The Ever Forward was then pulled across a dredged hole and finally into the safety of the channel’s 50-foot depth.ĭozens of dredging boats cycled through the bay, digging around the ship, which needs 42 feet of water to safely navigate, and dropping mud at Poplar Island in Talbot County. Removing 10% of the ship’s cargo caused it to refloat by about half a foot, making enough room to reduce friction between its hull and the ground. The Association of Maryland Pilots has not replied to requests to comment, but a Maryland pilot was aboard the ship at the time of the grounding, U.S. Maryland law requires that a local, expert pilot join and guide a ship when it is moving in and out of state waters. The ship is owned by Evergreen Marine Corp., the same Taiwanese company that owns the Ever Given, which attracted international attention when it blocked the Suez Canal, a crucial channel for global trade. The ship was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, when it became wedged in shallow waters and was visible for weeks from the Eastern Shore and Pasadena.Įxactly what the Ever Forward is transporting from China isn’t clear, though some items include a New York reporter’s furniture shipped from Hong Kong and 10,000 copies of a Los Angeles author’s recent graphic novel. Nearly 500 of the 5,000 large metal containers onboard were removed from the Ever Forward and placed onto barges, which returned them to the Port of Baltimore. Saturday, when pleasant weather turned into a night of fierce winds. A crew assigned to two cranes rappelled up and down towering stacks of containers for 12 hours a day, every day, for the past week.Ĭrews continued to offload containers under bright moonlight until 10:30 p.m. The latter (with parent company Boskalis) was also responsible for refloating the Ever Given, which ran aground in the Suez Canal in March 2021 and blocked the Canal for almost a week.Following weeks of salvage operations, authorities turned to a costly last resort April 9 and began to remove containers from the ship. Donjon-Smit is a joint venture of Donjon Marine Co. The vessel is not blocking shipping traffic.Įvergreen has hired the Smit-Donjon to refloat the grounded container ship. The Ever Forward was built in 2020 and is 334 metres long and 48 metres wide. The Hong-Kong flagged container ship operated by Evergreen, reported to be carrying general cargo, departed Baltimore on Sunday 13 March and was en route to Norfolk, Virginia, when it grounded in Chesapeake Bay. A third attempt was initially planned for Sunday, 3 April, once again at high tide, but the decision has now been made to first undertake more dredging.Īlso read: Five tugs will try to refloat Ever Forward on 29 March Ever Forward The US Coast Guard said the ship is practically buried in the bank, which makes the operation very difficult. However, weather conditions proved less suitable than expected, with wind pushing water out the of the area creating a lower tide, and the vessel didn’t budge.Ī day later, conditions were better and two extra tugs were brought in, but to no avail. Five tugs were deployed for this, with two pushing on starboard side, two pulling from port side and one long pull from the stern. The company did this now that it expects further rescue operations will involve more manpower, equipment and costs.Īlso read: Evergreen declares General Average on Ever Forward Earlier refloat attemptsĪ first refloat attempt was undertaken on Tuesday, 29 March. In the meantime, ship operator Evergreen Line has declared General Average on the container ship.
A 500-yard (about 450 metres) safety zone, around-the-clock monitoring for potential pollution and stability checks are on-going. A third attempt to refloat the vessel, will be undertaken once this has been completed.
The US Coast Guard has reported additional dredging is now taking place. Initially, this was planned for 3 April, but this has been postponed to allow for further dredging around the vessel to a depth of 43 feet (over 13 metres). A third refloat attempt of the grounded 11,850 TEU container ship Ever Forward will take place as soon as more dredging has taken place.
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