Cargo ship stuck in Chesapeake Bay: New Coast Guard operation underway to free ship

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The weather's not bad this morning (Saturday). There should be a fair number of sidewalk superintendents out to watch the operation.

Cargo ship stuck in Chesapeake Bay: New Coast Guard operation underway to free ship

Published April 8, 2022 2:12PMUpdated 2:45PMNewsAssociated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - With all attempts to free the Ever Forward cargo ship that's stuck in the Chesapeake Bay coming up unsuccessful, officials are changing course.

The Coast Guard launched an operation Friday to remove cargo containers from the ship to lighten it. The first containers will be removed from the ship starting Saturday morning, and they will be returned to Seagirt Marine Terminal in the Port of Baltimore, according to port officials. Coast Guard officials say they are not sure how long the operation will take.

Ever Forward has been a nearly one-month headache for the U.S. Coast Guard, the Port of Baltimore and the Department of the Environment, and is now becoming a concern for the governor, the comptroller and the state’s treasurer. The topic was discussed by Maryland officials during a Board of Public Works meeting earlier this week.

"I remain concerned about the ongoing salvage effort," Franchot, a Democrat running for governor, said. "Each day that goes by increases the potential for a hull breach, (and) disruptions to the critical Port of Baltimore. A hull breach can result in ecological, reputational and economic risks to Maryland."

The ship has been the subject of local curiosity and nationwide conversation.

{snip}

[Sherman A1]

1. I had read that they were going to lighten the load

before trying again. It will be expensive no matter what they do, but this seems to be the only real option now.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. It's local news here, in the DC and Baltimore TV markets.

The plan is to remove all (maybe) 5,000 containers and then give it a go. I was just checking to see if the ship had its own (so to speak) Twitter account, where up-to-the-minute commentary would be available.

There are showers in the forecast for later today, but for the morning and afternoon, the weather should be nice. I expect the local TV stations will send people out to cover the activity.

Edited: I wouldn't be surprised if someone from the USCG were tweeting about the operation on a regular basis.

Here's something:

PADET Baltimore

Welcome to the Coast Guard's Public Affairs Detachment Baltimore, Md.

And good morning.

[COL Mustard]

3. All they have to do is

Add an N in front of the ship’s name and leave it where it is as truth in advertising!

[2naSalit]

4. +1

[Historic NY]

5. Someone ought to review Evergreen Marine Corp's ships masters licenses

the Suez Canal and now the Chesapeake. They either have a vision problem or they can't read charts.

[COL Mustard]

6. Or is it a pilot problem?

I think the Suez incident was caused by a local pilot. Not sure about this one.

[taxi]

7. Reading a post here yesterday about these ships raised the same question

The Ever Given was built in 2018, the Ever Forward in 2020, and it seemed to be too much of a coincidence to see this situation again. From a post on DU yesterday, https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216577013

Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp has purchased 44 vessels from China since 2018, all but two of which were ordered from shipyards that produce Chinese warships, including CSSC, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report.

This from a 2010 story that makes an interesting bookend https://www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/

IN JANUARY 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran noticed that centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas were failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mystery—apparently as much to the Iranian technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them.

Five months later a seemingly unrelated event occurred. A computer security firm in Belarus was called in to troubleshoot a series of computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting repeatedly. Again, the cause of the problem was a mystery. That is, until the researchers found a handful of malicious files on one of the systems and discovered the world's first digital weapon.

[Historic NY]

8. I've always said with all the stuff we get from China one day it will all stop on cue

cars, planes, ships, etc . Perhaps it's time to audit the chips that run things. As for Taiwan purchasing from China, that's strange enough since China wants to take over Taiwan.

[taxi]

9. In the digital world of today nothing is an easy fix, the genie is out of the bottle.

With Taiwan, the Kurils, the Solomons etal, the long history of who owns what and which treaties apply is too complicated for me to figure out. As far as Taiwan though, they would have had to have weighed the risks of buying extremely complex systems, like freighters, and found benefits in going ahead with the deal. It is puzzling, and that's what a competent administration sorts out.