Operations underway to free the Ever Given ship in Suez Canal, Egypt

Operations are underway at the Suez Canal to free the giant container ship, Ever Given stuck in the world’s busiest waterway. A gust of wind blew the ship off course on Wednesday. 

The 200,000-tonne vessel is wedged diagonally blocking a majority of the canal and blocking the flow of the other ships. It is stuck at the southern end of the canal. It is 200 metres wide and 400 metres long in length. 

Experts have warned that it may take weeks to refloat the container ship. Over 100 vessels have been forced to wait at either end of the canal according to canal service provider Leth Agencies, reported AFP. 

Functional since November 1869, the Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt constructed by the Suez Canal Company. The waterway connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. 

Also Read: Giant ship blocks Suez Canal after ‘gust of wind’ knocks it off course

An 80% surge has been observed in vessels waiting since Ever Given blocked the canal, as reported by BBC. 

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the company which manages the running of the ship said that nine tug boats have been deployed directly along with the ship or with cables, reported BBC.

Sal Mercogliano, a maritime history expert at Campbell University in the US said that since Ever Given is firmly grounded on both sides of the banks it has been proven very difficult to shift the boat. One attempt to refloat it failed on Thursday as per BSM. 

“Large machines stick down into the water and basically pull dirt up from the bottom, which you can then deposit onshore,” said Mercogliano.

Boskalis, a Netherlands based company is attempting to dredge the canal by clearing the mud and sand from around the body of the ship.  

Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Boskalis described the ship as “an enormous weight on the sand” which will require a combination of tugging, dredging and removing weight off the ship in order to free it. 

The next stage in the operation to free the canal would be to cargo and fuel from the ship. The Ever Given has the capacity to carry up to 20,000 twenty-foot containers.

“You would have to bring large floating cranes – but anything you do right now you would have to calculate the stability of the vessel, you have to determine how it would affect the stability. Worst case scenario is that she breaks in half because of [uneven] weight distributions,” said Mercogliano.