Suez Canal: How are they trying to free the Ever Given?

By Reality Check & Visual Journalism
BBC News

Satellite image shows the position of the Ever Given straddling the Suez Canal

An operation to free a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal is continuing, with warnings it could take days or even weeks.

The Ever Given, operated by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine, is the length of four football pitches and is lying across the southern end of the canal preventing other ships from getting through one of the world’s busiest waterways.

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How could the ship be moved?

Graphic showing how tugs could be used to refloat the Ever Given by pulling the ship away from the banks of the Suez canal.

The ship is 400 metres (1,300ft) long, wedged diagonally across a canal not much more than 200 metres (656ft) wide.

Shipping traffic software shows a group of tugs positioned on both sides of the ship.

Using cables or placing themselves directly alongside the stricken ship, the tugs have been trying to move the ship off sand banks on both sides of the canal.

Graphic showing position of tugs and other support vessels around the Ever Given

As it’s firmly grounded on both banks, all efforts to shift it so far have proved unsuccessful, says Sal Mercogliano, an expert in maritime history at Campbell University in the US.

The company which manages the running of the vessel, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) said an attempt to refloat the ship on Friday had failed but that efforts would continue.

The company says two further tugs are due to arrive on Sunday to assist in the operation.

Graphic showing how dredgers could be used by salvage teams will attempt to refloat the Ever Given, using suction to remove sand and silt from below the vessel.

The focus is now on digging out sand and mud from under the bow of the vessel.

Sal Mercogliano says these dredgers are a familiar site on the Suez Canal, used to continually dredge the waterway to keep it navigable.

“Large machines stick down into the water and basically pull dirt up from the bottom, which you can then deposit onshore.”

A digger attempts to remove earth around the bow of the Ever Given, which is blocking the Suez Canal, Egypt (25 March 2021) — image captionDiggers on the ground are clearing sand and mud away from the bow

BSM says an additional specialist “suction dredger” is now in place able to shift 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour.

The Netherlands-based company Boskalis is managing the dredging operation.

It’s chief executive Peter Berdowski says dredging alone won’t resolve the problem.

“It might take weeks depending on the situation” to free the ship using a combination of dredging, tugging and the removal of weight from the vessel.

Satellite image showing shipping waiting near the Suez Canal — image captionSatellite images show ships waiting to pass through the blocked Suez Canal

Graphic showing how salvage teams could attempt to refloat the Ever Given by removing cargo and fuel allowing the ship to float higher in the water

A further option in efforts to re-float the 200,000 tonne vessel is to remove fuel, water and cargo.

Draining fuel from the ship’s tanks would help, but is unlikely to be sufficient without other load-lightening measures.

Some internal spaces within the hull of the boat contain water, and the managing agent BSM says arrangements are being made to reduce these levels using high-capacity pumps.

A ship the size of the Ever Given can carry as many as 20,000 twenty-foot containers and an operation to remove these by crane would be highly challenging.

Apart from the difficulties associated with getting suitable cranes close enough to the ship, the process could cause damage and even unbalance the ship.

“You would have to bring large floating cranes – but anything you do right now you would have to determine how it would affect the ship’s stability,” says Dr Mercogliano.

“Worst case scenario is that she breaks in half because of [uneven] weight distributions.”