Now when are these fancy boat captains gonna learn they gotta double their following distance in wet conditions?

What I don't understand is this: Athens Spirit managed safely stop upstream but Burri couldn't avoid plowing past her and into BW Lesmes. They're both tankers about the same size. How come the one stopped and the other did not?
posted by colin.jaquiery at 3:46 AM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

One was more heavily loaded than the other? Perhaps Burri was traveling faster than Athens Spirit? Apparently, ¡°speeding¡± is a thing in the canal.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:53 AM on August 23, 2023

The MarineTraffic video is many times faster than reality - just look at how fast the tugs are moving around. The Burri wasn't moving quickly. It looks to me more like both ships already stopped, but while the Athens Spirit managed to hold a position at the side of the channel, the Burri ended up drifting slowly over to the BW Lesmes.

When you stop a ship in a confined space, you leave yourself with very limited control. Most of the steerability of a ship comes from the rudder, but the rudder is almost useless without forward speed. The bow thrusters may not have been enough to keep the ship from swinging in the wind, and once it turned, they'd have been unable to motor ahead or astern without running into the banks. At that point they may have been more concerned with making sure they didn't end up jammed sideways as well!
posted by automatronic at 5:10 AM on August 23, 2023 [8 favorites]

Jesus Christ, just pay the valet the twenty bucks -- he's not going to go through the glove box get your ship stuck in a canal.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:03 AM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I realize it created significant problems for global commerce but it was fun when the boat got stuck
posted by dismas at 7:18 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Must be nice to own a canal - first you require everyone to hire your pilots and do what they say, and then when your pilots tell the ship to break the rules, and crash as a result, you impound the ship and demand restitution.

Is it fair to assume this report is biased somewhat in favor of the Evergiven crew, and that there's a similar report from the SCA that is biased the other way? If this report is accurate how was the SCA able to blame the Evergiven and demand damages?
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 7:38 AM on August 23, 2023

Is it fair to assume this report is biased somewhat in favor of the Evergiven crew

The report is from the Panama Maritime Authority, because that's where the ship was registered. Many ships are registered in Panama, regardless of actual origin or ownership, because the country has an open registry and a attractive regulatory and tax regime.

Shipping companies do have a choice of where to register, and so at some level, the Panamanian authorities do have an incentive to be seen as a soft touch. However, that doesn't mean they don't take safety seriously, and nor do they want to be seen to do so. They're a huge player in the system - about a quarter of the world's shipping is registered there. So they're not particularly beholden toward the crew of any given ship, nor even to a fairly large shipping company. It would be a pretty major undertaking for Evergreen to change registries.

Another thing to note is that criticism of the pilots doesn't change anything about legal responsibility. Pilots only give advice. The master is always legally in command and responsible for the vessel.

and that there's a similar report from the SCA that is biased the other way?

As far as I can see, the SCA has not published a competing account. They don't normally report on incidents besides press releases on ongoing incidents. Their routine annual navigation report hasn't been published since 2019.

If this report is accurate how was the SCA able to blame the Evergiven and demand damages?

Who was going to stop them? They had the ship impounded in the Great Bitter Lake which is midway along the canal. It couldn't leave without their authorisation, so they held all the cards. There woudn't be much anyone else could do short of invading Egypt, and that didn't go so well the last time.
posted by automatronic at 8:50 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Panama Canal has some bigger problems right now, like 200+ ships stuck trying to get through because of drought conditions in the area.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:21 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Here is my personal experience, if it helps anyone contextualize the report:

I only transited the Suez Canal twice, but it's important enough and unusual enough that the US Navy has written instructions on how to deal with SC pilots.

Of the two I encountered, one was reasonably competent, at least knew helm commands and gave some attention to his job. The other was clearly a nephew or son of someone important, knew nothing of being a sailor, much less the decades-long apprenticeship it takes to be a maritime pilot.

Both spent the majority of their time staring at the female sailors on the bridge. Both asked for money-- this is the cultural tradition in this part of the world, and the instructions we had were to have a small gift pre-purchased. I believe the formal recommendation was for a small boom box or similar value item. Then give them the gift, and ignore the rest of the demands for money as you escorted down to the pilot boat to leave the ship.

Out of hundreds of interactions with pilots during my career, the Suez Canal bunch were the two worst, except maybe the terrified semi-literate guy in Palau that steered a tugboat into a collision with us. Even then, he was clearly trying to do his job, out of his depth, and at least asked questions and paid attention during the sea and anchor detail, which is what the Navy calls the complicated and dangerous process of docking and undocking.
posted by seasparrow at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2023 [20 favorites]