cruise ship stuck in canal

Suez Canal traffic finally moving again after stranded Ever Given ship refloated

Helped by a high tide, a flotilla of tug boats has managed to wrench the ship's bow from the canal's sandy bank.

Tuesday 30 March 2021 00:49, UK

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Maritime traffic is on the move again in Egypt's Suez Canal after a stranded container ship, that had blocked one of the world's most important waterways for nearly a week, was freed.

The gigantic Ever Given ship, which had been jammed diagonally across a southern section, was successfully refloated by salvage experts on Monday.

Helped by a high tide, a flotilla of tug boats managed to wrench the ship's bow from the canal 's sandy bank.

It had been firmly lodged there since strong winds early last Tuesday , halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

The 400m (1,312ft) long Ever Given, which is carrying 20,000 containers, was pulled by the salvage team to the Great Bitter Lake - a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will have a full technical inspection.

"She's free," said an official involved in the operation.

A statement from the Suez Canal Authority said: "Admiral Osama Rabei [SCA chairman] announces the resumption of maritime traffic in the Suez Canal after the authority successfully rescues and floats the giant Panamanian container ship Ever Given."

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Mr Rabei told reporters that 113 ships were expected to transit the canal in both directions by early Tuesday.

More than 400 vessels were waiting in line, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels.

Mr Rabei said it could take up to three days to clear the backlog in one of the globe's most vital maritime trade arteries.

:: Before the Ever Given became stuck, ships moved freely through the canal. The graphic below shows movement along a number of routes into and out of Port Said in the north, in the Mediterranean Sea. On the 23 March, to the south in the Gulf of Suez, the yellow dot of the Ever Given appears as it moves into the canal and then gets stuck. Most ships remained at either end - but several remained halfway, in the Great Bitter Lake. The graphic also shows the Ever Given heading north after it was refloated.

Live footage on a local television station had showed the mammoth 224,000-tonne ship surrounded by tugs moving slowly in the centre of the canal, reportedly at a speed of 1.5 knots.

Evergreen Line, which leases the ship, said the outcome of the inspection will determine whether it can resume its scheduled service.

It added that following the inspection, decisions will be made about the arrangements for the cargo on board.

The company that manages the vessel, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said: "There have been no reports of pollution or cargo damage and initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding."

Efforts to get the ship moving again appeared to have been frustrated when high winds swung it back across the channel after its partial refloating earlier on Monday.

There had been intensive efforts to push and pull it with 11 tug boats and two powerful sea tugs used, and about 30,000 cubic metres of sand was dredged - to a depth of 18m (59ft).

Mr Rabei confirmed the skyscraper-sized ship had responded successfully to "pull-and-push manoeuvres".

The price of oil fell 1% on Monday after the vessel was refloated.

It had been feared the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship might have been stuck for weeks.

On Saturday, Mr Rabei said strong winds were "not the only cause" for the Ever Given running aground. He said an investigation was ongoing but did not rule out human or technical error.

After the ship became stuck six days ago, the resulting disruption to the vital waterway held up £6.5bn in global trade each day.

Hundreds of other vessels had remained trapped in the canal waiting to pass, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle.

More than two dozen vessels opted for the alternative route between Asia and Europe around the Cape of Good Hope, adding around a fortnight to journeys and threatening delivery delays.

Usually, about 15% of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, which is an important source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt.

Eyewitness: Alistair Bunkall in Ismailia, Egypt

For seven days the world has watched, captivated, as rescuers tried to free the giant Ever Given ship.

In the early hours of Monday morning, to whoops and shouts of Allahu Akbar onboard the tugs, they had some success.

By first light the ship had visibly shifted although its bow remained stubbornly embedded in the bank.

At the Suez Marine Training Centre in the canal city of Ismailia we waited for an update. Confidence was high but there was more work to be done and no guarantee it would come free.

Strong currents and high winds continued to frustrate rescuers - at one point the ship swung back to it's original position, astride the canal.

But a mid-afternoon spring tide raised the ship in the water and it was enough.

We drove south along the Suez Canal to watch it float free and move under its own power.

By six o'clock, as the sun was going down, the ship that had brought global commerce to a virtual halt, sailed into the wide Great Bitter Lake, and with that, the Suez Canal was open once again.

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The Ever Given is out of the way. Ships are again going through the Suez Canal. Now attention turns to why it got stuck.

March 30, 2021 / 6:42 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Experts on Tuesday boarded the massive container ship that blocked Egypt's vital Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for nearly a week, seeking answers to a single question that could have billions of dollars in legal implications: What went wrong?

As convoys of ships again began traveling in this artery linking East and West through the Mediterranean and Red Seas, hundreds more idled waiting for their turn. Egyptian government officials, insurers, shippers and others similarly waited for more details about what caused the skyscraper-sized Ever Given to become wedged across the canal's southern single-lane on March 23.

The grounding of the ship had halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. Those losses, as well as physical damage from the incident, likely will see lawsuits.

