This ship went sideways:
This satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Tuesday, March 23, 2021. A cargo container ship that's among the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic in Egypt's Suez Canal, officials said Wednesday, March 24, 2021, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)
https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub...03/suez-canal-ship-stuck-ap21083263136858.jpg
Massive cargo ship turns sideways, blocks Egypt's Suez Canal
AOL Associated Press
JON GAMBRELL
March 24, 2021, 4:15 AM
https://www.aol.com/news/massive-cargo-ship-turns-sideways-024358197-081508679.html
That report reminded me of going thru the Suez Canal years and years ago.
Mostly I remember that tying off both anchors was no picnic. After disconnecting the chains from the anchors both chains were hauled through the chocks and up onto the deck in order to connect a steel box to the chains (the box was about the size of a portable toilet you see at construction sites). Then everything was hung over the bow.
There was a large searchlight in the box. An Arab got in the box so he could shine the light on the banks to aid the pilot when the ship went thru the Canal at night. Then everything had to be unrigged on the other side. I do not know if they still do it that way anymore. That was in the fifties and sixties when the Suez Canal was open. It was closed from1967 to1975.
American President Lines ships on the round-the-world run went West out of San Francisco to the Orient. That run hit about thirty ports. When the Canal was closed APL ships had to go around South Africa into the Atlantic, then up to Europe, then across the Atlantic to the APL docks in New Jersey, then thru the Panama Canal, and back up to San Francisco.
If you look at a map you will see how much easier it was for a ship to go thru the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean than it was to go around Africa. From my perspective, the long way around was better than rigging for that damn searchlight mentioned above.
Parenthetically, fire hoses were manned when a ship was at anchor waiting to go thru the Suez Canal. Those hoses were tuned on thieves in small boats who tried to come aboard and steal everything that was not nailed down.
No touchy-feely comments please. Old time seamen always said there is no thief like an Arab thief.
This satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Tuesday, March 23, 2021. A cargo container ship that's among the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic in Egypt's Suez Canal, officials said Wednesday, March 24, 2021, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)
https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub...03/suez-canal-ship-stuck-ap21083263136858.jpg
Massive cargo ship turns sideways, blocks Egypt's Suez Canal
AOL Associated Press
JON GAMBRELL
March 24, 2021, 4:15 AM
https://www.aol.com/news/massive-cargo-ship-turns-sideways-024358197-081508679.html
That report reminded me of going thru the Suez Canal years and years ago.
Mostly I remember that tying off both anchors was no picnic. After disconnecting the chains from the anchors both chains were hauled through the chocks and up onto the deck in order to connect a steel box to the chains (the box was about the size of a portable toilet you see at construction sites). Then everything was hung over the bow.
There was a large searchlight in the box. An Arab got in the box so he could shine the light on the banks to aid the pilot when the ship went thru the Canal at night. Then everything had to be unrigged on the other side. I do not know if they still do it that way anymore. That was in the fifties and sixties when the Suez Canal was open. It was closed from1967 to1975.
American President Lines ships on the round-the-world run went West out of San Francisco to the Orient. That run hit about thirty ports. When the Canal was closed APL ships had to go around South Africa into the Atlantic, then up to Europe, then across the Atlantic to the APL docks in New Jersey, then thru the Panama Canal, and back up to San Francisco.
If you look at a map you will see how much easier it was for a ship to go thru the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean than it was to go around Africa. From my perspective, the long way around was better than rigging for that damn searchlight mentioned above.
Parenthetically, fire hoses were manned when a ship was at anchor waiting to go thru the Suez Canal. Those hoses were tuned on thieves in small boats who tried to come aboard and steal everything that was not nailed down.
No touchy-feely comments please. Old time seamen always said there is no thief like an Arab thief.
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