Yup, you heard it right. You can try “steering” a huge ship on a small part of the Suez Canal online through CNN’s new interactive feature—and it’s a lot harder than you’d think it would be.
CNN released the “game” on their site on 30th March to give players a taste of what happened with the Ever Given—which became stuck sideways in the Suez Canal after a severe dust storm on 23 March. There was a long struggle to push the ship back on course, causing a six-day blockage of ships passing through.
Me being an average citizen and not a big-time ship captain, there was no way for me to know what it’s even like steering the actual Ever Given. But I would think it should not be that hard to not crash so badly, but boy was I wrong.
On CNN’s interactive feature, it states that the Suez Canal is a “high-stress, complicated feat that requires master piloting skills”. According to the page, CNN also worked with Master Mariner Andy Winbow and Captain Yash Gupta to produce the game.
However, they stress that the feature is “non-scientific” and it is merely an interactive experience for illustrative purposes only. It also says that there are “many factors that have not been accounted for” like depth of water, proximity to the banks, interaction with passing ships, the turning circle, availability of tug boats and other weather conditions”.
While these other factors aren’t at play, there were a lot of factors that were took into consideration. They included wind direction, wind speed, the boat’s power and the rudder’s angle.
The experience itself was still pretty stressful to play with. I was trying so hard not to crash and it needed every little bit of my attention to get the boat from point A to point B.
I was also surprised at how narrow the Suez Canal is, but that’s probably also because of how big the boat is in relation. The Ever Given is 400 meters long and is among the largest 1% of the world’s fleet.
If you made it pass that small bit of the Suez Canal, you get a “congratulations”, with a note sating you’ve simulated just about 4% of the Canal. If you crash, it’s not that big of a deal—because you get to try again and also because it’s not a real situation you’re in.
The experience definitely did open my eyes about how severe the situation was, and it wasn’t really to do with how bad the steerer was. You can try the feature yourself, and let me know how hard or easy it is for you to steer the boat.
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