Righting the Ever Forward: Giant container ship (whose sister jammed the Suez) is FINALLY refloated one month after it got Chesapeake Bay – forcing recovery crews to remove 323 containers to make it lighter
- The Ever Forward cargo ship is en route to Norfolk, Virginia after being trapped in the Chesapeake Bay for more five weeks
- It was successfully freed on a third attempt Sunday
- The Ever Forward will remain anchored in Annapolis until it can continue its journey to Baltimore
- The ship had traveled to the US from China and was expected to stop at four east coast ports
- Although it was stuck for over a month, officials claim trade was not disrupted
A giant container ship that was stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for more than five weeks is on the move again.
The Ever Forward cargo ship reached the Annapolis area around 10am Sunday where it will remain anchored until it continues its journey to Baltimore, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed to WBAL-TV.
The 1,096-foot boat had been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of Gibson Island, since March 13.
Although the ship, which traveled to the states from Hong Kong, was stuck for more than a month, officials told Bloomberg it has not disrupted trade.
The Ever Forward cargo ship is en route to the Virginia International Gateway terminal in Norfolk after it was successfully freed the vessel on Sunday morning
The 1,096-foot boat had been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of Gibson Island, since March 13
Video footage showed seven tug boats towing the Ever Forward boat under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge around 9.10 am Sunday.
This was the third time crews had tried to free the ship.
The Coast Guard is providing the Ever Forward with a security zone while the tug boats continue to transport the ship to a location south of the bay where officials will then assess the situation.
Crews will need to set up a designated time slot to on-load the hundreds of containers that were removed from the ship this past week to lighten the ship and free it. Two barges were used to take the containers back to the Port of Baltimore.
It is unclear when the on-loading will occur and the Coast Guard did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Video footage showed seven tug boats towing the Ever Forward boat under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge around 9.10 am Sunday
This was the third time crews had tried to free the ship
Guardsmen told WBFF high tides helped aide in their process to free the ship, which is owned by Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine.
It was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk when it turned out of a shipping channel and got stuck in the Chesapeake Bay. It is unclear what caused the freighter to aground.
The Ever Forward was supposed to call at four east coast ports after departing China on February 2. The vessel had been carrying about 5,000 containers.
Crews removed 500 containers and dredged about 20 feet of material on both of its sides to lighten the load and pull it back into the channel.
As of 10.30am Sunday, the ship was traveling at a speed of 5.6 knots, according to tracking website MarineTraffic.
Crews removed 500 containers and dredged about 20 feet of material on both of its sides to lighten the load and pull it back into the channel
The Coast Guard is providing the Ever Forward with a security zone while the tug boats continue to transport the ship to a location south of the bay where officials will then assess the situation
Although Evergreen Marine has been operating its for more than two decades, it is only recently that its U.S.-bound vessels ventured beyond the west coast.
Diversions to the east coast came in the second half of 2021 amid peak supply-chain disruptions and issues at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
‘This is part of the growth out of the backlog of the supply chain,’ Sal Mercogliano, a professor of maritime history at Campbell University in North Carolina told Bloomberg last month.
‘To beat the backlog in L.A. and Long Beach, a lot more companies are using ships like Ever Forward to send their cargo directly to the East Coast.’
The Port of Los Angeles does not expect to resume normal operations until the second half of this year and the number of ships traveling to the area from Asia has decreased from over 100 to 43.
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