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The "Ever Given" in the Great Bitter Lake
Photo: Mohamed Elshahed / AP
Now the "Ever Given" is stuck in the Suez Canal for the second time.
This time, however, not across a narrow section of the canal, but in the kilometer-wide Great Bitter Lake between the northern and southern parts of the canal.
It no longer blocks shipping through the bottleneck of global merchant shipping.
Yes, according to the operating company, with its 25-strong crew it could even continue to drive on its own: to Rotterdam, in order to finally deliver the around 18,000 containers on board at their destination port.
But she mustn't.
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Small dredger, big ship: the Suez Canal authorities are said to charge the "Ever Given" owners $ 300 million for the salvage work alone
Photo: - / dpa
Ever Given has been anchored in the Great Bitter Lake since March 29th.
On that Monday four weeks ago, the 400-meter-long container freighter was maneuvered out of the southern section of the canal.
The "Ever Given" had blocked it for six days - causing a mega-jam of around 400 ships.
Some of them have only recently reached their destinations in Europe or the Far East.
Egypt calls for $ 916 million
The blockade has dissolved.
But not the dispute over the compensation that the "Ever Given" owners are now supposed to pay.
The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority is demanding 916 million US dollars from the Japanese company Shoei Kisen and its subsidiary Luster Maritime from Panama - almost a third of it each for costly salvage and for reputational damage.
According to the Reuters news agency, the shipowners are said to have only offered $ 100 million;
Shoei Kisen does not comment on this.
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Liberation of the "Ever Given" on March 23rd: due to the blockade, more than 400 ships were stuck in front of the Suez Canal
Photo: - / AFP
And so the Egyptians confiscated the "Ever Given" as a pledge.
Including around 18,000 containers.
The crew was also arrested: only two men were allowed to disembark due to acute emergencies.
The decision to arrest the ship is "extremely disappointing," complains Ian Beveridge, head of the Hamburg shipping company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).
The incident did not cause any environmental damage.
And: they have cooperated with the authorities from the beginning in investigating the accident.
Container stack as a vestibule
According to the BSM, extensive investigations should have shown that neither a mechanical defect nor a drive problem caused the incident.
The "Ever Given" had crossed the canal in strong winds on March 23 and ran aground.
There is speculation about the trigger.
It is possible that the thousands of containers on board, some dozen meters high, could have been caught in the wind like a sail - and thus contributed to the captain losing control.
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The "Ever Given" loaded around 18,000 containers
Photo: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY / REUTERS
The actual cause of the accident has not yet been officially determined.
This makes it difficult to reach an agreement in the dispute over compensation.
Time is of the essence, especially for the owners.
They cannot use their ship - and have to deal with customers who finally want their cargo.
This is probably one of the reasons why they are now looking for happiness in court.
The owners have appealed against the confiscation of the ship and cargo by the Egyptian authorities, said the insurance company UK P&I, which works for Shoei Kisen.
According to P&I, a hearing in the appeal proceedings at the court in Ismailia, Egypt, will take place on May 4th.
However, the process could possibly take weeks or months.
And that the Egyptian judges will ultimately oppose the national Suez Canal authority is not at all clear.
Trapped on the freighter for four years
Therefore, the 25 sailors on the "Ever Given" will have to wait a little longer.
The men, all of them Indians, have been on board for six weeks now.
The Indian seafarers' union AISU demands that the Egyptian authorities should not treat them “like hostages”.
Your imprisonment could be much longer.
In front of the southern entrance of the Suez Canal, less than 100 kilometers away from the “Ever Given”, the “MV Aman” has been anchored since July 2017. At that time, Egyptian authorities arrested the Bahraini freighter in a dispute over safety equipment and fuel bills.
A court appointed First Officer Mohammed Aisha to be legally responsible for the "MV Aman".
Mohammed Aisha was only allowed to leave the »MV Aman« this Friday. After months of fighting by the International Transport Workers Union. And almost four years on the freighter.
