The Ever Given was safely anchored Tuesday in the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south ends of the canal, after salvage teams succeeded in finally freeing the skyscraper-size vessel on Monday afternoon. The grounding of the ship had halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.
A senior canal pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists, told The Associated Press that experts were looking for signs of damage and trying to determine the cause of the vessel’s grounding.
Engineers were also examining the engines of the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship hauling goods from Asia to Europe to determine when exactly it can sail to its destination in the Netherlands, he said without elaborating.
Ships stacked with containers could be seen from the city of Suez, sailing in the northbound part of the waterway. Suez Canal service provider Leth Agencies said that over three dozen vessels that had waited for Ever Given to be freed have already exited the canal into the Red Sea since the waterway was reopened for navigation at 6 p.m. on Monday.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 300 vessels were waiting on both ends of the Suez Canal and in the Great Bitter Lake for permission to continue sailing to their destinations, Leth Agencies said.
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, had told reporters Monday the maritime traffic could return within four days to its average level before the Ever Giver grounded. READ MORE