The Reuters news service quotes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as telling Suez Canal Authority workers Tuesday that authorities "didn't hope for something like" the grounding, but "fate was doing its work. It showed and reaffirmed the reality and importance" of the canal.

Authority chairman Osama Rabie said the agency expects 140 ships to go through the canal Tuesday, and more than 100 had passed through since the Ever Given was freed, according to Reuters. He added that he hoped the backup of vessels on the canal could be cleared in three to four days.

When blame gets assigned, it could turn into years of litigation over the costs of repairing the ship, fixing the canal and reimbursing those who saw their cargo shipments disrupted. And since the vessel is owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, flagged in Panama and now stuck in Egypt, matters have quickly become an international morass.

"This ship is a multinational conglomeration," said Capt. John Konrad, the founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain.com.

Experts boarded the Ever Given as it idled Tuesday in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal. A senior canal pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to journalists, told The Associated Press that experts were looking for signs of damage and trying to determine the cause of the vessel's grounding.

Damage to the vessel could be structural, Konrad warned. Stuck for days across the canal, the ship's middle rose and fell with the tide, bending up and down under the tremendous weight of some 20,000 containers across its quarter-mile length. On Monday, when workers partially floated the ship, all that pressure came forward to its bow, which acted as a pivot point until the ship ultimately came free.

"Structural integrity is No. 1. You know, there was a lot of strain on that ship as it was sagging in the waterway," Konrad said.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 300 vessels carrying everything from crude oil to cattle were waiting on both ends of the Suez Canal and in the Great Bitter Lake for permission to continue sailing to their destinations, canal service provider Leth Agencies said.

The ship's owner, the Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., said Tuesday that it would be part of the investigation along with other parties, though it did not identify them by name. It also refused to discuss possible causes of the incident, including the ship's speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm, saying it can't comment on an ongoing investigation. Initial reports also suggested a "blackout" struck the vessel, something denied by the ship's technical manager.

The company added that any damage to the ship was believed to be mostly on its keel. It said it wasn't immediately known whether the vessel will be repaired on site in Egypt or elsewhere, or whether it will eventually head to its initial destination of Rotterdam. That's a decision to be made by its operator, rather than the shipowner, the company said.

Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. is covered with some $3 billion in liability insurance through 13 Protection & Indemnity Clubs. Those clubs are not-for-profit mutual insurers used by the vast majority of global shipping firms.

Global legal firm Clyde and Co. said the Ever Given's owner likely would pay Egypt's canal authority for the assistance already rendered to the vessel. The authority also could fine the Ever Given.

On Monday, a flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, wrenched the bulbous bow of Ever Given from the canal's sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23. The tugs blared their horns in jubilation as they guided the Ever Given through the water after days of futility that had captivated the world, drawing scrutiny and social media ridicule.

The Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 3.7 miles north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. That forced some ships to take the long, alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip - a 3,100-mile detour of roughly two weeks that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.

The unprecedented shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, has prompted new questions about the shipping industry, an on-demand supplier for a world under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic .

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Ever Given: Ship that blocked Suez Canal sets sail after deal signed

• Published 7 July 2021

A huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March - disrupting global trade - is finally leaving the waterway after Egypt signed a compensation deal with its owners and insurers.

The Ever Given weighed anchor shortly after 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) and headed north towards the Mediterranean escorted by tugs.

The ship has been impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Egypt had demanded $550m (£397m).

As it got under way, Egyptian TV showed footage of the captain and a crew member being presented with flowers and a plaque on board the ship.

• 'I was blamed for blocking the Suez Canal'
• How was the Suez Canal ship freed?

The 193km (120-mile) Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea at the canal's northern end to the Red Sea in the south and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe.

But the vital waterway was blocked when the 400m-long (1,312ft) Ever Given became wedged across it after running aground amid high winds. Global trade was disrupted as hundreds of ships were stuck in the traffic jam.

The container ship was refloated following a six-day salvage operation that involved a flotilla of tug boats and dredging vessels. One person was killed during the operation.

Since then, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has been seeking compensation from the Ever Given's Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for the cost of the salvage operation, damage to the canal's banks and other losses.

The SCA initially asked for $916m compensation, including $300m for a salvage bonus and $300m for loss of reputation. But UK Club - which insured Shoei Kisen for third-party liabilities - rejected the claim, describing it as "extraordinarily large" and "largely unsupported".

The SCA later lowered its demand to $550m. The final settlement, which has not been revealed, was agreed a few days ago and signed on Wednesday to coincide with the ship's release.

Relief as saga ends

By Sally Nabil, BBC News, Suez Canal

Journalists were taken on a tugboat to film the Ever Given finally resuming its voyage along the Suez Canal. As we watched the giant vessel sail past, everybody felt relieved. After more than three months, the story was coming to an end.

I remembered the scene back in March, when the ship was wedged across the waterway, bringing navigation to a stand-still for six days and disrupting global trade. Those days were quite tense and full of uncertainty. On Wednesday, the atmosphere was one of cheerfulness.

