UN Atomic Energy Watchdog Chief Confirms Trump's Air Strikes Wrecked Iran's Nuclear Capabi...
Nancy Pelosi's Body Language Says Everything About the Latest Trump Impeachment Push
Kari Lake *Went There* When This Dem Rep Tried to Come After Her...
Jamaal Bowman Might Have Said the Most Insane Thing on CNN Last Night
This Isn't Iraq… and it Ain’t Even Close
Make America Clean Again
Here's What Trump Had to Say About Netanyahu's Corruption Trial
In Backing Mamdani, Nadler Compares His Win to Obama's in 2008
Trump Administration Unloads on the Miami Herald for Their Spin on Efforts to...
The Intelligence Community’s Strategic Imperative: Investing in AI for Warning Dominance
Outdated Wireless Regulations Fuel Criminal Networks
Jews and the Public Square
'Squad' Members React to Trump's Expletive-Laced Remarks About Iran, Israel
Connect the Bloody Dots – From the Campus to the Street
Dr. Franklin Saves the Day
Tipsheet

Suez Canal Remains Blocked, Could Take 'Weeks' to Dislodge Massive Vessel

AP Photo/Hassan Ammar

What do you and a massive 219-ton cargo ship have in common? Well, if you’ve ever stalled out on a crowded highway, then the answer is more than you might expect.  

Advertisement

One of the largest shipping vessels in the world, the Ever Given, has been stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal for more than two days after strong winds blew the ship diagonal on Tuesday morning. In the meantime, all travel through the canal has been suspended, causing a backup of more than 150 boats.

The Japanese company that owns the vessel, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, released a statement apologizing for the disruption to the highly traveled trade route, offering in a written statement, "We sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of worry to ships in the Suez Canal and those planning to go through the canal.” Adding, “we are trying to refloat [the Ever Given], but we are facing extreme difficulty.”

The ship is a quarter mile long and nearly 200 feet across.

Advertisement

The 101 mile-long Suez canal was opened by the Egyptian government in 1869 and provides a pivotal trade route connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. With it blocked, the alternative trade route around the southern tip of Africa can add approximately two weeks extra shipping time for goods traveling to and from China.

An estimated 12 percent of the world’s trade travels through the Suez Canal with an average in 2020 of 51.5 ship per day. The delay is likely to have not only immediate consequences, such as an increase in both the cost of shipping and the price of crude oil, but downstream effects on the global market as well.

In an effort to expedite the ship’s dislodgment, the canal authority called in the Dutch firm Boskalis, who specializes in marine salvaging. According to the company’s chairman, Peter Boskalis, the ship’s dislodgment “might take weeks, depending on the situation.”

Advertisement

The chairman went on to explain, “It is, in a manner of speaking, a very heavy whale on the beach…the ship, with the weight it now has, can’t really be pulled free. You can forget it.”

Bokalis and canal authorities have been worked tirelessly, using a platoon of tug boats, ditch diggers and backhoes to try and budge the massive Ever Given. But unfortunately, according to satellite photos taken on Thursday by Planet Labs Inc, the ship remains in the same position. 

One possible solution proposed by Bokalis is air lifting shipping containers off the vessel in order to lighten the ship and allow it to be dislodged.

If there is good news to the story, it's that all crew members made it safely off the vessel.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement