Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship Ever Forward refloated after month stuck in US bay
- The Ever Forward, owned by the Taiwan-based company Evergreen, became lodged in mud a few hundred metres from shore on March 13
- The US Coast Guard had been at work trying to refloat the Ever Forward for weeks, assisted by tugs and dredge boats
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A massive container ship stranded for a month in the US east coast’s Chesapeake Bay was refloated on Sunday.
The Hong Kong-flagged Ever Forward, owned by the Taiwan-based company Evergreen, became lodged in some 20ft (six metres) of mud a few hundred metres from shore on the night of March 13 after missing a turn into deeper water.
US media reported the ship was dislodged around 7am local time on Sunday, after nearly 500 of the 5,000 containers on board had been removed to make the vessel lighter and take advantage of the month’s highest tide.
The US Coast Guard had been at work trying to refloat the Ever Forward for weeks, assisted by tugs and dredge boats, as the stricken ship and efforts to release it became a spectacle for sightseers on shore.
A year after Suez fiasco, Evergreen cargo ship runs aground in US
Marine inspectors will examine the ship’s hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to the Port of Baltimore to retrieve the offloaded containers.
The ship, measuring around 1,100ft (335 metres) long and capable of carrying nearly 12,000 containers, is one of many that ply the heavily trafficked waters of the Chesapeake.
The bay is a massive estuary – the largest in the US – whose banks harbour both the city of Baltimore and the Port of Virginia, the second- and third-most substantial ports on the US east coast.
The Ever Forward’s misadventure in the Chesapeake is reminiscent of that of the similarly named Ever Given, another Evergreen container ship which famously became stuck in a sandbank in the Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking traffic for almost a week.
Officials have said the Ever Forward grounding did not result in reports of injuries, damage or pollution. The Coast Guard has not said what caused the Ever Forward to run aground.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Bloomberg
