Container ship Ever Given, which has blocked the Suez Canal, could be refloated as early as Saturday, March 27, as attempts to free the ship advanced significantly on Friday evening. The Wall Street Journal writes about this, citing sources familiar with the situation.
According to the interlocutor of the publication, efforts to rescue the vessel are going well, this raises the hope of the authorities that the container ship will be taken aground in the near future.
“We can make it move earlier than expected,” the source said.
On the morning of March 26, another attempt to remove the container ship from the shallows was unsuccessful.
On the same day, specialists from SMIT Salvage in the Netherlands announced that they plan to make another attempt to re-float the vessel, which blocked traffic on the Suez Canal.
The company’s plan consists of several elements: first, they pump water out of the vessel to make it lighter, then they remove the sand from under the vessel using dredging boats and equipment, and then mobilize powerful tugs to pull the vessel out into the water.
The Panama-flagged container ship Ever Given ran aground south of the Suez Canal on 23 March, blocking more than 150 vessels. The Japanese company Shohei Kisen, the ship’s operator, claims that strong winds were the cause of the incident.