A massive container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal in Egypt on Tuesday, causing a major traffic jam of vessels at either end of the narrow international trade route.
The vessel is a nearly 200-foot-wide, 1,300-foot-long cargo ship known as the Ever Given, according to VesselFinder.com,
Workers at the scene reportedly attempted to refloat the 220,000 metric ton ship several times, but early attempts were met with failure.
According to Vessel Finder, the ship was still lodged in the canal as of 9:30 p.m. ET or 3:30 a.m. in Cairo.
Update: still stuck.
How big is this #SuezCanal plug? Ultra big.
MV #EVERGIVEN
Size: 400m long / 59m wide
Gross tonnage: 219,079
Capacity: 20,388 TEUs (20ft container equivalents).One of the largest container ships in operation. pic.twitter.com/rJunpJrAKE
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 23, 2021
The Ever Given is reportedly carrying hundreds of containers headed for Rotterdam, Netherlands, from the Yantian district of China. The ship is owned by the Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen and is registered in Panama, the Guardian reported.
At around 1:30 a.m. local time, John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, tweeted, “screws are turning & helm moving but… [the ship] appears to be in the same spot.”
Vessel Finder reported Ever Given had traveled through Taipei and Malaysia and was planning to arrive in the Netherlands on March 31. With the ship still blocking the waterway, the arrival time will likely be delayed for the vessel along with dozens of other ships blocked on Tuesday.
Images retrieved earlier from the webpage appeared to show small excavator vessels attempting to dislodge the ship from what it was stuck against.
“Is there a traffic jam?” Answer ?https://t.co/vD2GYX2bAG
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 23, 2021
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The vessel’s operator, Evergreen Marine, names its ships with is a naming system using “Ever” as the first part of the name for some vessels, according to Scott-Railton.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Evergreen for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
