Suez Canal announces crossing of vessels from Mediterranean to Red Sea in spite of stuck container ship

CAIRO – 25 March 2021: The Suez Canal Authority announced later on Wednesday that the "Caravan of the North" had crossed the waterway after a one-day delay because of the stuck container ship MV EVER GEREEN.

The Caravan of the North signifies the group of ships crossing the canal coming from the Mediterranean and heading to the Red Sea.

Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie stated Wednesday that tugboats are still managing to save and float the cargo ship "Ever Given" which had stuck on Tuesday morning while crossing the international waterway coming from China and heading to Netherlands.

The official attributed the cause of the accident to bad weather as wind speed recorded 40 knots, which had impaired the ability to guide the ship. On the other hand, he said that navigation in the old canal got back to normal.

A crisis management committee was formed as eight tugboats have got deployed. One of them is dubbed Baraka, which has a dragging capacity of 160 tons. The Suez Canal chairman added that the authority is also reducing the load carried by the ship to make the mission easier.

The length of the ship is 400 meters, its width is 59 meters, and its cargo capacity is 224,000 tons. The cargo ship is owned by the Taiwanese company "Evergreen Marine Corp."