Shippy McShipface (A Suez Canal thread.)

Though I haven't seen it mentioned here or elsewhere, it should be noted that the Suez Canal has been blocked before. Nasser intentionally sank some forty ships in it to block traffic during the 1956 Suez Crisis. IIRC, it was blocked for maybe six months or so after the crisis ended. Much smaller ships, certainly, but without the vulnerable lock structures of the Panama Canal, Suez is fairly easy to manage. What's changed, of course, is the massive increase in global ship traffic and expectations of precision scheduling. In the grand scheme of things, however, at least one route option exists (around the Cape) and another (the Northern Arctic route) is being actively promoted by Russia, making this an interesting and perhaps costly inconvenience, not a crisis.

In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :

i cam here for the memes. i was not disappointed.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

John Welsh said:

RossD said:

The SS Alpena is 639' long.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729' long!  

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most. 

With a crew and good captain well seasoned

High tide is next week.......

they dumped a bunch of bilge water to raise it some......

So ...... when they get it loose it will be top heavy and fall over on its side !

I hope not ....

Steve_Jones said:

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

John Welsh said:

RossD said:

The SS Alpena is 639' long.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729' long!  

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most. 

With a crew and good captain well seasoned

Last week in Detroit.  
 

Surprised this one hadn't made it on here yet...

they said it was a big boat...

In reply to BFH_Garage :

Oh wow, an M8 GTE meme. That was unexpected. Well done 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

Was anyone else surprised to see the Suez Canal is basically just a trench in the sand?  I was picturing something a bit more finished. 

As opposed to a trench dug in a jungle?

An interesting video that explains why the ship is so stuck and why it may be there for awhile:

MV Ever Given - why can't it be pulled out? - YouTube

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

For some reason I picture canals being more finished looking

This whole canal discussion has brought back an irritant in my life.  Sometime, probably in the 80s or early 90s, there was a really good series on PBS about the Panama Canal.  It taught me all about the French dude who dug the Suez at sea level, and how he failed spectacularly trying the same thing in Panama, and most of them died from every tropical disease imaginable, or drowning, or getting buried in landslides.  There was no way to hold the slopes back, so to get to sea level would have needed removing half of the country.

40 or 50 years later, the American dude came up with the idea, and enough technology had developed, to use locks.  

Did you know it rains enough in Panama that there were no pumps used at all?  The ships are raised and lowered using fresh water from the jungle.  I do, but I'm berkeleyed if I can find that show anywhere so I can watch it again.

I've found a couple of shows done about the canal, but none talking about the French origins or the engineering.  All hero bits, no substance.

Streetwiseguy said:

Did you know it rains enough in Panama that there were no pumps used at all?  The ships are raised and lowered using fresh water from the jungle.  I do, but I'm berkeleyed if I can find that show anywhere so I can watch it again.

Unfortunately that only worked when the traffic was a lower level than it is now.  Combine the increased traffic level with a multi-year drought and they're running out of water in the Panama canal.

In reply to BFH_Garage :

Yes, Big M8 returns! I loved that meme.