However, so far no-one knows what caused this whole saga. Investigations were carried out, but the findings have not been announced. At a news conference, Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said the ship was the sole responsibility of its master.

The details of the financial settlement between the SCA and the ship's owners and insurers have also not been revealed. Mr Rabie refused to even give a rough estimate of how much of a compensation the SCA received.

SCA head Osama Rabie told a news conference that the authority would not change its rules about the passage of ships in bad weather. However, he said the grounding had accelerated plans for the canal's expansion.

The UK Club paid tribute to "the work and expertise of the SCA and others whose professionalism and dedication resulted in the ship being refloated".

"Over the last three months we, along with the ship's owners and other interests, have worked closely with the SCA's negotiations team to achieve today's results," a statement said.

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(29 March 2021) The stranded container ship is seen finally on the move and no longer blocking the canal

Yukito Higaki of Imabari shipbuilding, of which Shoei Kisen is a subsidiary, said the company would continue to be "a regular and loyal customer" of the Suez Canal Authority.

The vessel, with an Indian crew, is still loaded with about 18,300 containers. It is due to undergo an inspection by divers at Port Said before sailing to Rotterdam in the Netherlands and then to the UK port of Felixstowe where it will offload its containers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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• Global trade
• Shipping industry

More on this story

Stuck Suez ship finally on the move again. Video, 00:01:25 Stuck Suez ship finally on the move again

• Published 29 March 2021

The cost of the Suez Canal blockage

Efforts to shift ship in pictures

How is the ship being freed?

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‘Complex’ work to free massive ship stuck in Suez Canal enters 3rd day

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This article is more than 3 years old and some information may not be up to date.

Tugboats and a specialized suction dredger worked Friday to dislodge a giant container ship that has been stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for the past three days, blocking a crucial waterway for global shipping.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula. It got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometres (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

The ship, owned by the Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, has blocked traffic in the canal, causing headaches for global trade.

Around 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for the transport of oil. The closure also could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.

At least 237 ships were waiting for the Ever Given to be cleared, including vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and those already stuck on a lake mid-canal, said Leth Agencies, which provides services for the canal.

Using data from Automatic Identification System trackers on ships at sea, data firm Refinitiv shared an analysis with the AP showing that over 300 ships remained en route to the waterway over the next two weeks.

Some ships now may be changing course to avoid using the Suez Canal. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data Friday from MarineTraffic.com.

Internationally, many are getting ready for the effect that the shipping pause will have on supply chains that rely on precise deliveries of goods. Singapore’s Minister of Transport Ong Ye Kung said the country’s port should expect disruptions.

“Should that happen, some draw down on inventories will become necessary,” he said in a Facebook post.

The backlog of vessels could stress European ports and the international supply of containers, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, according to IHS Markit, a business research group. It said 49 container ships were scheduled to pass through the canal in the seven days following Tuesday, when the Ever Given became lodged.

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The delay could also result in hefty insurance claims by companies, according to Marcus Baker, Global Head of Marine & Cargo at the insurance broker Marsh, with a ship like the Ever Given usually covered at between $100 – $200 million.

But as of Friday morning, the vessel remained grounded, Leth Agencies added, as Egyptian authorities prohibited media access to the site. It remains unclear when the route would reopen.

“We certainly hope that the canal will be open, and the accident can be handled properly as soon as possible,” said a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, Hua Chunying.

An Egyptian official at the Suez Canal Authority said those trying to dislodge the vessel wanted to avoid complications that could extend the canal closure. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to journalists. In a Friday statement, the authority said it welcomed offers of international support to help free the vessel, including one from The United States. It did not specify what kind of assistance was offered.

Satellite and photos distributed by the canal’s authority show Ever Given’s bow touching the eastern wall, while its stern appeared lodged against the western wall.

A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specialized in salvaging, started working with the canal authority Thursday. The rescue efforts have focused on dredging to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow.

The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the waterway, deployed tugboats and a specialized suction dredger that is able to shift 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour.

The authority said late Thursday that it would need to remove between 15,000 to 20,000 cubic meters (530,000 to 706,000 cubic feet) of sand to reach a depth of 12 to 16 metres (39 to 52 feet). That depth is likely to allow the ship to float freely again, it said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to become wedged on Tuesday. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, said the ship had experienced a blackout without elaborating.

Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said in a statement that the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal from the Red Sea, but that none of its containers had sunk.

The Suez Canal Authority also blamed bad weather for the incident.

The Ever Given was involved in an accident in northern Germany in early 2019, when the freighter ran into a small ferry that was moored on the Elbe river in the port city of Hamburg. No passengers were aboard the ferry at the time and there were no injuries, but the collision caused serious damage to the boat.

Hamburg prosecutors opened an investigation of the freighter’s captain and pilot on suspicion of endangering shipping traffic, but shelved it in March 2020 for lack of evidence, spokeswoman Liddy Oechtering told The Associated Press on Friday.

Pilots from Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority board transiting ships to guide them through the narrow canal, but the ship’s captain retains ultimate authority over the vessel, according to shipping experts.

Oechtering also could not say what the investigation had determined the cause of the 2019 crash was, but officials at the time suggested that strong winds may have blown the slow-moving freighter into the ferry.

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• International

Ship in Suez Canal has been freed

By Meg Wagner , Melissa Macaya and Melissa Mahtani , CNN

There's still a cargo ship traffic jam in the Suez Canal, satellite image shows

While the ship blocking the Suez Canal has just been fully dislodged , the shipping crisis the days-long blockage caused isn't over yet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a satellite image showing cargo ships backed up, waiting to enter the Suez Canal this evening, hours after authorities said the stuck ship had been freed.

You can see the ships in the image below. They're the tiny white dots lined up around the canal:

Ships stranded in Suez Canal will resume journeys after Ever Given anchors in Great Bitter Lake

From Magdy Samaan, Pamela Boykoff and Mostafa Salem

Ships stranded in the Suez Canal will restart their journeys after the Ever Given anchors in the Great Bitter Lake, a Suez Canal Official told CNN on Monday.

"As soon as the ship reaches the waiting place in the Bitter Lakes…the 43 ships waiting in the Bitter Lakes will begin to move south towards the Gulf of Suez,” the source said.

The ships will be traveling in convoys northbound and southbound of the Suez Canal, as the Ever Given stands by for inspections. 

The average number of ships that transited through the canal on a daily basis before the accident was between 80 to 90 ships, according to Lloyds List; however, the head of the Suez Canal Authority said that the channel will work 24 hours to facilitate the passage of almost 400 ships carrying billions of dollars in freight.

The journey to cross the canal takes 10 to 12 hours, and in the event the channel operates for 24 hours, two convoys per day will be able to successfully pass.

Still, shipping giant, Maersk issued an advisory telling customers it could take “6 days or more” for the queue created by the Suez Canal blockage to clear. The company said that was an estimate and subject to change as more vessels reach the blockage or are diverted.

Here's a bird's-eye view of the ship in the Suez Canal

From CNN's Paul P. Murphy

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows the Ever Given, the container ship that has been stuck in the Suez Canal, moving away from the eastern bank of the canal.

"As you will see in the imagery, the container ship has been moved away from the eastern bank of the canal and numerous tugboats are actively involved in trying to reposition the ship," Maxar's Stephen Wood said in a statement to CNN.

Earlier today, a Suez Canal Authority spokesperson told CNN the ship blocking the Suez Canal had been fully dislodged.

Here's a look:

Suez ship will be repositioned to the Great Bitter Lake for inspection

CNN’s Beijing bureau

The chartered Ever Given vessel will be repositioned to the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal for an inspection of its seaworthiness, the charter company, Evergreen, said.

The container ship is currently moving to allow the normal resumption of traffic in the Suez Canal, the statement said. 

“The outcome of that inspection will determine whether the ship can resume its scheduled service. Once the inspection is finalized, decisions will be made regarding arrangements for cargo currently on board,” Evergreen added.

The ship was refloated at 9 a.m. ET – 3 p.m. Egypt Standard Time – according to Evergreen.

“Evergreen will coordinate with the shipowner to deal with subsequent matters after the shipowner and other concerned parties complete investigation reports into the incident,” the statement added.

"We pulled it off!" Company that helped free Suez ship says

From CNN’s Rob North, Mick Krever and Mostafa Salem 

The salvage company which helped in the efforts to free a ship blocking the Suez Canal said in a statement, “We pulled it off!” 

“Boskalis announces the successful salvage operation of the grounded 20,000 TEU container vessel Ever Given in the Suez Canal. With a length of 400 meters and a width of nearly 60 meters this giant ship had been wedged in this vital shipping route since 23 March, 2021 blocking all shipping traffic ever since."

Videos show the ship floating in the Suez Canal after the bow was freed following intense tugging efforts Monday morning.

The ship is currently being tugged toward the Great Bitter Lake where it will park for inspections and an investigation, the head of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie said, according to state-run Al Ahram newspaper. 

Marine traffic showed the ship moving at a speed of 1.5 knots north toward the Great Bitter Lake. 

The ship has been fully dislodged and is currently floating, Suez Canal Authority says

From CNN's Magdy Samaan, Mick Krever, Ben Wedeman and Mostafa Salem

The ship blocking the Suez Canal has been fully dislodged on Monday afternoon, a Suez Canal Authority spokesperson told CNN. 

Tugs were working to free the bow of the ship after dislodging the stern Monday morning. 

Marine traffic websites showed images of the ship away from the banks of the Suez Canal for the first time in seven days.

Egypt state TV showed the ship fully floating. 

Authorities have temporarily suspended efforts to free front of container ship as high tide fades

From CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Mick Krever and Lina El Wardani

Authorities have temporarily suspended efforts to free the front of the Ever Given container ship as the window for high tide faded on Monday afternoon, Egyptian local media said. 

