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Rescue efforts to free cargo ship blocking Suez Canal
A giant container ship remains stuck in the Suez Canal on Sunday after authorities tried and failed to make use of the high tide to free the vessel and reopen the crucial waterway.
Two attempts to free the Ever Given were unsuccessful on Saturday despite hopes the high water level could give the efforts a boost as more than 300 vessels wait to use the canal.
Two additional tugboats are speeding towards the stricken vessel to aid efforts to free the huge ship, which has been wedged across the vital waterway since Tuesday.
The tugboats will nudge the 400m-long vessel as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from beneath it and mud caked to its side.
More than 320 ships are waiting to travel through the waterway, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. Dozens of others still listed their destination as the canal, although shippers increasingly appear to be avoiding the passage.
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327 vessels waiting
There were 327 vessels held up on either side of the Ever Given as of Sunday morning.
Of those, 134 are near Port Said on the northern end of the canal, at the mouth to the Mediterranean.
Forty-two are waiting in Great Bitter Lake, around two-thirds of the way along the stretch of waterway heading south in the direction of Suez.
And 151 are waiting at the southern end near the port town of Suez.
Tom Batchelor28 March 2021 09:21
Attempts to float vessel fail despite high tide
Two attempts to free the Ever Given failed on Saturday night despite hopes the high tide could give the efforts a boost.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the ship’s management company, said around a dozen tugboats had worked on Saturday alongside dredging operations that were removing sand and mud from around the left side of the vessel’s bow.
But despite the favourable conditions, they were unsuccessful.
Tom Batchelor28 March 2021 08:51
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of the crisis unfolding in the Suez Canal.
Tom Batchelor28 March 2021 08:47
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