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Early Wednesday morning, the 400-meter long Panamanian-flagged container ship ended up diverted in the southern part of the canal, on its way from China to Rotterdam.
Now a great effort is being made to free the ship, which is wedged diagonally through the more than 200 meter wide channel, so that no other ship can pass.
Up to nine tugs has been deployed to try to right the ship. They have pulled cables and stretched out alongside the hull to keep it away from the sandbars that surround the canal. According to the company that runs the ship’s operation, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, an attempt was made to get rid of Ever Given on Thursday morning, but failed. The company claims they will make a new attempt soon, writes BBC.
At the same time, the excavators work to remove sand and mud around the bottom of the hull. The managing director of the Dutch dredging company Boskalis, which is in charge of the operation, says that a combination of dredging, pulling and lightening of the load is required to release the ship.
Tugboats placed next to the hull.
Photo: Suez Canal Authority via AP
Boskali CEO Peter Berdowski believes it may take weeks to get rid of the ship, which he compares to a beached giant whale.
– There is great pressure on the sand, says according to The Guardian.
The next step is to try to lighten the ship by draining the fuel and unloading the cargo with large floating cranes. But it is difficult because the containers are loaded so high on top of each other at the same time that there is a danger that the operation could throw the ship out of balance.
– The worst case scenario is that it is divided into two parts due to the distribution of weight, says the expert in maritime history Sal Mercogliano from the University of Campbell in the United States.
Read more:
One of the world’s largest ships is blocking the Suez Canal: multimillion-dollar losses threaten the industry
Boats stranded in the Suez Canal
