Suez Canal closure, 1967 to 1975
The eight-year closure of the canal, the ships trapped in the Great Bitter Lake, the clearance operations and the effect on tanker size.
The Suez Canal closed at the outbreak of the June 1967 war and did not reopen until 5 June 1975, an eight-year interruption that is the longest in its history and the one with the largest effect on ship design.
With the short route to the Gulf shut, crude had to move around the Cape of Good Hope, where no canal draft limit applies. Owners responded by building bigger, and the VLCC and ULCC classes grew into the trade during exactly these years. Fifteen ships were caught inside the canal when it closed, fourteen of them anchored in the Great Bitter Lake for the duration.
The full article will cover the closure and its diplomacy, the trapped ships and the Great Bitter Lake Association, the clearance work carried out under Operations Nimbus Star, Nimbus Moon and Nimrod Spar with salvage completed on 19 December 1974, the reopening, and the lasting effect on tanker sizes and trade routes.