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Status: 03/27/2021 12:43 pm
The recovery of the wrecked freighter “Ever Given” in the Suez Canal is ongoing. The first progress is reported. The ship will free itself with the help of the tides. Meanwhile, shipping companies send their ships around the Cape of Good Hope.
The discovery of the container ship “Ever Given”, which is trapped in the Suez Canal, is progressing slowly. There is “slight movement,” reported shipping and logistics company GAC. Therefore, ten tugs and three excavators are used to lift the blockade of the Suez Canal. The freighter is still aground.
The specialists want to use the tides to try to save the stuck container ship. Yukito Higaki, head of the Japanese shipping company Shoei Kisen, said sand is being dug up on the shore and the bottom of the canal near the bow of the ship. The ship is expected to be released when the water sinks again after high tide. If that doesn’t work, you have to unload containers to facilitate the “Ever Given”.
There is no evidence that the ship’s engines have been damaged, Higaki said, according to Japanese media reports. There are also no problems with the rudder or propellers. “As soon as it moves again, it should be operational,” said the head of the shipping company, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Sediment removal work under the bow continued, he emphasized.
280 ships await your passage
The nearly 400-meter-long and 59-meter-wide container ship ran aground on Tuesday about six kilometers from the southern entrance to the canal. Around 280 ships are now waiting to pass on both sides of the canal. After an analysis of the ship’s data by data service provider Refinitiv, more than 100 more were on their way there. Others have already accepted the detour through the African continent.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the company responsible for the technology on the “Ever Given”, stated that after previous unsuccessful attempts, they wanted to pump ballast water out of the ship to make it easier. Two additional tugs will be used Sunday to free the freighter from the bank. The canal authority wanted to make at least two attempts, each after the flood.
The United States government recently offered to help save the “Ever Given.” “We have equipment and capabilities that most countries do not have. We will see how we can help here,” said US President Joe Biden. The government said the Navy was ready to send a team of experts to the channel, but was awaiting approval from local authorities. Turkey also offered to help.
Alternative route through the southern tip of Africa
The container ship of the Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen had veered off course in a sandstorm and ran aground near the banks of the Suez Canal. Since then it has blocked the waterway between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and all ships on it are unable to continue. Efforts on site to free the ship have been in full swing since Wednesday.
The Suez Canal shortens the route of merchant ships between Asia and Europe by several thousand kilometers. With the end of the disaster not yet in sight, shipping companies have begun allowing their freighters to cruise the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa, as satellite images show. Among them is the “Ever Greet”, the sister ship of the wrecked freighter.
