A year after a giant container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal for almost a week and disrupted global trade for months, another Evergreen Marine Corp. vessel has run aground, this time near the U.S. capital.
The Hong Kong-flagged Ever Forward got stranded after departing the Port of Baltimore Seagirt Terminal on Sunday night, according to mapping data compiled by Bloomberg. The 334-meter (1,096-foot) vessel was en route to Norfolk, Virginia, when it got stuck in the Chesapeake Bay.
“The ship’s grounding is not preventing other ships from transiting to the Port of Baltimore,” Maryland Port Administration Executive Director William P. Doyle said in a statement. “Efforts have been underway since last night to try and free the ship and will continue today. The Coast Guard is monitoring the situation.”
Evergreen has arranged for divers to inspect the vessel for any damage and is participating in coordinated efforts to refloat the ship as soon as possible, the company said in a text message Tuesday. An investigation into the cause of the grounding is underway, the company added.
Last year, the 400-meter-long Ever Given, an Evergreen-chartered ship that is longer than the Eiffel Tower and weighs 220,000 tons, got stuck in the Suez Canal for six days. The vessel and its 17,600 containers blocked the canal in both directions, resulting in a backlog of more than 400 ships delayed by the incident.
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