Ever Given

Probably the most known picture about Ever Given that broke into the media

(Courtesy of GCaptain)

Ever Given at anchor at Great Bitter Lake after the grounding, 23 05 2021

In March 2021 the world got hit by the news like wildfire, the Ever Given had grounded and blocked the Suez Canal. Initially industry experts dismissed this that the Canal will be cleared in a few hours, they get ships up on the banks from time to time and have experience in dealing with this kind of incidents. As the blockade carried on until next day it became obvious that it wasn't a simple operation but a bit larger scale job. Every expert from every corner of the world came out of the woodwork giving their opinion of how the job had to be done. Then of course the rumor mill started going too and very soon it was supposedly an Egyptian female Captain who was at fault [sic] but she was quickly discovered having been hundreds of miles away at the time of the incident.

Map showing the Canal and the location of Ever Given (Wikipedia)

The accident had happened in the narrow part of the Canal that had not been widened or made "double laned", hence when she hit the bank there was no way around so the Canal was blocked 100%, about 10km north of Port Suez. The weather had been quite windy, apparently a sandstorm, blowing in an west - east direction, i.e. straight onto the port side, at up to 40 knots. She must have been drifting massively with the huge windage (the area presented to the wind) these vessels have. The pilot had probably been trying to lessen the drift angle by increasing speed and according to media they were going above the regular 8-9 knots speed limit they normally advocate, apparently 12-13 knots. 

Cross section of the Canal (Wikipedia)

The canal section diagram shows how the canal is built so imagine a 400m long and 60m wide vessel going along it with say 10degrees of drift, this would make the width of the vessel going forward almost double, i.e. 120m, the clear width with full depth of canal is about 200m, this leaves a margin of 40m on each side. Still a considerable distance but in the darkness, poor visibility with the sand, strong wind and moving slowly the drift set in and the pilot failed to realize in time what was going on, he probably ordered the helmsman to counter the drift, he saw it as insufficient and then ordered increase of speed.

Ever Given once again waiting to transit at Suez anchorage, 

19 08 2023 while I was there with Kalizma heading the same way

By this time the vessel had probably drifted from the centerline close to the eastern shore on starboard, elements of interaction and squat may have set in so probably rudder response was not great, pilot probably asked for more rudder angle and corrective heading in order to get upwind and off the bank to the middle of the channel. The propeller was maybe churning up silt and air, not giving good response which resulted in poor steerage with no lift on the rudder. 

Ever Given monument 20 08 2023

As the stern would lose control the wind would then grab hold of the bow and the resulting inertia of the vessel still underway resulted in the bow plowing into the eastern bank and the stern swinging up to the western bank, effectively blocking the canal. Or possibly she would have come around and the bow was heading rapidly for the western bank and the helmsman trying to correct the heading and using too much rudder he was maybe not able to get the swing under control and then plow her into the bank in a frantic "S" maneuver. This is only my own musing over how it may have played out. However it happened the result was that she was hard aground. The wiseguys of course would say why did they go if the weather was bad and why didn't the Captain do anything? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Ever Given monument 20 08 2023

I was on leave but talking about a delivery gig through Suez and was wondering how this will pan out if the ship will get seriously lodged in the Canal for a long period. Luckily the operation didn't take more than a week, the Canal was reopened for traffic on 29th March. The vessel was escorted to the Great Bitter Lake and anchored pending investigation. The saga was far from over yet and I got my gig and was on my way to UAE.

Ever Given monument 20 08 2023

Then I was doing the delivery gig of Caipirinha and we passed Ever Given at Great Bitter Lake (pic above). Our pilot told us that the Suez Canal Authority has placed a pilot onboard 24/7, even there at anchor. At same time the media was printing out headlines of 1 billion USD in claims for reparations for the blockage, i.e. lost revenue, and measures taken to salvage Ever Given, the insurance P&I club refused to pay up and as a result the Egyptians impounded the vessel on 13th April. The company Evergreen responded by declaring "general average", things were getting very complicated and only an adjustor could solve it now between owners and the thousands of cargo owners that had their merchandise onboard in containers.

Ever Given monument 20 08 2023

Eventually negotiations ensued and a compromise was reached for approximately half of the original claim and Ever Given was released to sail by 7th July, after all inspections were done and papers stamped she finally sailed on the 12th July, more than 100 days later. The backlog of vessels had been cleared already by early April. She returned back through the Canal in August and was docked mid-November in Qingdao for repairs. Many logistics companies blamed the incident though months later after it had happened, maybe their supplies had been badly disrupted.

Ever Alp 20 08 2023 which is even larger than Ever Given with her 

cargo capacity listed at 24000TEU

Then in 2023 I was again transiting the Canal with Kalizma and I saw the massive monument erected at the place of the grounding, it is comprising of a standing steel beam anchor and 2 "placards" on either side of it facing the Canal, they are huge. The payout must have been successful. I can only think of the crew of Ever Given that transits the Canal will be every time reminded of the history they had. According to media they were treated fairly and even allowed to be repatriated as their contracts matured so there was no forced arrest of them (as has happened in other incidents). The management was by the German company, Bernhard Schulte, so they played well up to the MLC convention, hats off. 

Ship specs of Ever Given:
Name Ever Given
Owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha
Operator Evergreen Marine
Port of registry Panama City, Panama
Builder Imabari Shipbuilding (Japan)
Yard number S-1833
Laid down 25 December 2015
Launched 9 May 2018
Completed 25 September 2018Status In service

General characteristics
Type: Container ship
Gross Tonnage: 220,940 GT
Net tonnage: 99,155 NT
Deadweight: 199,629 t
Displacement: 265,876 t (261,677 long tons)
Length: 399.94 m (1,312 ft 2 in)
Beam: 58.8 m (192 ft 11 in)
Draught: 14.5 m (47 ft 7 in) (design) 16.0 m (52 ft 6 in) (maximum)
Depth: 32.9 m (107 ft 11 in)
Power: Mitsui–MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9 (59,300 kW)
Propulsion: Single shaft; fixed pitch propeller, two bow thrusters
Speed: 22.8 knots (42.2 km/h; 26.2 mph)
Cargo Capacity: 20,124 TEU
Crew: 25

The meme brigade started soon in full force churning out witticisms about the incident, some of them actually quite funny, the fallout from this was the excavator operator that thought he was being made fun of.

From X (ex. Twitter):

Mollie Goodfellow - Is your child texting about the Suez Canal boat?
BRB - Bow Really Bulbous
LOL - Lack Of Leeway
CBA - Canal Blocked, Asshole
LMFAO - Lol, Mother Fucker Aground, Oi!
BYOB - Boat Yeeted On Bank
WTF - What The Frigate BTW - Boat Totally Wasted

Tom Gara - There’s a man living in a fishing shack in Greece. Locals know him as a friendly but pathetic drunk. He’s haunted by flashbacks of the day a once-in-a-century storm grounded his supertanker in the Straits of Malacca. And now, we need him to come back for one last job.

Following are mostly from X, I have no rights to these: