On November 17th, 1869, the Suez Canal was officially inaugurated. Even though created much earlier and having a long history, 17th November 1869 was when the canal was opened, operated by the Suez Canal Company, the concessionary company that built the canal. In March 2021, the canal came back into the news again: when a ship blocked the canal. In March 2021, the Suez Canal was hindered for six days after the establishing of Ever Given, a 20,000 TEU compartment transport. The 400-meter-long (1,300 ft) vessel was slammed by solid breezes on the morning of 23 March, and wound up wedged across the stream with its bow and harsh trapped in the channel banks, hindering all traffic until it very well may be liberated. Egyptian specialists said that “technical or human errors" may have likewise been involved. The block happened south of the part of the trench that had two channels, so it was basically impossible for different boats to sidestep Ever Given. The Suez Canal Authority drew in Boskalis through its auxiliary Smit International to oversee marine rescue tasks. As one of the world’s most active shipping lanes, the channel impediment contrarily affected exchange between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
But other than Evergiven, have other ships gotten stuck in the Suez Canal?The answer is yes. Evergiven was stuck for six days, but the Suez Canal’s worst blockage was eight years long.
In June 1967, the fifteen ships were sailing northwards through the Suez Canal as war broke out between Israel and Egypt in what was to become known as the Six-Day War. Both ends of the canal were closed, and after three days it became apparent that the canal would remain blocked for some time as a result of the scuttling of ships to block passage. Fourteen ships were forced to anchor in the widest part of the Suez Canal, the Great Bitter Lake, reported a Friday, November 21, 1969, archived piece from TIME. Nicknamed the ‘Yellow Fleet’ in reference to the desert sand that eventually coated the ships as they sat at an impasse, the boats hailed from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Poland, Sweden, West Germany, the UK, and the US. Their plight came down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time: Israel won control of the east bank of the canal during its offensive, while Egypt retained the west. After the war ended, Egypt shut down the canal to prevent Israel from using it, blocking it with debris, old vessels, and landmines.
In 1975, the Suez Canal finally reopened. The canal had remained closed so long that most of the Yellow Fleet ships had decayed and needed to be towed. But two of them—the German ships Münsterland and Nordwind—made it out on their own steam, reported a March 2021 Quartz report.
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