Baltimore – A container ship with more than three football fields was finally pulled from the muddy bottom of Chesapeake Bay more than a month after it ran aground.
After two unsuccessful attempts to displace and subsequently remove about 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying, Ever Forward was returned to sailing shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday by two barges and five tugs.
A full moon and a high spring tide helped secure the lifeboats as they pulled and pushed the massive ship out of the mud, through a dug hole and back into the ship’s canal.
Upon his return, Ever Forward was again pulled from water tanks to ensure a safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on his way to an anchor near Annapolis, reports The Baltimore Sun.
Maritime inspectors will inspect the ship’s hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to the port of Baltimore to retrieve the unloaded containers.
The cargo ship, operated by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp., was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13 when it ran aground north north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Barges can be seen near the container ship Ever Forward, on the right, which ran aground last month as workers removed the containers from it in an attempt to lighten the cargo and return the vessel, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, to Pasadena, Maryland. Julio Cortes / AP
Authorities said the grounding did not result in reports of injuries, damage or contamination. The Coast Guard did not say what caused Ever Forward to get stuck.
The ship remained outside the shipping channel and did not block maritime navigation, unlike last year’s high-ranking grounding in the Suez Canal of his sister ship, Ever Given. This incident disrupted shipping and the global supply chain for days.
Rescue crews continued to unload containers from Ever Forward until 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. The containers were towed to the Seagirt Naval Terminal in Baltimore.
After two failed attempts to free the ship, which is more than 1,000 feet long, rescue experts found earlier this month that unloading some of the containers offered the best chance of re-raising it. Crews also continued dredging to a depth of 43 feet around the ship.
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