Report on Evergiven at the Suez Canal 4

[spsalso]

Here's a new post by Sal Mercogliano discussing the analysis of the grounding of this ship in the Suez Canal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfchAELXsVI

spsalso

 

[dik]

A great discussion...

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[waross]

As start to downloading the report may be commenced here by registering with IMO.

https://webaccounts.imo.org/Common/...fault.aspx&error_message=interaction_required

Some highlights.
The pilots were arguing in Arabic.
Later translations from the VDR indicated that the observing pilot disagreed with the controlling pilot's orders and methods.
Despite repeated interjections from the observing pilot, the controlling pilot would not give the helms-man a course to steer and instead issued mostly "hard over" rudder commands.
The captain more than once countermanded pilot directions to the helmsman.
The pilot was operating at about 50% above the speed limit.
The crew were subject to drug and alcohol testing, their hours of service checked to verify that there were no indications of either physical or mental fatigue.
The crew compartments were checked, including, I understand, the cleanliness of the recreation area.
I cannot find in the report any indication that the pilots were checked for D&A or for hours of service or fatigue.
The wind direction varied from 77 degrees to 210 degrees over 25 minutes.
The wind speed varied from 4.4 m/s to 13.9 m/s.
At no time before the grounding did the pilot request assistance from the tugs.
The report describes Bank Suction; I the ship deviates from the channel center, bank suction will tend to pull it towards the nearest bank.
Bank Cushion; As the ship comes closer to the bank, bank cushion will tend to push it away from the bank.
Both these effects increase with increased speed.
Squat Effect: as the water becomes shallower, the speed tends to increase, increasing both the bank suction and the bank cushion effects.
Comments: I did not notice in the report a comment on rotational inertia.
As a large body turns about its horizontal axis, it has rotational inertia.
To change heading, the ship must first be put into a turn, generating rotational inertia.
That inertia must be cancelled to arrest the turning motion.
If you are heading at 100 degrees and want to turn to 105 degrees, you can not just wait until the heading is 105 degrees and then center the rudder, you must anticipate.
An experienced helmsman will be familiar with the steering and overshoot characteristics of his vessel.
If he is given a heading he has an excellent chance of steering that heading despite, wind, bank suction, bank cushion and squat.
Tje pilot by ordering rudder position cammands rather than heading commands deprived himself of this valuable expertise.
How do you spell "hubris" in Arabic?
The Captain is also partly to blame.
It may have been appropriate after the second or third hard over rudder commend to order a flotation test for the pilot.

Spoiler

Flotation Test: Throw the object to be tested overboard to see if it floats.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[3DDave]

The video was great - the winds were high enough that several ships, including this one. lost anchorage and were forced to fire up the engines just to maintain position.

 

[spsalso]

"At no time before the grounding did the pilot request assistance from the tugs."

I thought it was noted there were no tugs available to assist, even though they were required to be there.


spsalso

 

[dik]

Monty Python needs to do a skit, "The Keystone Pilots."

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[waross]

I thought it was noted there were no tugs available to assist, even though they were required to be there.

Sorry for the inaccuracy, but:

05:40 Hrs / UTC (7:40 Hrs local time)
- Calling for help from tug MOUAN

That call was one minute before grounding.
That is the only reference to the tug MOUAN in the report.
There is no indication of the location of the tug or the expected time to arrive.


--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[Sym P. le]

"Save me, I've really ..." is an admission, not a responsible action.

 

[zeusfaber]

As these reports go, it all feels a bit superficial. I suppose that, without meaningful input from the SCA, the investigators had less to work with than they'd like. Even so, I would have liked to have seen:

A discussion of the ship's Safety Management System, the relevance of the hazards considered in the risk assessment, the suitability of the associated control measures and the extent to which those were actually adopted. A recommendation that, although the SMS was fine, the pilots really ought to have checked them, seems a bit ... odd. Yes, it's just bloody paperwork, but it is the prime opportunity to sit down and transfer some of these lessons to other ships.

Something more about the fact that the ship had an old edition of the Canal Rules aboard - it really shouldn't be hard to work out whether any of the differences between the 2015 and 2020 rules had any bearing on the accident.

More about the requirement for, and absence of, tugs. This was a broken rule with a strong link to the accident and yet there's no discussion about whether this is standard practice (or even about whether a fleet of sixteen escort tugs is sufficient if you need two for each SuezMax box ship, EVER GIVEN was the fifth in the northbound convoy and the composition of the southbound convoy was likely to be similar), nothing about where responsibilities to book tugs or to enforce the rules lie and nothing at all in the recommendations to do anything about it.

An evaluation of the immediate response to the accident. Within two minutes of the grounding - so almost certainly prior to any sort of damage assessment - both pilots and bridge team were energetically trying to pull the ship off the putty.

A look at other accidents of a similar character - you'll learn as much from analysing trends as you will from getting buried in the detail (not that they did) of any individual accident.

</rant>

A.

 

[dik]

Even though the captain took the blame, it was clearly the fault of the canal operators... sad...

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[JohnRBaker]

All we need is for one of these to get stuck crosswise in the Suez Canal:

China unveils nuclear-powered megamax containership design

https://splash247.com/china-unveils-nuclear-powered-megamax-containership-design/

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dik]

Is that 24,000 x 24,000 kg of cargo?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[JohnRBaker]

No, it's 24,000 containers, and it appears that China has been making ships, albeit conventionally powered, this large for some time:

The World’s Biggest 24,000 TEU Container Ship Delivered

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/the-worlds-biggest-24000-teu-container-ship-delivered/

MSC Takes Delivery of Its First 24,000 TEU Ultra Large Containership

https://maritime-executive.com/arti...ts-first-24-000-teu-ultra-large-containership

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dik]

It's my understanding that a single TEU is a 24,000 kg container x 20'... Is that correct?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[3DDave]

Technically, close. TEU is purely volumetric, though the containers are often rated for 24 metric tons.

The ship can carry 241164 metric tons of cargo in the summer per

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9930038

That would only be 10,000 containers at the 24 metric ton capacity.

 

[dik]

The article says...

so that would be approx 576,000,000 kg? would it not? Did someone get the units confused? The vessel is limited to 241,164,000 kg or 24,000 TEUs then?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[3DDave]

What units do you believe are confused? They load containers - they are counting the number of containers they can carry.

 

[dik]

Just don't know about containers. I assume they are limited by weight 241,164,000 kg or 24,000 20' units.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Murph 9000]

Ships traditionally have their relative size expressed in tonnage, but that is a measure of volume, not weight/displacement. I believe TEU size of a vessel is similarly expressing the maximum cargo volume, not the weight of the cargo or vessel.

 

[dik]

I guess one or the other... That's still a huge weight and/or volume... 24,000 20' containers or maybe 12,000 40' containers is a lot of volume. Several years back, I was looking at bringing a container from China... The cost to get it from Vancouver to Winnipeg was nearly 3x the cost to get it from China to Vancouver.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik