By Maddox Brown
Salutations!
I believe a good number of us have heard of the rather peculiar event that occurred in the busy shipping corridor of Egypt’s Suez Canal. Not long ago It was all over the news, beginning on March 23rd to be exact. If you’re aspiring to be a captain or the skipper of a sea-going vessel, don’t take notes. This incident simply shows that even the biggest commercial cargo ships can score the ‘achievement’ of getting accidentally wedged, stuck, or run aground.
Aerial shot of the Ever Given blocking the canal.
On March 23rd, a massive Japanese-owned (but Panama-flagged) cargo ship named ‘The Ever Given’ became an international celebrity—at least in terms of winning attention from various newspapers, magazines, and websites. Daily updates about this boat dominated the news cycle for what seemed like forever, giving both journalists and late night comedians a break from endless political and Covid-related content in the process. Ok, jokes aside, on that particular day the container ship, allegedly due to some strong gusts of wind, got itself stuck across the canal, completely blocking the waterway for other ships trying to deliver billions of dollars in goods to various countries. The 220,000 metric-ton vessel stayed wedged sideways across the canal for about 6 days and 7 hours, preventing passage through the canal for at least 400 other ships whose delivery schedules were seriously disrupted due to this unfortunate accident. Now the Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. is asking owners of all the freight the boat was carrying to help pay the roughly $916 million in cash damages demanded by Egyptian authorities.
On March 29th, with assistance from many local workers and work boats, the behemoth of a ship was freed from it’s shackles. It cost the workers numerous sleepless nights to push and pull the ship back to the center of the canal. Moreover, a whopping 20,000 cubic meters (roughly 706,000 cubic feet) of sand had to be removed from the sides of the canal to make space for the ship’s immense body. It is astounding how much can be accomplished with teamwork and good synergy.
Let’s review a few facts about the ship. ‘The Ever Given’ (or the ‘stuck Evergreen ship’, depending if you want to call it by its actual name or by its lease name) weighs, as I mentioned before, around 220,000 metric tons, which is incredibly heavy. Its width—being about 1,300 feet (396.24 meters) long—rivals the height of the Empire State Building, which is around 1,454 feet or (443 meters) tall. That is crazy! Although it is only a cargo ship, meaning its width is dramatically larger than its height, the height of this ocean vessel is also nothing to sneeze at. Standing tall at 73 meters (or 239.5 feet), the Ever Given is about 42 times as tall as the average human being. Imagine that you are standing next to this behemoth. It would even be visible amongst a group of average-sized buildings.
At the time of the canal predicament, the Ever Given was carrying around 18 thousand 20-foot containers full of various supplies, including contents ranging from food to non-perishable commodities.
It goes without saying that this crisis had a major impact on global commerce, primarily in places in Europe like the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Industries such as grocery stores, department stores, hardware stores, suppliers of surgical and medical equipment, plus warehousing and storage facilities, were particularly hard-hit by this event. Delayed shipments naturally cause major disturbances within these industries. Not only do delays reduce the supply of empty containers needed to keep goods moving between countries, but any blockage in global shipping lanes can trigger a critical shortage of goods being imported and exported around the world. Because of the Ever Given’s accident, many other supply ships suffered delayed schedules,since they obviously did not expect a major canal blockage to occur.
Even though I was not there when the ship became trapped, I do not believe that strong gusts of wind were the sole cause of the ship’s unusual movement. If the wind was able to push around a ship of that size and weight, it would’ve also had a detrimental effect on the landscape around the ship… like trees being blown out of their initial positions. Furthermore, any weather event that caused that much wind would’ve been in the news, since it would most likely have become a major threat to other locations.
When the initial excuse of “high winds” causing the ship to block the canal was challenged, spokespeople for the shipping company started to blame Egypt’s first female ship captain, Marwa Elselehdar, for the grounding of the Ever Given. They did this despite the fact that she wasn’t even on board during the incident. She specifically said she was about 200 miles away from the ship when the crisis began. Fake news and rumors started circulating about the female captain being the person responsible for the catastrophe, even though the original source (and reason) for these rumors was never revealed. It is quite sad to think that spokespeople for the Ever Given would destroy the reputation of the captain to protect the ship’s owners or crew from personal liability.
Overall, it now seems that the whole situation could’ve been avoided if the captain or acting-captain and crew had taken the proper precautions when the ‘strong gusts of wind’ actually did occur. On the other hand, it could have been just another case of incompetence and laziness from the crew. Maybe someone didn’t get a good night’s rest, and simply fell asleep while controlling the steering wheel. Who knows. Investigations are still going on to discover the real reason the Ever Given got itself horizontally stuck across the canal, and who was behind the fake rumors of Captain Marwa Elselehdar being responsible for the problem.