People Are Cracking Up At These 30 Memes About The Ship Stuck In The Suez Canal
If you have been following the news lately, you’ll know that the Suez Canal has a bit of a traffic jam problem. Turns out, there’s a gigantic cargo ship stuck in the canal, blocking the pathway through it for hundreds of not thousands of ships.
This, of course, has been making headlines around the globe. And not just headlines. Memesters, as well as the rest of the internet, got cracking at commenting on the situation through posts and memes.
Bored Panda scoured the internet to collect its best reactions to the stuck cargo ship and the efforts in freeing the ship from its unfortunate predicament. Be sure to upvote and comment on the submissions you enjoyed the most in the list below!
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They’re gonna need the amnesia dust cannon from The Tooth Fairy to spray it
For those who need more context on the issue, the Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway that serves as a massive shortcut between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It is one of the main routes of many ships traveling between Europe, parts of Africa and Asia.
How important is the Suez Canal for logistics? Well, in 2020 alone, nearly 19,000 ships chose to travel through there, averaging around 51.5 ships per day. You can imagine just how many Ali Express, Amazon, and various other orders have been transported through this tiny canal alone.
So, the stuck massive cargo ship is called the MV Ever Given (Evergreen) and is one of the biggest cargo ships in the world, measuring at around 400 meters in length with a gross tonnage of over 220,000.
Reports state that while the ship was crossing the canal, high winds and a dust storm hit it and it was rendered uncontrollable—so much, in fact, that it was pushed sideways and got stuck by hitting the bottom of the canal.
Local operations have been launched to get the ship unstuck, but it has been a full 3 days at the moment of this article that the ship has been stuck and some speculate that it may take days if not weeks to set it free.
Because this is such a big deal, of course the internet took the opportunity to have some fun with it by commenting and meming the whole thing.
Many admired the efforts that are being made by equating the tiny excavator doing its darned best to free the massive ship with things like trying to get a thesis done or the progress of one’s to-do list.
Others likened the situation to how Austin Powers was trying to turn around a baggage carrier in a narrow corridor, and yet others poked fun at how there are ideas to take the beached cargo ship and convert it into a camper “and post updates,” ridiculing today’s re-purposing trend.
Of course it's real, but not in reaction the the Suez issues, e.g. china-brazil trade. It would have taken MANY days to go from near the Suez to somewhere near S-A, and you'd have a line from Egypt to S-A which there isn't. I often look at https://www.marinetraffic.com/ to identify a ship I'm looking at... it's often fun to see "hey they're on a trip from A to B".
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The alternative route between Asia and Europe instead of the Suez is to go around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), however this can add one or two weeks to a voyage. Due to the blockage some ships are now taking the longer route. The image is from a marine traffic app or website (there are several available) and purports to show an enormous amount of diverted traffic, however the vast majority of what is seen is usual traffic going from SE Asia and the middle east to the Americas or the west coast of Africa, diverted traffic is still minimal.
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Yup, they expect it will take 2 weeks to get the canal cleared and it takes 1-2 weeks to sail around Africa, so it’s a safer bet to do that than to wait for the ship to be removed.
Back in the previous Sews crisis, Cape town in particular, but other South African seaports too, did a roaring trade!
The shipping companies would be directing their captains to take the Cape of Good Hope rather than Suez because even though it's further (by about 7000 miles) it's faster because they didn't know when the canal was going to be cleared.
And prone to pirates I hear. We actually just needed to buy a new dishwasher. Hate to break it to you but between Covid and this canal business you'd better hope nothing of yours breaks. Every mid-ranged dishwasher we asked about was on back order for a minimum of 6 months. Same with most appliances. Of course all the really expensive ones are still available though they are running out of those too. It makes you aware of how dependent the US has become on imports. Even the expensive one will take a few weeks. Treat your appliances like gold, maybe treat them a nice vinegar bath.
And we thought 2021 would be better. Nope! It's just 2020: The Sequel.
Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook as well as Imgur and Reddit have been booming with memes, gaining hundreds of thousands of views, upvotes, and other forms of internet currency.
Many joked that they are pretty sure that some of their orders are on that ship and that they’re gonna have to now wait until it gets unstuck. Others joked how this could be an awesome plot idea for “Fast And Furious: Suez Drift,” except it’s not that fast and not that furious at this point.
