Ever Given

container ship of Evergreen Marine Corporation, launched in 2018

Ever Given is a large container ship. It is one of the largest container ships in the world. The ship can carry 20.124 TEU's.

Ever Given in March 2020 at the ECT Delta terminal in the Port of Rotterdam
History
Panama
NameEver Given[note 1]
OwnerShoei Kisen Kaisha[2][3]
OperatorEvergreen Marine
Port of registryPanama City
BuilderImabari Shipbuilding (Japan)
Yard numberS-1833
Laid down25 December 2015[1]
Launched9 May 2018[1]
Completed25 September 2018[1]
Identification
General characteristics
Class and typeGolden-class container ship
Tonnage
Length399.94 m (1,312 ft 2 in)[1]
Beam58.8 m (192 ft 11 in)[1]
Draught14.5 m (47 ft 7 in)[1]
Installed powerMitsuiMAN B&W 11G95ME-C9 (59,300 kW)[4]
Propulsion
Speed22.8 knots (42.2 km/h; 26.2 mph)
Capacity20,124 TEU[5]
Crew25

Imabari Shipbuilding also has a branch that leases ships. This branch owns the ship. The ship is operated by container transportation and shipping company Evergreen Marine. Ever Given is registered in Panama, and its technical management is the responsibility of the German ship management company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).[6]

On 23 March 2021, while traveling from Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia[7] to Rotterdam, Netherlands, the ship became stuck in the Suez Canal and blocked it.

Description

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Ever Given is one of 13 container ships built to the Imabari 20000 design developed by Imabari Shipbuilding. With a length of 399.94 metres (1,312 ft 2 in), it is one of the longest ships in service. Its hull has a beam of 58.8 metres (192 ft 11 in), a depth of 32.9 metres (107 ft 11 in), and a fully laden draft of 14.5 metres (47 ft 7 in). Ever Given has a gross tonnage of 220,940; net tonnage of 99,155; and deadweight tonnage of 199,629 tons. The ship's container capacity is 20,124 TEU.

Operational history

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2019 Hamburg collision

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On 9 February 2019, the ship struck and heavily damaged a 25-meter-long HADAG ferry boat at Blankenese, near the harbour of Hamburg.[8] Two minutes after the collision, a traffic ban on the Elbe river was issued due to high winds.[9]

2021 Suez Canal grounding

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At 07:40 Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) on 23 March 2021, the ship was passing through the Suez Canal on its way to Rotterdam from Tanjung Pelepas[7][10] when it became stuck (coordinates 30.01761, 32.58018 ) near the village of Manshiyet Rugola[11] and blocked the canal.[6] The ship ended up with its bow wedged in one bank of the canal and stern nearly touching the other.[12]

 
Satellite image of Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal

The ship had been running fifth in a northbound convoy, with fifteen vessels behind it when it ran aground. Traffic in both directions was blocked for at least five days, leading to a traffic jam of over two hundred vessels.[2][13] On 24 March, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the technical manager of the ship, denied earlier reports that it had been partially refloated.[10] In addition, trade experts are worried about a supply chain delay, and tension due to the indefinite delay to the trapped ships as well as other vessels that planned to cross the Suez canal.[14]

Eight tugboats worked to re-float the vessel in collaboration with a Komatsu excavator removing sand from the side of the canal where the bow of the vessel is wedged.[10][15] After an overnight break, the salvage work resumed in the morning of 25 March.[16]

On 25 March, an unnamed Egyptian official was reported as saying that refloating the ship would take days if not weeks. Lt. Gen. Ossama Rabei, head of the SCA, announced, "The Suez Canal will not spare any efforts to ensure the restoration of navigation and to serve the movement of global trade." BSM and SKK said that all 25 crew are safe and accounted for. All crew remains on board, and there had been "no reports of injuries or pollution".[17][18] Egyptian meteorologists reported that high winds and a sandstorm had affected the area on the day of the grounding, with winds reaching as much as 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph).[19]

Addressing a press conference on 27 March, Rabie, Chairman of the SCA, said that weather conditions were "not the main reasons" for the ship's grounding. He added that there may have been technical or human errors and that these would be shown in the investigation.[20]

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  1. The name "EVERGREEN" written in large capital letters on the hull refers to the name of the Taiwanese firm that operates the ship, Evergreen Marine.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Ever Given (18265351)". ABS Record. American Bureau of Shipping. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Wang, Cindy; Park, Kyunghee; Lee, Annie (23 March 2021). "Suez Canal Snarled With Giant Ship Stuck in Top Trade Artery". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  3. {{Cite news|last=Gambrell|first=Jon|date=23 March 2021|title=Massive cargo ship turns sideways, blocks Egypt's Suez Canal|work=The Seattle Times|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/business/massive-cargo-ship-turns-sideways-blocks-egypts-suez-canal/}[permanent dead link]
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Ever Given (9811000)". Sea-web. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  5. "ShipmentLink – Vessel Particulars". www.shipmentlink.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Farrer, Martin; Safi, Michael (24 March 2021). "Suez canal blocked by huge container ship after 'gust of wind'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  7. "Gentle touch of a giant – mega container ship brushed ferry". FleetMon.com. Archived from the original on 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  8. Gessner, Nina (2019-02-10). "Frachter rammt Fähre in Hamburg-Blankenese: Hat der starke Wind den Elbe-Crash verursacht?". MOPO.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  9. 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Egypt's Suez Canal blocked by huge container ship". BBC News. 24 March 2021. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  10. Yee, Vivian (2021-03-27). "'A Very Big Problem.' Giant Ship in the Suez Remains Stuck". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  11. Paris, Costas; Malsin, Jared (24 March 2021). "Suez Canal Is Blocked by Container Ship Causing Huge Traffic Jam". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  12. "Maritime traffic jam grows outside blocked Suez Canal". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  13. "'Anything you see in the stores' could be affected by Canal logjam, shipping experts say". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  14. NBC News (25 March 2021). "Komatsu Excavator Attempts to Dislodge One of World's Largest Shipping Containers". ConstructionEquipmentGuide.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  15. "Ship rescue efforts suspended until Thursday". The Independent. 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  16. "MV EVER GIVEN aground in the Suez Canal". March 25, 2021.
  17. "M.V. EVER GIVEN スエズ運河座礁事故に関して" (in Japanese). 25 March 2012. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  18. "Massive cargo ship becomes wedged, blocks Egypt's Suez Canal". Associated Press News. 2021-03-24. Archived from the original on 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  19. "Suez Canal: Effort to refloat wedged container ship continues". BBC News. 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.