A live shot on state media showed tug boats pulling the ship in an attempt to free the front or bow, which is still stuck “rock solid” as per the description of the CEO of a salvage company working to free the ship, Peter Berdowski.

The efforts to pull the ship out will resume later in the day, a reporter said on a local media newscast.

Despite the delay in fully dislodging the ship, Egypt’s President issued a statement Monday saying “Egyptians have successfully managed to end the crisis of the stranded ship.”

“[Egyptians] were able to get things back on track,” he said in a presidential statement on Facebook.

Dozens of ships that planned to travel through the Suez Canal are instead rerouting to the Cape of Good Hope around Africa, adding 8 days of sailing time and expending an additional 500 tons or so of fuel, Lloyds List Intelligence said.

However, more than 350 ships carrying billions of dollars’ worth of freight still await transit through the canal. 

It could take days for the backlogged ships to successfully transit, but the head of the Suez Canal Authority said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that “they will work 24 hours” a day to allow the vessels to transit.

The maximum passages per day on average through the Suez Canal for the past three months were 80 to 90 vessels, as per data from Lloyds List.

World's largest shipping company says it could take 6 days or more to clear Suez Canal backlog

From Charles Riley and Pamela Boykoff

Shipping Giant Maersk has issued an advisory telling customers it could take “6 days or more” for the queue created by the Suez canal blockage to pass. The company said that was an estimate and subject to change as more vessels reach the blockage or are diverted. 

Maersk currently has 3 vessels stuck in the canal, 30 waiting to enter and has redirected 15 to Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

“These decisions were made close to the point of no return and it is expected that they will continue via the south of Africa, also to reduce the number of vessels in the queue,” the advisory said. 

Maersk expects the long term impact of the blockage could take months to resolve. “Even when the canal gets reopened, the ripple effects on global capacity and equipment are significant and the blockage has already triggered a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel.” 

The ship stuck in the Suez Canal has been partially dislodged — but it's not fully free yet

From CNN's Asmaa Khalil, Mostafa Salem, Magdy Samaan and Jessie Yeung

The  Ever Given container ship  has been partially dislodged after blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week, authorities say, but efforts to fully refloat it are likely to continue for some time.

There were promising signs early Monday when the rear of the vessel was freed from one of the canal's banks, but the boss of the Dutch company working on the operation says its bow is still stuck "rock solid."

Egyptian officials struck a more optimistic note, saying that crews plan to refloat the vessel later Monday. But the shipping crisis that has dominated headlines and captured the world's attention for a week appears destined to continue.

About the ship: The Ever Given, a 224,000-ton vessel almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall, ran aground in the Egyptian canal on March 23. Crews from Egypt and around the world have been working nonstop to try to refloat the ship, with the operation involving 10 tug boats, sand dredges and salvage companies.

Previous efforts have failed — but this latest attempt is being executed during high tide where the water in the channel is at its highest.

The massive salvage effort has focused on dredging sand from below the front and rear of the ship, before pulling the ship with tugboats.

Rescue teams started digging deeper and closer to the ship on Sunday, with dredging reaching 18 meters (or about 59 feet) at the front of the ship, the SCA said in a statement. Over 27,000 cubic meters (953,000 cubic feet) of sand has been removed so far, said Rabie.

The rescue operation has intensified in both urgency and international attention as each day ticked by. Ships from around the world, carrying vital fuel and cargo, were blocked from entering the canal on both sides, raising alarm over the impact on global supply chains.

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Ship still stuck in Suez Canal as backlog grows to 150 other ships

Use of dredgers, digging and the aid of high tides have yet to free ship.

Efforts underway to free massive cargo ship stuck across Egypt's Suez Canal

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The ship the length of four football fields that's wedged across Egypt's Suez Canal is bottlenecking global trade routes for a third day as at least 150 other vessels needing to pass through the crucial waterway are sitting idle, waiting for the obstruction to clear.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe and is operated by Taiwanese firm Evergreen Marine Corp., ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula.

In the time since, efforts to free the ship using dredgers, digging and the aid of high tides have yet to push the container vessel aside — affecting billions of dollars' worth of cargo.

Famed London-based shipping journal Lloyd's List estimates each day the Suez Canal is closed disrupts over $9 billion US worth of goods that should be passing through the waterway.

The vessel remained stuck as of Thursday night local time despite "continuous" efforts to refloat it, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies. 

A team from the ship salvaging firm SMIT "spent the day doing inspections and doing calculations to assess the state of the vessel and a plan on how to refloat the vessel," spokesperson Martijn Schuttevaer said, but dredgers, tugboats and even a backhoe failed to free it on Thursday. 

In a sign of the global turmoil the blockage has caused, the ship's Japanese owner even offered a written apology Thursday for the incident.

"We are determined to keep on working hard to resolve this situation as soon as possible," Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. said. "We would like to apologize to all parties affected by this incident, including the ships travelling and planning to travel through Suez Canal."

