Evergreen Marine Corp has once again turned to Dutch salvage expertise to rescue its latest container ship to run aground.
The Taiwanese shipowner has called in Donjon-Smit to free the 12,118-teu Ever Forward (built 2020) that ran aground on Sunday.
The salvage company is a joint venture between Donjon Marine Co and Smit Salvage Americas, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based company responsible for ending the six-day saga of the 20,338-teu Ever Given (built 2018) grounding in the Suez Canal in March 2021.
The Hong Kong-flagged vessel ran aground on Sunday evening on its way to Norfolk, Virginia, after discharging/loading cargo at Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal and has not moved since.
The ship’s location is just off Gibson Island near the Craighill channel in the Chesapeake Bay. There have been no reports of injuries or pollution-related spills.
Experts at the scene are assessing the vessel’s grounding condition, the weight of the cargo on board and the tidal range at its location as part of efforts to come up with a refloating plan, Evergreen said in a statement that was reported by Bloomberg.
William P Doyle, executive director at the Port of Baltimore and former US Federal Maritime Commissioner said on Twitter that the Donjon-Smit team is working alongside naval architects, divers and the US Coast Guard to free the ship.
The ship’s grounding has not prevented other ships from transiting into or out of the Port of Baltimore and business and commerce-related activities at the port continue as normal, Doyle added.
Last March, the Ever Given was stuck in the Suez Canal for six days after grounding in one of the most high-profile casualties in recent years.
Evergreen ended up paying $600m to the Suez Canal Authority to compensate for the disruption that was captured by global media.
