BLOGGING THE VIEW: Remembering the Ever Given: The ship that launched a thousand memes

This week two years ago, we had all faced a gruelling year of surviving Covid-19, lockdowns, and close contact with our immediate family members.

It had been one of the toughest years in recent history, with the internet our connection to the outside world, and the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal and causing a global supply chain disruption was just the light-hearted event to bring us all together in our time of need.

Here’s a look at some of the facts about this meme-rable historic event.

1. It’s a really big ship

The Ever Given wasn’t just a large container ship, but one of the largest ships of its kind on the planet weighing in at 220 940 tonnes making it 20 times heavier than the Eiffel Tower with a length of four football pitches.

It has the capacity to carry 20 124 20-foot unit containers at a speed of 22.8 knots.

2. Global connection

A lot of nations were involved in the Ever Given, from start to stuck. The ship was built by Japanese company,

Imabari Shipbuilding in 2015 and is owned by the nation’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, however, it is operated by the Taiwanese shipping giant Evergreen and registered in the Port of Panama.

The ship was stranded in Egypt’s Suez Canal, and was heading towards the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands from China when the trouble started.

3. Why is the Suez Canal important?

Egypt’s Suez Canal – the world’s largest man-made canal – was opened in 1869 to create a channel between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to give passage to cargo vessels from Europe and Asia.

This meant cutting out the long, costly, and treacherous journeys through the south Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, and into the Indian Ocean.

The journey through the Suez Canal accounts for a tenth of all the globe’s seaborne freight with an average of 52 ships passing through every day, carrying hundreds of thousands of containers and millions of tons of cargo.

4. What happened?

After Covid-19 and lockdown measures had already hampered the supply chain, the Ever Given attempted to pass along the Suez Canal when it was struck by 30mph winds, causing a massive sandstorm that led the ship to drift off course. The ship’s hull got stuck in the canal bed and the ship blocked the entire canal for six days. Eight tugboats and several diggers worked day and night to free the ship and open up this vital trade route once again.

5. The impact

During the almost week the Ever Given was lodged in the canal, more than 400 ships laden with goods destined for all over the world were forced to sit and wait, much like one would in a Home Affairs queue.

At the time, there was also significant concern that the vessel would create a target for terror attacks, however, it was the financial impact that resounded with most. The ship was holding up $60 billion of trade.

6. The aftermath

The interconnecting nationalities and legalities of this incident made it incredibly difficult to sort as the shipowner, the charterer, the owners of the goods, and the Suez Canal have insurance policies originating from all over the world, all seeking to recover losses.

The SCA initially asked for $916m in compensation from the ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, for loss of revenue, reputational damage, and the cost of the salvage operation – they settled on an undisclosed amount with other insurance companies still conducting their own investigations.

This week we can celebrate the fact that we have moved on from the Covid-19 crisis (mostly), and can once again enjoy memes of people doing stupid things out in public, instead of big boats.

SOURCES:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/suez-canal-blocked-ship-facts-b1822269.html
https://www.scor.com/en/expert-views/lessons-ever-given#:~:text=Reported%20by%20media%20across%20the,navigation%20can%20become%20a%20chokepoint.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/egypt/2023/01/09/how-suez-canal-learnt-from-ever-given-incident/

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