Friday, March 26, 2021

How to Free the Ever Given

For nearly three days a huge container ship has been stuck in the Suez canal. This has caused huge disruption to global shipping. Rerouting ships around the continent of Africa instead of using the canal can add up to 9,000 kilometers to a journey, adding 8-10 days to a journey. 

So far efforts to free the Ever Given from the canal have involved trying to pull it free with tug-boats and / or widen the canal with mechanical diggers. These attempts have so far proved hugely unsuccessful. Pratik Yadev has therefore devised a radical new solution as to how a long container ship can be freed from a narrow canal. This solution is to use two Space X rockets to vertically lift the Ever Green free from the canal.

Pratik is aware that his idea may sound a little crazy. Which is why he has used Mapbox GL to demonstrate how his proposal would work in practice. Pratik's Unstuck Ever Given interactive map animates how two Space X rockets could easily lift a 220,000 ton container ship out of a tight space. In fact the only shocking part of Pratik's plan is that Elon Musk hasn't already suggested it.

BTW if you have a desire to know if the Ever Given has been freed yet then you can always refer to the very useful 'Is the Ship Still Stuck' interactive map. Is the Ship Still Stuck carries a simple 'Yes' or 'No' message, informing you as to whether the Ever Given is stuck in the Suez Canal. It also uses an interactive map from Vessel Finder, which shows the near real-time location of the Ever Green, so that you can see for yourself if the ship is still stuck in the canal, with a current speed of 0 km.

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