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Releasing Container Ship from Suez Canal Could Capsize It

1 points by joering2 6y ago

dathinab 6y ago
IDK about this article but from other articles TL;DR: Arbitrary removing containers from it can: capsize it, damage the hull potential releasing oil or even break it in two. Through removing containers carefully (i.e. not just from the back + front) will be helpful. But it's hard (like how to remove a container from the middle?).
- blacksqr 6y ago
  Considering the vast amount of money being lost in global trade, how hard could it be to build a couple of temporary dams to the north and south of the ship, pump water into the contained area, and just refloat it?
  - Someone 6y ago
    Why build dams that you will have to destroy afterwards? You only need dams if you have to increase water height. In this case, dredging the canal seems easier to me. Also, this is an extreme case of time = money. I would guess building and destroying such dams would take months, if only to get the machinery there.
    - dathinab 6y ago
      Dredging might be hard as the front of the ship "piked" multiple meter into the side of the channel. Furthermore the sides of the channel are sand which might or might not "flow" back in, so you might need to create new "channel sides" first before it. But you normally do so without water already being in the channel. Still if they find no other way widening the channel might be an option. On the other hand building a dam probably is infeasible I mean this channel is between 280 and 345 meters wide (depending where you are) and over 20m deep. With a constant current, especially during the current from what I heard relatively windy session. EDIT: Infeasible as in it takes to long to construct and to long to remove. Given the ship length you would probably need to create 2 >300m long dams >450m apart and another 2 >450m damms and then you need a lot of water to fill that. Which will put a lot of pressure on the temporary dams which if they brake will likely permanently ship wrack the ship closing up the channel for half a year or so if that happens.

1 points by joering2 6y ago

IDK about this article but from other articles TL;DR: Arbitrary removing containers from it can: capsize it, damage the hull potential releasing oil or even break it in two. Through removing containers carefully (i.e. not just from the back + front) will be helpful. But it's hard (like how to remove a container from the middle?).

blacksqr 6y ago
Considering the vast amount of money being lost in global trade, how hard could it be to build a couple of temporary dams to the north and south of the ship, pump water into the contained area, and just refloat it?
- Someone 6y ago
  Why build dams that you will have to destroy afterwards? You only need dams if you have to increase water height. In this case, dredging the canal seems easier to me. Also, this is an extreme case of time = money. I would guess building and destroying such dams would take months, if only to get the machinery there.
  - dathinab 6y ago
    Dredging might be hard as the front of the ship "piked" multiple meter into the side of the channel. Furthermore the sides of the channel are sand which might or might not "flow" back in, so you might need to create new "channel sides" first before it. But you normally do so without water already being in the channel. Still if they find no other way widening the channel might be an option. On the other hand building a dam probably is infeasible I mean this channel is between 280 and 345 meters wide (depending where you are) and over 20m deep. With a constant current, especially during the current from what I heard relatively windy session. EDIT: Infeasible as in it takes to long to construct and to long to remove. Given the ship length you would probably need to create 2 >300m long dams >450m apart and another 2 >450m damms and then you need a lot of water to fill that. Which will put a lot of pressure on the temporary dams which if they brake will likely permanently ship wrack the ship closing up the channel for half a year or so if that happens.