Efforts resume to free ship

So far, dredgers have tried to clear silt around the massive ship. Tug boats nudged the vessel alongside it, trying to gain momentum. From the shore, at least one backhoe dug into the canal's sandy banks, suggesting the bow of the ship had plowed into it. However, satellite photos taken Thursday by Planet Labs Inc. and analyzed by The Associated Press showed the vessel still stuck in the same location.

Vessel tracking software suggests that on top of those already there waiting, more than 200 ships are scheduled to try to access and cross the canal by next week.

Lt.-Gen. Osama Rabei, the head of the canal authority, said navigation through the waterway would remain halted until they refloat the vessel. A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specialized in salvaging, arrived at the canal on Thursday, though one of the company's top officials warned removing the vessel could take "days to weeks."

'A very heavy whale'

"It is, in a manner of speaking, a very heavy whale on the beach," Boskalis chairman Peter Berdowski told the Dutch current affairs program Nieuwuur  on Wednesday night. "The ship, with the weight it now has, can't really be pulled free. You can forget it."

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the company that manages the Ever Given, said the ship's 25-member crew are safe and accounted for. Shoei Kisen Kaisha said all the crew came from India.

The ship had two pilots from Egypt's canal authority aboard the vessel to guide it when the grounding happened around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said.

Backlog of ships

Canal service provider Leth Agencies said at least 150 ships were waiting for the Ever Given to be cleared, including vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and those already stuck in the canal system on Egypt's Great Bitter Lake.

• Ship stranded in Suez Canal could have 'massive ramifications' for global supply chain: historian

Cargo ships already behind the Ever Given in the canal will be reversed south back to Port Suez to free the channel, Leth Agencies said. Authorities hope to do the same to the Ever Given when they can free it.

• Massive container ship stuck in Suez Canal, blocking world's busiest shipping route

Evergreen Marine Corp. said the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal, something Egyptian officials earlier said as well. High winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting as much as 50 kilometres per hour.

An initial report suggested the ship suffered a power blackout before the incident, something Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement denied Thursday.

"Initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding," the company said.

In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters Thursday that the Suez Canal is part of a crucial international sea lane, and that the Japanese government was gathering information and working with local authorities.

Trade impact

The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Mideast, which rely on the canal to avoid sailing around Africa. The price of international benchmark Brent crude stood at over $63 a barrel Thursday.

"Blocking something like the Suez Canal really sets in motion a number of dominos toppling each other over," said Lars Jensen, chief executive of Denmark-based SeaIntelligence Consulting. "The effect is not only going to be the simple, immediate one with cargo being delayed over the next few weeks, but will actually have repercussions several months down the line for the supply chain."

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The Kremlin said on Thursday that any new U.S. military aid for Ukraine would not change the situation at the front where Kyiv's forces were in a poor position and cast such aid as part of a "colonial" policy which enriched the United States.

An Indian woman who was a crew member on the MSC Aries container vessel seized by Iran on April 13 has returned to the country, India's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

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21 Sailors Are Stuck Aboard the Ship That Hit Baltimore's Bridge—With No End in Sight

Marooned on the Dali, a legal and logistical mystery unfolds at sea.

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• In the early morning hours of March 26, a 984-foot-long ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse and the deaths of six construction works.
• More that two weeks after the accident, the 21-person crew is still on board the ship, performing much-needed maintenance.
• Because of the complexity of disembarking foreign nationals on container ships, the crew will likely continue to work and stay on the ship for some time.

Days after the collision, media reported that the crew of the ship—consisting of 20 Indian nationals and one member from Sri Lanka—remained aboard the ship and were all safe. The Singapore company Synergy, which owns the vessel , only reported one minor injury to one crew member, who was treated at a local hospital and then returned to the ship. An additional update on April 2nd commented on the overall state of the crew.

“Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the crew during this time is a critical priority for us. We have been actively engaged in a range of actions to support them since the incident,” the press release said , detailing various mental health services being offered to the crew. “The crew has unlimited use of the ship’s satellite communications, so they can stay in constant contact with their families. Food is delivered daily to assist the galley staff and to ensure that the vessel remains adequately provisioned.”

Even if the Dali wasn’t being restocked daily, they’d likely have more than enough resources to survive an extended stay on the boat. The New York Times reported soon after the initial collision that the Dali was only a mere 30 minutes into a 27-day voyage before the ship lost power and collided with the bridge , killing six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time.

So, while safe and provisioned, it might seem strange that the crew must remain on the ship as 50 salvage divers and some 12 cranes begin removing containers from the vessel. But unscheduled shore leave is a bit more complicated than you might think. According to the BBC , moving the Dali is second priority to clearing the shipping channel in Baltimore’s port, as 11 additional ships remain trapped (four of which are important to U.S. national defense ).

Disembarking crews aboard these kinds of ships—even when not dealing with a major infrastructure collapse—is a bit of a headache, as they require valid visas and shore passes to get off the ship. Officials told the BBC back on April 1 that, until the investigation is complete, “the crew will remain on board.”

