Stuck container ship in Chesapeake Bay finally refloated

Associated Press

A container ship that was the length of three football fields ran aground in the bay more than a month ago.

The Ever Forward was refloated just before 7 a.m. after two unsuccessful attempts to remove it and 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying. There were two barges and five tugboats.

A full moon and high spring tide helped lift the vessels as they pulled and pushed the massive ship from the mud, across a dredged hole and back into the shipping channel.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the Ever Forward was weighed down by water tanks again to make sure it was safe to travel under the bridge.

Before the Coast Guard allows the ship to return to the Port of Baltimore, it will be inspected by marine inspectors.

The cargo ship ran aground just north of the bay bridge while it was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk.

There were no reports of injuries, damage or pollution. The Ever Forward ran aground, but the Coast Guard has not said what happened.

The ship became stuck outside the shipping channel and did not block marine navigation, unlike last year's high-profile grounding in the Suez Canal of its sister vessel, the Ever Given. The global supply chain was disrupted by that incident.

The containers were unloaded from the Ever Forward until 10:30 pm. Saturday. The containers were loaded onto barges and taken to Baltimore.

After two failed attempts to free the vessel, experts decided that unloading some of the containers was the best way to refloat it. The crews continued to dredge around the vessel.

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