Suez blocked.

[Frogmogman]

View attachment 112149
In two pieces and sinking, but the cargo was intact, and saved Malta. He got the GC.

The photo of Ohio arriving in Malta is such an iconic one, with the frigates HMS Ledbury and HMS Penn strapped on either side to keep her afloat. Operation Pedestal is a fine example of how desperate the situation was in Malta.

The high cost of the operation for Britain, including the loss of an aircraft carrier, (HMS Eagle) and two Cruisers (HMS Cairo and HMS Manchester) may have made it seem a somewhat Pyrrhic victory, but getting even a fraction of the supplies through was vital. It allowed Malta to continue operations disrupting AXIS supplies to North Africa. At the end of the day, it was running out of fuel that really did for Rommel in the desert.

I salute the selfless bravery of all the men involved.

 

[Allan]

With enormous respect to Mr Kukri, who's obviously a real expert, we will soon become salvage experts. If I may, I'd like the first stab! Is the stern aground? If not, at the container port opposite Matchwood they have a machine that can lift a single container and drive around with it. So, cover the top of the containers with spreader plates, drop a couple of machines on top and shift the front containers to the back. May need a crane to lift them over the bridge. I'm happy to fly out to supervise if required?
Allan

 

[Frank Holden]

Going by recent events with this sort of ship in the North Pacific I think they just need to give her a damn good shake and they will all fall off..

 

[Allan]

Idea number two, put enough equipment on board to lift a container. Lift a container, swing it over the side, drop it into the water! Tow it away before it sinks, repeat however many times they have to! I'm happy to fly over to supervise!
Allan

 

[Norman_E]

Do they stack the lightest containers at the top? If so they might have to get a lot of them off to refloat the ship.

 

[Gary Fox]

But the act of taking all the boxes off would surely have the ship re floated anyway?

Hmmm yes I guess it would!

 

[Frank Holden]

With enormous respect to Mr Kukri, who's obviously a real expert, we will soon become salvage experts. If I may, I'd like the first stab! Is the stern aground? If not, at the container port opposite Matchwood they have a machine that can lift a single container and drive around with it. So, cover the top of the containers with spreader plates, drop a couple of machines on top and shift the front containers to the back. May need a crane to lift them over the bridge. I'm happy to fly out to supervise if required?
Allan

Or one could the HMS Brazen approach as used when she ran aground at midnight change of watch in Canal Smyth ( the wriggly bit just north of Faro Fairway ... western end of Estrecho de Magallanes ).
The captain chappy sent the crew down the back of the boat to do a bit of synchronised jumping up and down as they went astern on the engines...
Didn't work ...

 

[Gary Fox]

They used Chinooks some years ago... well quite a few years ago... to take boxes off an Anro that had gone aground in Moreton Bay... it worked.

However..... given that all the top boxes are full of soft toys and bubblewrap how many boxes do you have to remove to reduce draft by 1cm.... what is the TPCI(?) on those ships?

A Chinook can only lift about 10 tons, how many tons need to come off to float her? They ought to make a start though, the lighter boxes at the top need to be removed first, before the heavier ones below.
I think all the available Chinooks in the world, working round the clock with underslung lifting gear would need several months and a few major overhauls before she floated.
The logistics would be astonishing!

 

[BurnitBlue]

That ship with the name "EVERGREEN" blazing out from every TV screen must be sending the likes of Coca Cola into spasms of pure envy.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

With enormous respect to Mr Kukri, who's obviously a real expert, we will soon become salvage experts. If I may, I'd like the first stab! Is the stern aground? If not, at the container port opposite Matchwood they have a machine that can lift a single container and drive around with it. So, cover the top of the containers with spreader plates, drop a couple of machines on top and shift the front containers to the back. May need a crane to lift them over the bridge. I'm happy to fly out to supervise if required?
Allan

Pull an impervious membrane around it and add salt.

 

[Lucy52]

I believe it was the Egyptianscwhonsuprised the Israelis by using water pumps in 73.

Sorry, you are quite right, I remembered it the wrong way round. It worked then so it might work now.

On stability and loading I remember a balance table in the Science Museum Ship Gallery where you moved weights around to level the table on two axis to represent the load on the ship. They only had slide rules and log tables in those days.

Also the distribution of the load would affect the rotation of the ship when it turned or yawed which could effect stability

 

[itsmeagain]

Blatantly obvious some of us East Coast yachtsmen could sort that fiasco out in no time such is our widespread experience in getting boats on and off the putty. Could earn a few bob doing it as well.

 

[Frank Holden]

Ah... the Ralston Stability Indicator... I remember it well...
On passenger liners ( Cape Mail in my case ) the swimming pools were always 'empty' on arrival and departure....

 

[BurnitBlue]

At the risk of being a total bore, I am still serious about dynamite. A step too far perhaps but old squadron (617 squadron) could vapourise that ship by evening. Cleaning up could be done with a garden rake. Seriously though, there must be watertight bulkheads so it would stay afloat if the bow were blown off.

 

[Gary Fox]

At the risk of being a total bore, I am still serious about dynamite. A step too far perhaps but old squadron (617 squadron) could vapourise that ship by evening. Cleaning up could be done with a garden rake. Seriously though, there must be watertight bulkheads so it would stay afloat if the bow were blown off.

Cough...

 

[BurnitBlue]

In the RAF we would just use a spirit level aboard. Modern minds think out of the box.

Edit. I need to pack this in. I am digging myself a hole. Really, i am normally a serious chap.

 

[billskip]

I must admit is does look like it should not be that difficult,BUT we dont know what the risks are of a more serious situation developing from the comfort of our armchairs.
Capsize would be a slight inconvenience at this moment

 

[Kukri]

That ship with the name "EVERGREEN" blazing out from every TV screen must be sending the likes of Coca Cola into spasms of pure envy.

If we gently put the Qanon stuff to one side, green is the party colour of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, aka the party of the native Taiwanese people who were there before Cash My Cheque turned up in 1949 with the Kuomintang.

(“Aboriginal Taiwanese” are different again and are ethnically close to the Filipinos).

Just as the British Industrial Revolution was driven by Dissenters who were not allowed to take Government posts or to go to University the native Taiwanese were in the same position under the KMT, and hence the Taiwanese industrial Revolution...and Formosa Plastics and Evergreen and the global giant -Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.

 

[mjcoon]

Cycle time for a top line shore gantry is about a minute so 33 hours, but for a floating crane which is built for lift capacity not for cycle time the cycle time might be 15 minutes on a good day, so three weeks.

Um, does that cycle time include finding somewhere to dump the container e.g. a flotilla of bumboats, or just park them in the water pro tem?

 

[Lucy52]

One of the reasons the Egyptians used water pumps was because they found explosives to be ineffective in moving the sand banks.