NPR, who spoke with the executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center, reports that unless the ship is considered “exceedingly unsafe,” the crew will continue performing upkeep until it is allowed to travel to its intended destination or is otherwise moved from its current location for repairs .

When that will be is anyone’s guess.

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough. 

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Heavy traffic congestion alert as cruise ships arrive in Cape Town

City of cape town officials warn commuters to expect delays.

The City of Cape Town has warned there will be heavy traffic congestion over the next three days due to incoming cruise ships, including one of the world’s largest ocean liners.

“While traffic congestion is a headache at the best of times, it is important to keep in mind that events such as these are a sign of economic prosperity that ultimately enhance quality of life for all our residents,” the city said.

“We are going to try to manage the traffic congestion, but if you are heading into town ... please choose your route wisely to avoid being stuck in traffic,” cautioned safety and security MMC JP Smith.

“A lot of passengers will be boarding. It is also bringing a lot of tourists. But what we need the most, it also brings a lot of jobs,” he added.

The Queen Victoria is due to dock on Thursday morning and depart on Friday evening. Its sister ship the Queen Mary 2 is due on Friday morning and departs on Saturday evening. The scheduled times are dependent on the weather.

Traffic officials plan to use CCTV cameras “to pinpoint the location and extent of vehicle queues throughout the day and activate appropriate signal timing plans to best manage the queues,” said the city’s head of urban mobility Rob Quintas.

Cruise liner collides with cargo carrier in Cape Town harbour

“Operators will be in constant contact with Cape Town traffic services and operations personnel at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Where appropriate, variable message signs of the Cape Town freeway management system will be used to alert motorists to areas of congestion on roadways.”

South African ports have seen a welcome increase in visiting ships due partly to security problems in the Red Sea that have forced some shipping companies to divert vessels around the Cape, rather than risk the shorter route through the Suez Canal.

The increase in marine traffic coincides with growth in the cruise sector, with 67 cruise ships counted in Cape Town so far this summer season — up from the average of 35-40 ships counted between 2016 and 2019.

“This is a sector of tourism that is deeply valuable for us, with research by Wesgro (travel and investment promotion agency) revealing that cruise tourism injected R1.2bn into the Western Cape economy between November 2022 and May 2023,” said the city’s head of economic growth James Vos.

“In addition, for every 30 arriving cruise passengers, the Western Cape cruise industry created one full-time job. This is worth bearing in mind when considering the thousands of passengers on board the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. The city will continue working closely with its partners to make Cape Town stand out on the global cruise travel map.”

Five things not to miss aboard the MSC Splendida

Blooming success for local business as ports welcome cruise liners, superyachts, local cruising gets an upgrade with msc splendida: here's what it's like on board.

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A group of cruise passengers stranded off the coast of Africa spent 6 days chasing the ship to get back on

• Eight passengers chased their cruise ship around Africa for six days.
• Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed the passengers re-embarked in Senegal on Tuesday.
• They were stranded in São Tomé and Príncipe and missed a chance to re-embark in Gambia.

A group of passengers left stranded on a small African island after missing a boarding deadline finally managed to rejoin their cruise ship on Tuesday after chasing it for almost a week.

On March 27 a private tour overran, causing eight passengers to miss the Norwegian Dawn's 3 p.m. all-aboard time by over an hour, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed via email to Business Insider.

The passengers found themselves stuck on São Tomé and Príncipe , an island nation of some 220,000 people off West Africa, in what the cruise line called a "very unfortunate situation."

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Despite the efforts of São Tomé and Príncipe Coast Guard to ferry the passengers to the ship in tender boats, the group was unable to reboard and had to turn back to land, according to the ABC affiliate WPDE.

The first attempt to get the guests back on the ship occurred on Monday, when they hoped to re-embark at a port in Banjul, Gambia, some 1,800 miles from São Tomé and Príncipe.

However, "adverse weather conditions, as well as tidal restrictions" meant that the ship could not dock safely, a spokesperson for the cruise line said.

As a result, the guests had to chase the ship to Dakar, Senegal — a distance of some 100 miles further — for another attempt to re-embark on Tuesday.

Norwegian said it helped the passengers by facilitating their visas, and would pay them back for the trip from Gambia to Senegal.

Jill Campbell, one of the passengers, told NBC News that she and her husband traveled through seven countries in 48 hours to catch up with the ship.

It wasn't clear exactly what route they took.

The couple had considered not rejoining the ship, believing that Norwegian Cruise Line had fallen short in a '"basic duty of care," Campbell told NBC News.

But, six days after being left behind in São Tomé and Príncipe, the cruise line confirmed the eight passengers, including the Campbells, finally re-embarked in Senegal on Tuesday.

Watch: Stowaways survive 14 days at sea clinging to a ship rudder

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Tangled in Steel With No Way Out: How the Crew Stuck in Baltimore Is Faring

Twenty-two seafarers from India find themselves not only trapped in the ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but also in an unexpected spotlight.

