Oops.

[#1]

I guess the more containers there are the greater the chances of a gust of wind blowing a vessel of course.

Which raises the question of what is the safe limit of containers on a ship keeping in mind the changing weather conditions at sea.

Not uncommon for containers to get lost overboard and posing a danger to other shipping...

Anyone remember that container that went overboard with thousands of plastic ducks which were getting washed up on beaches in various places.

[#2]

@gleneagles 

Fair enough, but I have seen nothing about what the wind speed actually was even from the excellent map @shutter posted besides which (and I'm no naval man) I thought those bow thrusters would have kept even the largest vessel going in a straight line. 

[#3]

Latest News   @Minivanman  may be correct

Initial reports said the 400m-long (1,300ft), 200,000-tonne vessel ran aground in high winds and a sandstorm that affected visibility.

However, Mr Rabie said weather conditions were "not the main reasons" for the ship's grounding.

"There may have been technical or human errors," he told reporters, without giving details. "All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation."

Hd

[#4]

Human error, now what could that be?

Helmsman two degrees port. Port, now is that left or right?

[#5]

@HelloDuck 

Osama Rabei, the head of the canal authority gets stuck behind a bunch of microphones as he talks to reporters.

@billnotben 

Port Said... or I said port? 

Lets be fair it can happen to anyone. I almost got stuck in the Braunston Tunnel on the Grand Union canal. 😆

[#6]

Good News

A giant ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week has been finally freed, the Egyptian authorities say.

Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever Given had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday, "thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again".

The vessel was towed to a location outside the channel for further inspection.

To refloat the 224,000-ton vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged and a total of eleven harbour tugs and two powerful seagoing tugs were deployed, according to Boskalis.

HD

[#7]

How long till it's made it into a movie!

[#8]

400m @Mook ?😀

[#9]

---

@Mook wrote:

How long till it's made it into a movie!

---

They will have to be busy weaving terrorists, climate change and aliens into the plot to fatten it up.

[#10]

@Strat 

Along with a touch of fiction, a dash of 'artistic licence', actual word spoken by actors, inspired by real events... and all filmed in Wales.  

[#11]

"thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again"

Is that the same as the mythical freepost?

[#12]

All that remains to be done is to widen the Strait of Gibraltar in order to avoid a repeat of what happened.  I wonder whether the Strait of Dover would present this captain with a problem, we tend not to have sandstorms but avoiding all those dinghies could present a problem, leaving little manoeuvring room for large ships like this.

[#13]

No more jokes about the Suez Canal, that ship has sailed.😀

[#14]

Quote......

THIS FIXED MY PROBLEM !

Un quote

[#15]

I liked some of the comments posted on the BBC news page.

"This is what happens when operating with an international crew. All down to a simple misunderstanding; Captain makes a passing comment about needing to pop into a bank and the pilot misinterprets that as an order and steers accordingly."

"Don't think much of smart canalways - they should revert back to using breakdown lanes like before."

"How on earth do you manage to jackknife a 400m long container ship? Oil spill or black ice I suppose."