow Ahead' ..... while the speed limit on the river was 5 knots...

So.... what is Dead Slow Ahead on these 20,000 teu ships?

I don't know the direct answer to your question - but I did watch Ever Given minute by minute from breaking free until anchoring and she maintained 7.1 / 7.2 consistently until she entered the wider section on the bend from the top of the canalised section towards the lakes whereby she reached 10.2 Kn before slowing down to anchor. Her prop was turning continuously at 7.1 throughout ( i.e. not being disengaged).
The larger tugs all seemed capable of 12-12.5 when they wanted to sprint.
The first exiting ships from the south end stuck to 9 knots max in the canal before accelerating to 20/21 once they had exited (through the moored ships).
I think I know where you're going with this.

 

[Tanqueray]

Do merchant ships usually get a name change after incidents like this?

In which case, given the cost of marine paint, I would suggest;

4Ever4Given
(Copyright of course).

 

[Kukri]

Dead slow ahead on the 5,600 TEU ship above is 7.6 knots.

 

[Clancy Moped]

So, no more jokes about Suez....that ship has sailed

 

[michael_w]

Dead slow ahead on the 5,600 TEU ship above is 7.6 knots.

No wonder tugs are needed for parking

 

[mjcoon]

Never mind me! Frank Holden is your man! Before he took up the Imitation of Tilman on a full time basis, with occasional farming holidays in Tasmania, he was Master Under God for decades.

Me? I’m the commercial manager for a fleet of seven of these elderly ladies. 5,610 TEU, so one quarter of the size of the “ Ever Given” They were quite the ocean greyhounds, when they were new, and ran on the express service to East Asia from NW Europe, at 25.5 knots, but that was in 2001.

View attachment 112448

That blue liner appears to have the name Achille Lauro (or possibly Achille Laura), which I thought rang a bell... Achille Lauro hijacking - Wikipedia

 

[john_morris_uk]

No wonder tugs are needed for parking

Sort of. In fact lots of big leisure powerboats do several knots at tick over engine revs. Manoeuvres at slow speed is all about into gear for a few seconds and back into neutral. It’s a bit trickier on a ship. HMS OCEAN (a commercial build taken up and adapted for the RN) had air driven starters and you had to stop the engines and restart them backwards to go astern. The HP air system only gave you a limited number of stops and starts. I’ll bow to Kurkri’s superior knowledge, but I believe most box ships etc are single screw. (It’s the ferries and passenger liners that get the luxury of twin screws) so manoeuvring means relying on the bow and stern thruster (if fitted) or more likely use of tugs for the final push into position or any about turns or sharp turns.

 

[newtothis]

Never mind me! Frank Holden is your man! Before he took up the Imitation of Tilman on a full time basis, with occasional farming holidays in Tasmania, he was Master Under God for decades.

Me? I’m the commercial manager for a fleet of seven of these elderly ladies. 5,610 TEU, so one quarter of the size of the “ Ever Given” They were quite the ocean greyhounds, when they were new, and ran on the express service to East Asia from NW Europe, at 25.5 knots, but that was in 2001.

View attachment 112446


We have been tramping around on North South routes on charter ever since we got kicked off the high profile East West stuff by the new 9,000 TEU ships, which were kicked off by the new 12,000 TEU ships, which got kicked off by the 16,000 TEU ships, which got kicked off by these:

View attachment 112445
In fact this one was right in front of the Ever Given (she’s the same size and on the same service) when the Ever Given had her misfortune.

In the days of my youth I was jumping on and off these:




Back in the days when you could make an honest living in the salvage trade, but ships are too d**n safe nowadays!

Then I spent a couple of decades playing with really lovely ships in Hong Kong, etc.

“Life’s Hell in the East!”:



The masterpiece - well, her and her sisters, running trials:



Same ship 28 years later, after she developed middle age spread and put on a bit of weight and a third crane.


I’ve never worked for a company with “dry” ships, which is a silly idea invented by incompetent bullying people in offices, and this is her bar, at the age of 28. That’s her ancestor, on the bulkhead.


Talking of bars, here is our little cruise liner in Milford Sound in New Zealand:



and at the Fremantle America’s Cup in 1987 (she’s the little one in the middle, just ahead of the dead posh “Vistafjord” which is ahead of the original “Love Boat”...)


View attachment 112448

Those seven old girls are all pushing 20-plus now. I guess when the current crazy in the market tails off, elderly panamaxes are going to be first in line at the beaches of Alang.

 

[JumbleDuck]

So, no more jokes about Suez....that ship has sailed

(Not mine)

 

[Kukri]

I feel obliged to subject you to this worthy little video, made by one of our industry’s more worthy trade associations:

 

[newtothis]

I feel obliged to subject you to this worthy little video, made by one of our industry’s more worthy trade associations:

That's the fluffy PR, but during the recent unpleasantries in Suez, where was the industry?
Evergreen: it's not really our ship
Shoei Kisen: one press conference in Japanese
BSM: speak to our crisis management PR, they're not saying anything on our behalf. BSM execs were told not to answer their phones.
SCA: Crisis, what crisis.

The one time the industry gets some attention and it defaults to its pathological lack of transparency.
Then it complains that no one is listening when it [rightly] that seafarers are suffering due to Covid restrictions and that ships aren't the big stinky polluters they are made out to be. (Well, they are, but try the alternatives).
But it remains its own worst enemy, hiding behind 'open registries', shell companies, tax havens and media blackouts.

 

[Kukri]

Those seven old girls are all pushing 20-plus now. I guess when the current crazy in the market tails off, elderly panamaxes are going to be first in line at the beaches of Alang.

Alang!?! “I am shocked - shocked - to hear you suggesting that I should breach the Basel Convention!”?

They have done well - they only made an operating loss in one year. Because they were amongst our first post-Panamaxes, they were somewhat over- specified.

Like them, I’m past my sell by date, and when they go, I go. We got past the Great Panamax Sell Off, when slightly smaller ships half their age were sold for scrap by German doctors and dentists who hadn’t looked after them, and because ships of this size are handy for some trades, I reckon we will get another year or two. At the moment they are worth, and are earning, silly money again.

 

[Kukri]

That's the fluffy PR, but during the recent unpleasantries in Suez, where was the industry?
Evergreen: it's not really our ship
Shoei Kisen: one press conference in Japanese
BSM: speak to our crisis management PR, they're not saying anything on our behalf. BSM execs were told not to answer their phones.
SCA: Crisis, what crisis.

The one time the industry gets some attention and it defaults to its pathological lack of transparency.
Then it complains that no one is listening when it [rightly] that seafarers are suffering due to Covid restrictions and that ships aren't the big stinky polluters they are made out to be. (Well, they are, but try the alternatives).
But it remains its own worst enemy, hiding behind 'open registries', shell companies, tax havens and media blackouts.

Well said! Absolutely right!