The Ever Given container ship stuck and blocking the Suez Canal as seen from another ship. Image courtesy: Julianne Cona (@fallenhearts17) on Instagram
A large container ship ran aground in Egypt’s Suez Canal on March 23, blocking the crucial international trade artery and causing a major traffic jam of shipping vessels at both ends. Both, the north- and south-bound lanes were blocked due to the incident.
Several attempts to refloat the 2.20 lakh tonne and 400 metre-long ship, named ‘Ever Given’, reportedly failed. The container vessel was on its way to Rotterdam, the Netherlands from China. It is owned by Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine and has been registered in Panama. Ever Given is a large Golden-class container ship.So, the #SuezCanal is blocked...
Massive container ship EVER GIVEN stuck in the most awkward way possible.
Ongoing for hours. Every tug Egypt could spare appear to be trying to pull it free.
Vessel tracker: https://t.co/MsTUgVgyTH pic.twitter.com/08w4qpPqln
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 23, 2021
Live data from VesselFinder, a tracking website, showed that efforts were on to refloat the giant ship were on with the help of several tug boats.
Screen Grab (Traffic Jam In Suez Canal)
The Suez Canal is one of the most vital shipping routes in the world as it connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. It helps ships travelling between Asia and Europe to avoid going around Africa and saving many days in the process.
A mega containership called EVER GIVEN got stuck in the southern end of the Suez Canal and has now blocked off a lot of fully-laden tankers from traversing in either direction. Tankers carrying Saudi, Russian, Omani and US oil are waiting on both ends. #OOTT @MarineTraffic pic.twitter.com/sGu2ztN9O5— TankerTrackers.com, Inc.⚓️