Super ship “as big as a mountain” stuck at the entrance to the US arterial port for a whole week, bad luck continues to follow Evergreen
Named Ever Forward, EverGreen’s 334m-long vessel is stranded in the Chesapeake Bay en route from the port of Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia. The ship ran aground on March 13 in the area north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and has remained there for nearly a week. Rescue plans are being put in place, but little progress has been made.
Currently, people are conducting underwater tests of the giant supership. A rescue team is working on an action plan but needs approval from the authorities. According to Evergreen, the plan includes releasing ballast to reduce loads, dredging the mud layer in the bay bottom around the ship, as well as creating space between the propeller, rudder and the seabed.
The rescue team said all existing local tugboats were involved in the rescue operation. After removing enough mud and making the ship lighter, the ship was helped to get out of the entanglement using propulsion from the tugs and the ship’s main engines.
The US Coast Guard is working with at least four other government agencies to make sure the Ever Forward rescue is safe, for people, surrounding ships, and the environment. At present, there is no environmental impact assessment after the ship stuck.
Ever Forward is under the management of Evergreen Marine Corp. based in Taiwan, China. A year ago, one of their super ships, the Ever Given, blocked the Suez Canal, paralyzing the global maritime lifeline. It took days and huge sums of money for Evergreen to free the ship. They also have to pay huge fines to the Egyptian Government.
According to Evergreen’s announcement, they hired Donjon-Smit LLC, the company that rescued Ever Given, to rescue Ever Forward, a ship that is running aground near the US capital. The team is working with architects, divers from the US Navy and the US Coast Guard to free the ship.
William P. Doyle, Executive Director of the Maryland Port Authority, said: “No obvious fuel leaks or damage was observed from the stranded vessel. Commerce in and out of Baltimore was not interrupted.
To be able to rescue the ship, one needs to assess the overall condition of the stranding, the weight of the cargo on board as well as the tidal level at its location. However, its condition is probably not as bad as its sister Ever Given when the ship was only stuck in the bow in a narrow channel. The area where Ever Forward is stuck is very large and it seems that it has a problem in the bottom of the ship.
In addition, the fact that it does not clog the arterial maritime route makes the rescue less stressful in many ways. Even so, owner Evergreen and shippers on board must also determine the damage caused by the incident, although it may not be as bad as a year ago.
The crash sent Evergreen shares down as much as 11% last week. Particularly on the weekend trading day, it decreased up to 3.1%.
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at Blogtuan.info – Source: cafebiz.vn – Read the original article here
