The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, careened out of control in March 2021, slamming into the banks of the Suez Canal and blocking the waterway. Nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall, it held up more than $5 billion in trade for each of the six days the canal was obstructed.
Day after day, as efforts failed to dislodge the enormous ship, it became a symbol of Covid-era anxiety as the pandemic entered its second year. “We are all, in our own little way, that ship,” one person wrote on social media.
Eventually, though, with the removal of enough rock and sand, and with the aid of tugboats and an unusually high tide created by a full moon, the ship was dislodged. Nearly 400 ships had been stuck waiting almost a week for passage.
Once the ship was freed, it was held in Egypt for three months because of a financial dispute between the Egyptian authorities and its owner. Egyptian officials finally permitted the release of the vessel after its owner, the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, and its insurers agreed to pay an undisclosed amount as a settlement for the rescue operation. The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the waterway, said the episode had cost Egypt up to $90 million in lost toll revenue as ships waited to pass through the blocked canal or took other routes.
The Suez Canal is one of the most important trading routes in the world, accounting for about 12 percent of global trade. After the Ever Given was freed, Egypt said it would widen and deepen the canal’s narrowest passage, where the ship had lost control in high winds and poor visibility. In December, Reuters reported that Egypt had added a new channel near the southern end of the canal that would boost its capacity by an additional six to eight ships daily.
The Ever Given finally made it to its destination in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, four months after it got stuck, delivering its delayed cargo at last. That cargo included some perishable and seasonable goods, which were likely discarded or auctioned off, according to The Maritime Executive. The boat then continued to China for repairs.
The legal wrangling over which companies should shoulder the cost of the delays caused by the Ever Given’s grounding lasted years. Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, filed a $45 million lawsuit against the Ever Given’s owner and its Taiwanese operator, Evergreen Marine Corp. The suit was settled out of court in 2023, according to ShippingWatch, a Danish trade publication. The terms were not disclosed and a spokesman for Maersk declined to comment.
In the last four years, the Ever Given has crisscrossed the globe, heading between the Far East and Northern Europe on a route that, yes, includes passage through the Suez Canal.