Yet others jested that some magical hand should now pop out of the heavens and reposition the ship, hinting at some sim video games. The most evil idea by internauts was if people canceled whatever orders they possibly had on that ship, making the ship travel back full and get stuck again.
... which you will decide tomorrow that it does not make any sense, does not even fit into the thesis and needs to be removed.
Love this one. Why does laundry build up sooooo much with children? Arrrrrrr!!
Note: this post originally had 42 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
"Help me! I'm stuck! -Where are you stuck? -Between Africa and Asia! -Yeah, but, I meant... -I know what you meant! I am literally, concretely, physically stuck between two f*****g continents! I am an isthmus now !"
"You cannot be serious. Isthmus be a joke"
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Okay, maybe a few too many memes! But so how did this accident actually happen?
The ship lost power so was at the mercy of the winds. With its tall cargo load the ship itself acted as a sail to swing the ship into the bank.
This cannot be the first time that there has been a gust of wind/sandstorm across the canal. I am surprised that they haven't widened it all the way to ensure that ships of this length don't get stuck. Hindsight is the best sight.
If they did, they’d make larger ships, since they’d fit. And then it’d start all over again. Unbridled capitalism at it’s finest. They could just have a max length for a ship in the rules, would be cheaper and easier.
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Shame on you Eva Green! Your boat is blocking everyone and you're not even there... miss-pereg...67-png.jpg 
In the Panama canal, operators have to turn their ship over to a canal operator to guide it through. Do they do that at the Suez, too? I'm curious if this was the ship's operator or a canal operator that managed this unconventional maneuver.
probably. it's pretty common to have a harbor pilot come on board to get your ship through. Basically, the idea is that harbor pilots know the port (or canal in this case) better than any pilot you could hire would know it. Also, it's somebody else you can blame for a screw up like this.
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Maybe I'm just an idiot... but, uhm, is there a reason they're not unloading it to reduce the draft while doing other stuffs? Like... is evergreen being that idiot you volunteered to help move, who insists the still-full dresser drawers aren't too heavy?
They are thinking about it, but that costs millions and is very difficult, so it’s a last resort kind of thing. They are first going to pump fuel and water (ballast) from the ship to see if that helps, and dredging to free the hull. Dutchies FTW!
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I was going to join procrastinators anonymous but I never got around to it.
All ships going through there will from now on be built three inches shorter
It's the nautical equivalent of a truck driver ignoring the overpass height warning.
"Help me! I'm stuck! -Where are you stuck? -Between Africa and Asia! -Yeah, but, I meant... -I know what you meant! I am literally, concretely, physically stuck between two f*****g continents! I am an isthmus now !"
"You cannot be serious. Isthmus be a joke"
Load More Replies... Okay, maybe a few too many memes! But so how did this accident actually happen?
The ship lost power so was at the mercy of the winds. With its tall cargo load the ship itself acted as a sail to swing the ship into the bank.
This cannot be the first time that there has been a gust of wind/sandstorm across the canal. I am surprised that they haven't widened it all the way to ensure that ships of this length don't get stuck. Hindsight is the best sight.
If they did, they’d make larger ships, since they’d fit. And then it’d start all over again. Unbridled capitalism at it’s finest. They could just have a max length for a ship in the rules, would be cheaper and easier.
Load More Replies... Shame on you Eva Green! Your boat is blocking everyone and you're not even there... miss-pereg...67-png.jpg
In the Panama canal, operators have to turn their ship over to a canal operator to guide it through. Do they do that at the Suez, too? I'm curious if this was the ship's operator or a canal operator that managed this unconventional maneuver.
probably. it's pretty common to have a harbor pilot come on board to get your ship through. Basically, the idea is that harbor pilots know the port (or canal in this case) better than any pilot you could hire would know it. Also, it's somebody else you can blame for a screw up like this.
Load More Replies... Maybe I'm just an idiot... but, uhm, is there a reason they're not unloading it to reduce the draft while doing other stuffs? Like... is evergreen being that idiot you volunteered to help move, who insists the still-full dresser drawers aren't too heavy?
They are thinking about it, but that costs millions and is very difficult, so it’s a last resort kind of thing. They are first going to pump fuel and water (ballast) from the ship to see if that helps, and dredging to free the hull. Dutchies FTW!
Load More Replies... I was going to join procrastinators anonymous but I never got around to it.
All ships going through there will from now on be built three inches shorter
It's the nautical equivalent of a truck driver ignoring the overpass height warning.