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By Eduardo Medina

Reporting from Baltimore

Even from miles away, the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is a jarring visual: Chunks of steel jut above the water like metallic icebergs. Twisted gray beams protrude in crooked positions. From a park near Fort McHenry, visitors can see the giant cargo ship that struck the bridge and remains lodged in the wreckage.

Less visible, however, are the 22 crew members from India who have remained on the ship, named the Dali, since the disaster on Tuesday.

Little is publicly known about them other than that they are seafarers who embarked on a journey aboard the 985-foot-long cargo ship that was on its way to Sri Lanka, carrying 4,700 shipping containers, when it lost power and struck the Key Bridge, causing the structure to collapse.

Since the accident, which killed six construction workers, the crew members have found themselves in an unexpected spotlight. While keeping the ship operable, they are answering a deluge of questions from officials investigating the nighttime catastrophe, as the evidence of what occurred lies around them in mangled ruins stretching across the bow and deck.

While officials investigate what could have caused the tragedy, another question has emerged this week: What could the crew members, who have limited access to the outside world, be going through right now?

“They must feel this weight of responsibility that they couldn’t stop it from happening,” said Joshua Messick, the executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center , a religious nonprofit that seeks to protect the rights of mariners.

Even so, officials have praised the crew’s swift mayday message that was transmitted over the radio as the ship lost power on Tuesday. Before the Dali struck the bridge, traveling at a rapid eight knots, the mayday call helped police officers stop traffic from heading onto the bridge, most likely saving many lives, the authorities said. A local harbor pilot with more than 10 years of experience was onboard, as well as an apprentice pilot in training.

As the ship remains stuck in the Port of Baltimore, where it may remain for weeks, the lives of the crew members have entered an uncertain phase. But one thing is certain: They will no longer cruise through the sea around South Africa toward their destination in Sri Lanka anytime soon.

But they are not going to imminently dock at the port either, as they must wait for enough debris to be cleared to free the ship and reopen the channel to one of the busiest ports in the United States. On Saturday, the governor of Maryland said officials planned to remove the first piece of the debris.

So, for now, crew members are most likely working a grueling schedule to maintain the ship that is similar to the one they would be if they were out at sea. The difference, though, is that they are in an immobile state as the eyes of the world fixate on them, experts said.

“The captain of the vessel and the crew have a duty to the ship,” said Stephen Frailey, a partner at Pacific Maritime Group, which helps with marine salvage and wreck removal.

According to Chris James, who works for a consulting firm assisting the ship’s management company, Synergy Marine, the crew members have ample supplies of food and water, as well as plenty of fuel to keep the generators going. Indeed, when Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, went onboard the ship this week, she observed the cook cooking. “It smelled very good,” she said.

But there is still no exact timeline for when the ship might be extracted from the wreckage, Mr. James said. Once the N.T.S.B. and the Coast Guard finish their investigations, he said, “we’ll look at potentially swapping the crew out and getting them home.”

India, the home country of the crew members, is one of the world’s largest hubs for seafarers, according to John A. Konrad, a ship captain and the chief executive of gCaptain, a maritime and offshore industry news website. Though Indian captains and engineers are paid less than their American counterparts, Mr. Konrad said, they make a decent living when they work for three or more months out of the year at sea.

Working on a cargo ship, he said, is a 24-hour ordeal with no weekends off: Every day, decks are checked for maintenance and safety, cooks and cleaners serve the other members, and workers in the engine room keep things on track.

Cargo ship crew members do have some leisurely activities available to them onboard, though, such as video game breaks in cabins, workouts in gyms, table tennis sessions and movie nights. The Dali crew has at least a TV, magazines and books onboard, said Andrew Middleton, who runs Apostleship of the Sea, a program that ministers to sailors coming through the port.

Clistan Joy Sequeira, an Indian seafarer who was not on the Dali but who docked in Baltimore from another cargo ship on Friday, said in an interview that he feared the repercussions that the bridge collapse could have on his industry and his country.

“I’m scared that because this crew is Indian, our international image will suffer,” said Mr. Sequeira, 31. “Maybe we lose jobs.”

Some in Baltimore’s port community have had some contact with the Dali crew, albeit brief, through third parties or WhatsApp. Mr. Messick said he sent the crew two Wi-Fi hot spots on Friday because they did not have internet onboard.

Mr. Middleton said he had been keeping in touch with two crew members, reminding them that “we’re here for them.”

“When I’ve asked how they’re doing, their answers range from ‘good’ to ‘great,’” he said. “So, by their own accounts, they’re OK.”

Mr. Messick said he had also sent a care package to the crew through a salvage company helping with operations. In the package were candy, home-baked muffins from a concerned local and thank-you cards from children.

With so many questions still unanswered about the crew members’ next steps, Mr. Messick said he was eager to provide them with trauma care and emotional support. On Friday, he wrote a letter to the captain, which was delivered by another vessel.

“We’re here to support you,” it read.

Mike Baker contributed reporting.

Eduardo Medina is a Times reporter covering the South. An Alabama native, he is now based in Durham, N.C. More about Eduardo Medina