Ever Given is finally ever free
The TLDR: The 220,000 ton monster ship was finally wrenched free and moved to a nearby lake—reopening the Suez Canal for business. But global commerce will continue to feel the fallout from the 6-day drama. We look at how the salvage crew managed this amazing feat, and at new questions about why it got stuck in the first place.
First, a quick recap
One of the world’s largest container ships managed to wedge itself diagonally in the Suez Canal—creating the biggest maritime traffic jam in history. Goods worth an estimated $9.6 billion were held up each day—causing a loss of $6.7 million every minute. Read our last week’s explainer for details on this unprecedented disaster.
Ok, tell me how they moved the ship
The rescue operation was conducted by a Dutch salvage company—which started on its formidable task on March 25. And they tried for days to move the ship—wedged in place by a giant rock formation—without success.
The process: A fleet of tug boats used cables to pull at the 1,300 foot long ship for many days to free it. At the same time, dredgers worked to dig mud and sand from under the bow and stern of the ship—to free them from the sides of the canal. One of the special dredgers moved 2,000 cubic metres (440,000 gallons) of material every hour.
The timeline:
- On Friday, the salvage crew were able to turn on the ship’s engines, and free its rudder.
- On Saturday, the tugboats managed to move the ship "30 degrees from left and right.”
- Early Monday morning—around 5 am local time—they were able to finally refloat the gargantuan boat, freeing its stern from the east side of the canal. By 3 pm, they had freed the bow as well.
- The biggest assist came from Mother Nature. Higher than usual springtime tides that helped the ship regain buoyancy.
Here’s a satellite image of the ship when it was freed:
See the celebrations below:
Here’s the ship sailing beautifully up the canal:
Ok, so the canal’s open now?
The ship: The Ever Given is now sailing under its own steam, and has been parked at the nearby Great Bitter Lake. Head of the Suez Canal Authority says:
"We will not allow it to leave before making sure that it is safe to sail, and also after conducting an investigation to find out the cause of the accident, because this will entail compensation. The Canal from its part does not have any error."
The other ships: There are at least 422 ships waiting to sail through the canal. They started to sail around 6 pm on Monday. Egyptian authorities said they will work 24 hours a day to move them through the canal—a journey which roughly takes 10-12 hours. That said, as this VesselFinder image shows, the traffic jam is far from over:
Inevitable delays: Shipping giant Maersk expects that it will take at least six days to end the logjam. It warned:
“Even when the canal gets reopened, the ripple effects on global capacity and equipment are significant and the blockage has already triggered a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel.”
Point to note: This is happening at a time when global shipping is already experiencing significant delays due to the pandemic. Covid protocols have slowed everything down at ports—where it takes far longer to load and unload ships. And ships that took weeks to make a round trip now take months to return with empty containers—creating a severe shortage. Now, when these ships all arrive at the same time at ports and end up in long queues again.
Insurance nightmare: Where there are huge monetary losses—think $9 billion a day— there will be massive insurance claims. Companies who had goods on these ships will seek compensation from their insurers—who in turn will demand money from Evergreen, the company that chartered Ever Given. And Evergreen, in turn, insists the owner of the ship, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, is responsible for any losses. According to industry estimates, SKK only has $3 billion in insurance to cover its liabilities. In other words, expect an ugly financial row in the months to come.
Who is to blame, anyway?
It is too early to say. Egypt, Taiwan and the International Maritime Organization—a UN agency—have launched a joint investigation. And they will look at the exact circumstances of the accident, the ship’s safety record, and the ship itself. They will also look at decisions made by the crew. Point to note: The ship’s technical manager has already ruled out mechanical or engine failure.
As of now, here’s what we know:
One: Weather conditions were terrible—with winds blowing at 40 miles an hour. And the sand storm greatly reduced visibility. At least one ship chose not to go through the canal. But Ever Given decided to take the risk.
Two: Ever Given had two Egyptian pilots on board to supervise its navigation—which is mandatory for all ships passing through Suez. But if anything goes wrong, they do not bear any responsibility—which remains with the captain, Evergreen and SSK.
Three: The captain (who is Indian) is highly experienced, and has made this journey several times—including in windy conditions.
Four: Larger ships typically are accompanied by tug boats—that work to make sure it doesn’t get stuck. This isn’t required but is recommended. For some reason, Ever Given passed on this option—even though slightly smaller ships ahead of it chose a tug boat escort.
Five: The ship’s last known speed was 13.5 knots at 7:28 am—12 minutes before it got stuck. The speed limit for the Suez is 7.6 knots (8.7 miles an hour) to 8.6 knots. That said, captains often go faster to compensate for strong winds. But it seems to have gone awry in this case:
“When the ship began to move toward the sand, it appeared to speed up, perhaps to correct itself, though it was too late and it almost collided with the bank. That served to then wedge the steel hull more deeply into the side of the canal.”
Six: Then there is what is called the “bank effect.” When a huge (and very wide) ship goes through a narrow canal, it pushes the water against the banks—creating an area of high pressure. This in turn pushes the front of the boat toward the middle of the canal—but pulls the back toward the banks. This Marine Insight illustration shows how this happens:
Seven: Then there is the sheer size of this boat that made the bank effect almost inevitable. Economies of scale have incentivised building bigger and bigger ships over the past decade. You can carry more cargo with roughly the same number of crew, and burn less fuel per container box on board. By the mid-2000s, cargo ships could carry the equivalent of 15,000 boxes. But in recent years, “ships including the Ever Given surpassed 20,000 containers, which laid end-to-end would stretch 75 miles.”
But ports and canals are not built to handle these gargantuan sizes. For example, the Ever Given cannot pass through the Panama Canal—despite its efforts at expansion. The Suez too has widened its canal to allow for two-way traffic and ‘megaships’—but its southern side is still far narrower and one-way.
The bottomline: The shipping industry is already planning to roll out ships even bigger than Ever Given. Unless it radically changes its business model, we can expect more such disasters in the future.
Reading list
- Bloomberg News via Mint has the best account of the accident.
- The Guardian looks at the role of megaships in creating this catastrophe.
- Wall Street Journal (paywall) explains the bank effect.
- The Atlantic has a very good piece on the total absence of on-board crew protocols on ships—unlike on a plane.
- New York Times via Economic Times looks at the vulnerability of the global supply chain. Forbes explains how the global economy can recover from it.
- CNN looks at what it takes to steer the world’s biggest ship. Also read: An experienced captain’s blog post on the challenges created by size.
- Last not least: subscriber Koushik Ravikumar sent along this excellent interactive game—which allows you to navigate a tanker through the Suez.