The new attempt to free the Ever Given, the container ship that has been blocking the Suez Canal since Tuesday, has failed. This was reported by Leth Agencies, one of the companies that worked last night to try to re-float the boat.
The full moon and high tide seemed propitious for the operation but the water level turned out to be insufficient for its success, Leth Agencies explained.
Suez, the Italian super-tug goes to the rescue of Ever Given
by Ettore Livini
While the number of ships blocked by the Ever Given, which ran sideways last Tuesday during a wind and sandstorm, rose to 326, the Suez Canal Authority announced that today they will resume attempts to unblock the container ship with tugs, which will go up from 14 to 16.
Suez, dredging completed. But it is difficult to predict the end of the crisis
The captain of one of the tugs assured that yesterday’s attempts managed to move the ship’s bow 17 meters north, where it was proceeding before hitting a bank. The Danish shipowner Maersk, the largest to operate in the Suez Canal, has estimated that it will take three to six days to clear the huge traffic jam that has formed behind the Ever Given, flying the Panamanian flag, managed by the Taiwanese company Ever Green and owned by the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha.
Some boats have already made their way to the Cape of Good Hope, choosing to circumnavigate Africa instead of waiting for the passage to be unlocked. Through the Suez Canal, the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia, 25 percent of the cargo ships and 10 percent of the goods that cross the seas of the world pass.
Meanwhile, a tugboat flying the Italian flag, the Charlemagne, arrived in the canal to help with the work aimed at removing the Ever Given. This was announced by the website of the Egyptian government newspaper al-Ahram citing satellite data from MarineTraffic.com and explaining that a Dutch tug, the Alp Guard, also arrived today.
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