In what could be a huge sigh of relief to the Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp, who operated the vessel, EVER FORWARD stuck in the mud in the Chesapeake Bay area on the 18th of March 2022 is finally freed from the mud and is finally floating once again. Two ships stuck in different locations consecutively within a span of a year may have hit the bottom line of the shipper very hard. EVER GIVEN and the Suez canal fiasco had setback the company by at least one billion dollars whereas the current mud listing may also have caused a substantial dent in the company’s financials. The company can still breathe a sigh of relief since the shipping rates across the globe are at a historical peak which shows no sign of weaning down.
The cargo ship was travelling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on 13 March, when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake bay bridge. After two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge it, and the subsequent removal of roughly 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying, the Ever Forward was refloated just before 7 a.m. Sunday by two barges and five tugboats.
A full moon and high spring tide helped provide a lift to the salvage vessels as they pulled and pushed the massive ship from the mud, across a dredged hole and back into the shipping channel.
Once refloated, the Ever Forward was weighed down again by water intake to its ballast tanks to ensure safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on its way to an anchorage off Annapolis, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Officials have said the grounding did not result in reports of injuries, damage or pollution or shipping channel blockade.
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.
William P. Doyle, the executive director at the Maryland Port Administration, announced the update on social media. “A tremendous team effort with a little help from the Easter Sunday rising tide in the Chesapeake Bay. The Evergreen Ever Forward has been refloated”, he said. The push to free the massive ship was a team effort including aid from Donjon-Smit, LLC, the salvage manager and the U.S. Coast Guard, he added.
