One year on and another ultra-large container vessel (ULCV) run by Evergreen Line has become stuck.
This time it’s the Ever Forward, marooned in 25 feet of water in Chesapeake Bay, after leaving the Port of Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday.
The incident comes almost a year to the day when another ULCV by the same carrier, the Ever Given, got bogged down for days in the southern channel of the Suez Canal, blocking one of the world’s most important waterways for at least a week.
At 334 metres, the Ever Forward is almost as big as its cousin, much-memed last year for the Herculean efforts it took by Egyptian authorities to dislodge the gargantuan vessel.
In the end it took 13 tug boats and the displacement of 30 000 cubic metres of sand, dredged from under its bow, to set the 220-metric-tonne Ever Given free.
As was the case then, it remains uncertain when the Ever Forward will be re-floated, coastguard petty officer Steven Lehmann has said.
He added that the vessel needed at least 43 feet of water keep its bow free from the ocean floor.
Thankfully, the location where the Ever Forward ran out of enough water was not nearly as narrow as Suez, and wouldn’t hamper other vessels from transiting Chesapeake Bay, said Maryland Port Association executive director William P Doyle.
Maybe it’s time Evergreen heeded some Shakespearean advice around this time of year – “Beware the (T)ides of March.”
