Global tat supply line unclogged as Suez Canal authorities come to aid of 18-brontosaurus container ship
(2021/03/24)
- Reference: 1616602984
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/24/evergiven/
- Source link:
The ship that spawned a thousand IT container jokes has been partially refloated after becoming wedged across Egypt's Suez Canal, blocking a crucial global trade artery.
Despite fears the route might be blocked for days, the Gulf Agency Company (GAC) [1]reported that the Ever Given container vessel was now alongside the bank of the canal rather than its well-documented straddling of the waterway.
[2]
Efforts to shift the behemoth, which weighs the same as 22,988,822 adult badgers, had been hindered by wind conditions as Suez Canal tugs sought to remove its snout from the banks of the canal. The ship is 400 metres long, "the length of four football pitches," [3]according to the BBC.
Reg Standards Bureau introduces the Devon fatberg as coastal town menaced by oily blob [4]READ MORE
[5]
We'd direct Auntie* to The Register 's own [6]standards converter , which puts the beast at just under 200 [7]Osmans , 6.25 Devon fatbergs or 43.4 double-decker buses. A far better visualisation of the problem's scale.
Those winds at the 151km mark also reportedly played a role in the blocking of the waterway by the vessel.
The Register spoke to a tugboat veteran who has floated up and down the canal a few times himself, who suggested that, in the absence of a full report into the cause, another factor could well have been a "blackout" onboard the vessel.
"On a containership like this," he explained, "that's a loss of electrical power, leading to the main engine and generators stopping. They all shutdown because without electricity, none of the cooling, lubrication, or control systems have power."
"Ships," he added, "are not as redundant as many people would think. There's only one main engine, for example. There's only one control system, which has redundant features, but isn't wholly redundant."
Far be it from us to ponder if the same designers might have had a hand in the creation of the odd data centre or two, where a lack of redundancy could easily result in an IT container catastrophe.
Getting emergency power up and running, which allows the rudder to be moved, could take up to a minute. At least two generators would commonly be needed to start up the main engine. "This takes time," he explained. "Realistically, it could be as little as a two minutes, but it would often be longer."
During which time the wind might blow and the prow might, er, plough. Into the side of the canal.
"Blackouts," he said, "are relatively common on ships, with numerous causes. You generally run an extra generator in the Suez so that blackouts due to generator shutdown are less common."
As well as a reminder of the fragility of the global supply chain (already battered by the ongoing pandemic), the incident should give techies dispensing Kubernetes and Docker-based snark pause for thought: check your redundancies and backup plans.
Nobody wants a crash caused by a container cockup. ®
[8]
*Auntie Beeb, an affectionate term for the UK's national broadcaster
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.gac.com/news--media/hot-port-news/efforts-to-refloat-grounded-vessel/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56505413
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/08/reg_standards_bureau_introduces_the_devon_fatberg/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/27/reg_standards_soviet_social_distancing_measure/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Despite fears the route might be blocked for days, the Gulf Agency Company (GAC) [1]reported that the Ever Given container vessel was now alongside the bank of the canal rather than its well-documented straddling of the waterway.
[2]
Efforts to shift the behemoth, which weighs the same as 22,988,822 adult badgers, had been hindered by wind conditions as Suez Canal tugs sought to remove its snout from the banks of the canal. The ship is 400 metres long, "the length of four football pitches," [3]according to the BBC.
Reg Standards Bureau introduces the Devon fatberg as coastal town menaced by oily blob [4]READ MORE
[5]
We'd direct Auntie* to The Register 's own [6]standards converter , which puts the beast at just under 200 [7]Osmans , 6.25 Devon fatbergs or 43.4 double-decker buses. A far better visualisation of the problem's scale.
Those winds at the 151km mark also reportedly played a role in the blocking of the waterway by the vessel.
The Register spoke to a tugboat veteran who has floated up and down the canal a few times himself, who suggested that, in the absence of a full report into the cause, another factor could well have been a "blackout" onboard the vessel.
"On a containership like this," he explained, "that's a loss of electrical power, leading to the main engine and generators stopping. They all shutdown because without electricity, none of the cooling, lubrication, or control systems have power."
"Ships," he added, "are not as redundant as many people would think. There's only one main engine, for example. There's only one control system, which has redundant features, but isn't wholly redundant."
Far be it from us to ponder if the same designers might have had a hand in the creation of the odd data centre or two, where a lack of redundancy could easily result in an IT container catastrophe.
Getting emergency power up and running, which allows the rudder to be moved, could take up to a minute. At least two generators would commonly be needed to start up the main engine. "This takes time," he explained. "Realistically, it could be as little as a two minutes, but it would often be longer."
During which time the wind might blow and the prow might, er, plough. Into the side of the canal.
"Blackouts," he said, "are relatively common on ships, with numerous causes. You generally run an extra generator in the Suez so that blackouts due to generator shutdown are less common."
As well as a reminder of the fragility of the global supply chain (already battered by the ongoing pandemic), the incident should give techies dispensing Kubernetes and Docker-based snark pause for thought: check your redundancies and backup plans.
Nobody wants a crash caused by a container cockup. ®
[8]
*Auntie Beeb, an affectionate term for the UK's national broadcaster
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.gac.com/news--media/hot-port-news/efforts-to-refloat-grounded-vessel/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56505413
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/08/reg_standards_bureau_introduces_the_devon_fatberg/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/27/reg_standards_soviet_social_distancing_measure/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YFtwM376YO9EcIHOz7@RvQAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
I reckon there are twenty two million badgers in the town I live in
Shocking! Most disappointed
Dear Register Vulture,
I would like to raise in the strongest possible terms, my abject level of disappointment, nay horror, that you did not provide the windspeed using the correct units:
Those winds at the 151km mark also reportedly played a role in the blocking of the waterway by the vessel
The velocity of the wind in the correct units is 0.0014% of the velocity of a sheep in a vacuum. I expect much better from this esteemed publication and such travesties could cause me to run out of dried frog pills.
Yours,
Angry from Aberdeenshireerryireish