The Ever Given, the massive container ship stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal, was still wedged in place as of midday Thursday local time.
The location of the grounding couldn’t have been worse: The Suez Canal is a vital but narrow link in many global supply chains, and delays there reverberate around the world.
The Ever Given with its bow stuck in a wall of the Suez Canal.
Suez Canal Authority via AP
Egyptian authorities drafted in a Dutch engineering company to help them dislodge the vessel and — despite one false alarm — have not had success yet. Here is how it unfolded:
Tuesday morning: The Ever Given gets stuck
These maps show that the Ever Given took a meandering route before heading into the canal.
A mariner onboard another ship, the Maersk vessel MV Denver, later wrote that the Ever Given cut in line ahead of the Denver, as shown in this Instagram comment, which was posted to Twitter by somebody else:
—🐬👽Ⓐ Radicals are Dead Ⓐ👽🐬 (@oveertlyhonest) March 23, 2021
At nearly 200 feet wide and 1,300 feet long, it easily took up the width of the channel.
The mariner on board MV Denver posted this image of the view:
A post shared by Julianne Cona (@fallenhearts17)
Officials attributed the accident to high winds and sandstorms. Sandstorms are not unusual at this time of year in Egypt.
Early reports suggested the ship’s power failed, leading it to drift from its course. The was contradicted by the ship’s technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which said in a statement to Insider that “initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding.”
A satellite managed to capture a view of the Ever Given from space on Tuesday:
A Planet Labs satellite image on Tuesday.
Planet Labs via Reuters
Egyptian authorities attempted to tow the ship
Eight tugs were in action trying to tow the vessel on Wednesday. A satellite image shows the position of the Ever Given, represented by a green dot, surrounded by some tugs, marked in blue. Their relative size is not to scale.
A satellite view as of 3.40 p.m. local time Wednesday showing the Ever Given and surrounding traffic.
MarineTraffic.com
Here is a view of one tugboat, the Baraka 1, in front of the Ever Given, provided by the Suez Canal Authority on Wednesday:
The Ever Given, shown here behind a smaller vessel, was still stranded on Wednesday.
Suez Canal Authority via AP
Here is video of the attempts to move the ship:
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chair of the SCA, talked to staff on a boat nearby:
Lt. Gen. Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, second from right, speaks to other staff onboard a boat near the stuck cargo ship Wednesday.
Suez Canal Authority via AP
A ‘bulbous bow’ to blame?
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, suggested that the design of the ship’s bow — a large, bulbous prong embedded in the bank of the canal — could help explain how it got so badly stuck.
In a statement to Insider on Wednesday, Danish shipping company Maersk said seven of its vessels had been held up by the blockage.
“Four of them are stuck in the canal system while the rest are waiting to enter the passage,” the statement read.
Satellite imagery below shows the crowds of vessels gathering Wednesday as they try to pass through from both sides.
A satellite view as of 3.40 p.m. local time Wednesday.
MarineTraffic.com
The Suez Canal received an upgrade in 2015, when a newer channel was built alongside the one originally opened in 1869.
On its opening, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called it “Egypt’s gift to the world.”
According to professor Rocky Weitz, director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, the old channel provided partial relief to the blockage.
“Ships have been diverted to the older channel to provide some relief to the current blockage,” he told Insider. “But the older channel is smaller, so larger vessels will need to wait until the main channel is reopened.”
These side-by-side satellite images show the canal in 2014 (on the left) and 2016 (on the right), after the newer channel opened:
Left, the Suez Canal in 2014, before its expansion. Right, the canal in 2016, with the new channel.
Landsat
An announcement that the ship had been refloated was quickly quashed
An assistant manager at GAC Egypt, Ahmed Mekawy, said that the company had received inaccurate information, The Independent reported.
Thursday: a Dutch company is drafted in to help
Dutch engineering company Boskalis — experts in dredging — joined the efforts to free the ship Thursday.
CEO Peter Berdowski summed up the problem: “It is like an enormous beached whale. It’s an enormous weight on the sand,” he said, according to Reuters.
The combined efforts of winches, excavation equipment and tugboats had so far failed, even at high tide. Berdowski said that the ship may need to be lightened, as both its bow and stern had been lifted up on either side of the canal.
The stranded Ever Given viewed from land on March 25, 2021
Ahmed Fahmy/Reuters
“We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil, and water from the ship; tugboats; and dredging of sand,” Reuters reported him saying.
The scale of the work ahead was illustrated by this picture released by the Suez Canal Authority Thursday:
The Ever Given, trapped in the Suez Canal, Egypt, as of Thursday March 25 2021.
Suez Canal Authority
The Ever Given must be moved to avoid major knock-on effects
Cargo shipping has been under enormous strain in the pandemic, with major difficulties in refreshing crews or servicing vessels, as Insider reported. The Ever Given’s position could throw another wrench in the works.
Weitz, the maritime expert, said that the costs and delays stacked up so far are relatively small, but delays of much longer could be damaging.
“If the blockage continues for a week or longer, then we will start seeing major ripple effects across supply chains — particularly for European refineries that depend on a predictable volume of crude oil transiting the Suez Canal by tanker,” he told Insider.
Before GAC Egypt erroneously posted about the ship being refloated, it hadn’t given an estimate on how quickly the ship could be moved.
“There is currently no indication of when the Canal will be clear and transits will be able to resume,” it said in a Wednesday statement.
An Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, predicted that the operation would take until at least Friday.
But Berdowski said it could potentially take even longer. “We can’t exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation,” Reuters reported him as saying.
Officials reviewing the situation at the Ever Given in this image released Thursday, March 25 2021.
Suez Canal Authority
