The ship was freed from the Chesapeake Bay after being stuck for more than a month

BALTIMORE – A container ship more than three football fields long has finally been ploughed from the muddy bottom of the Chesapeake Bay more than a month after it ran aground.

After two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge it, and then the removal of about 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying, Ever Forward was closed just before 7 a.m. Sunday by two barges and five ships. pull.

The full moon and high tide gave the lifeboats lift as they pulled and pushed the giant ship out of the mud, across a dredged pit, and back into the channel.

After being refitted, the Ever Forward was rebalanced with water tanks to ensure safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge en route to an anchorage off Annapolis, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Maritime inspectors will inspect the hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to the Port of Baltimore to retrieve the unloaded containers.

The cargo ship operated by Evergreen Marine Corp. Taiwan-based operator, was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13, when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Officials said the grounding resulted in no reports of injury, damage or contamination. The Coast Guard has not said what caused the Ever Forward to run aground.

The ship was stuck outside the shipping channel and not in the way of navigation, unlike last year’s high-profile landing in the Suez Canal by its sister ship, Ever Given. That incident disrupted ship traffic and global supply chains for days.

Salvage crews continued to unload containers from Ever Forward until 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. The containers were loaded onto barges and taken to Baltimore’s Seagirt Harbor.

After two failed attempts to free the more than 1,000-foot vessel, salvage experts earlier this month determined that unloading some of the containers was the best chance to re-build it. The crew also continued to dredge to a depth of 43 feet around the ship.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here