Another Evergreen cargo ship runs aground nearly one year after Suez Canal obstruction
The Ever Given, a massive cargo ship, captured imaginations around the world when it blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in 2021. In 2022, there's a new ship making headlines for blocking another channel — and it also belongs to Evergreen Marine Corp. The Ever Forward is stuck in Craighill Channel of the Chesapeake Bay.
The Coast Guard and Maryland Department of the Environment are trying to move the 1,095-foot container vessel, which ran aground about 9 p.m. on Sunday, CBS Baltimore reports.
The ship was on its way from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, Maryland-National Capital Region Sector Commander Capt. David O'Connell said, according to CBS Baltimore.
Investigators don't know what caused the ship to ground, and interviews and evidence are still being collected, O'Connell said.
While the ship isn't obstructing the channel – like the Ever Given did in Egypt between the Mediterranean and Red Seas – other vessels have been asked to conduct one-way traffic and reduce speed, the U.S. Coast Guard said, according to CBS Baltimore.
The Ever Given was stranded almost exactly one year ago. The skyscraper-sized ship was wedged across the canal's southern single-lane on March 23 and its grounding halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce, the Associated Press reports.
A flotilla of tugboats was able to move the Ever Given from the Suez's sandy bank, with help from the tides. But the ship's dayslong grounding captivated the world. By the time Ever Given was dislodged, more than 300 vessels on both ends of the canal were waiting to sail through.
CBS News has reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard and Evergreen Marine Corp. for more information and is awaiting response.
