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After Egypt intentionally blocked the Suez Canal during the Six Day War and an operation was taken to reopen it after the Yom Kippur War it took around 7 months

After Egypt intentionally blocked the Suez Canal during the Six Day War and an operation was taken to reopen it after the Yom Kippur War it took around 7 months to clear the ships that were scuttled to block it[1]. I would think a cleanup with more modern technology dealing with a ship that wasn't scuttled for the purpose of blockage would take less time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Suez_Canal_Clearance_Operation#Operation_Nimrod_Spar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Suez_Canal_Clearance_Oper...

lisper 6y ago
The 1974 operation involved ten ships, the largest of which was 6700 tons. The Ever Given displaces 220,000 tons. It's an entirely different beast.
- pixl97 6y ago
  While our ships have grown greatly, so has our ability to salvage them at the same time.
  - Animats 6y ago
    Worldwide salvage capacity isn't up much. Mammoet Salvage and Titan Salvage exited the business a few years ago. Smit is one of the few salvors with worldwide reach and their own heavy equipment. The business requires huge equipment on standby, and trained people waiting for the next crisis. Smit is now part of Boskalis, which is a big marine engineering firm. They have dredgers, heavy lift ships, tugs, and barges, which are useful both for marine construction and for salvage. So the fleet can do other things between crises.
  - Uehreka 6y ago
    That feels like the kind of non-obvious claim that should come with a source (even just a blog post by an analyst that lays out the relevant vocab terms and the general theory).
- fiedzia 6y ago
  Its large, but its size is limited by sues canal. Ships could be much larger if they were designed for a different route.
  - notyourday 6y ago
    Only Qmax and Chinamax are higher.
    - perl4ever 6y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinamax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinamax This has a rather odd diagram, and I'm not sure if it supports your comment or not. It shows Suezmax as having "unlimited length", while Chinamax is given as 360 meters, which I think is smaller than Ever Given. Obviously unlimited length can't be literal, if the Suez isn't perfectly straight, right? On the other hand the Chinamax diagram says "unlimited air draft" which again, can't be literal since at some point it would be impossible to keep upright? The Chinamax designation seems to imply a greater draft, which does make sense, but it's only 20% greater than the greatest stated for Suezmax.
      - Teever 6y ago
        I am not an expert but what I think they mean by 'unlimited' in this context is 'limited by engineering, not limited by 'geology of man made structure.'
      - schoen 6y ago
        > Obviously unlimited length can't be literal, if the Suez isn't perfectly straight, right? It looks to me from the map like the tightest turns in the canal are the southern exit near Suez, and the turns between Timsah Lake and El Qantara el Sharqiya (depending on which channel you're in, and whether you're allowed to use both channels in your turning maneuvers). It would be a fun problem to find a good way to figure this out exactly, but it looks to me like a ship 3000 to 4000 meters long would not be able to complete those turns even in principle without running aground. (Presumably the actual practical limit is a lot lower.) The longest ship ever built (which exceeded the draft limits for Suezmax, so it was out for a different reason) was 458 meters long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant ... so there might still be an order of magnitude to play with if you were making a ship that was ideally small and maneuverable in other regards.

lisper 6y ago

The 1974 operation involved ten ships, the largest of which was 6700 tons. The Ever Given displaces 220,000 tons. It's an entirely different beast.

pixl97 6y ago
While our ships have grown greatly, so has our ability to salvage them at the same time.
- Animats 6y ago
  Worldwide salvage capacity isn't up much. Mammoet Salvage and Titan Salvage exited the business a few years ago. Smit is one of the few salvors with worldwide reach and their own heavy equipment. The business requires huge equipment on standby, and trained people waiting for the next crisis. Smit is now part of Boskalis, which is a big marine engineering firm. They have dredgers, heavy lift ships, tugs, and barges, which are useful both for marine construction and for salvage. So the fleet can do other things between crises.
- Uehreka 6y ago
  That feels like the kind of non-obvious claim that should come with a source (even just a blog post by an analyst that lays out the relevant vocab terms and the general theory).
fiedzia 6y ago
Its large, but its size is limited by sues canal. Ships could be much larger if they were designed for a different route.
- notyourday 6y ago
  Only Qmax and Chinamax are higher.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinamax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinamax This has a rather odd diagram, and I'm not sure if it supports your comment or not. It shows Suezmax as having "unlimited length", while Chinamax is given as 360 meters, which I think is smaller than Ever Given. Obviously unlimited length can't be literal, if the Suez isn't perfectly straight, right? On the other hand the Chinamax diagram says "unlimited air draft" which again, can't be literal since at some point it would be impossible to keep upright? The Chinamax designation seems to imply a greater draft, which does make sense, but it's only 20% greater than the greatest stated for Suezmax.
    - Teever 6y ago
      I am not an expert but what I think they mean by 'unlimited' in this context is 'limited by engineering, not limited by 'geology of man made structure.'
    - schoen 6y ago
      > Obviously unlimited length can't be literal, if the Suez isn't perfectly straight, right? It looks to me from the map like the tightest turns in the canal are the southern exit near Suez, and the turns between Timsah Lake and El Qantara el Sharqiya (depending on which channel you're in, and whether you're allowed to use both channels in your turning maneuvers). It would be a fun problem to find a good way to figure this out exactly, but it looks to me like a ship 3000 to 4000 meters long would not be able to complete those turns even in principle without running aground. (Presumably the actual practical limit is a lot lower.) The longest ship ever built (which exceeded the draft limits for Suezmax, so it was out for a different reason) was 458 meters long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant ... so there might still be an order of magnitude to play with if you were making a ship that was ideally small and maneuverable in other regards.