Experts probe cargo ship’s grounding
Why container vessel became stuck mystery
SUEZ, Egypt — Experts boarded the container ship Tuesday that had blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for nearly a week, seeking answers to a question that could have billions of dollars in legal repercussions: What went wrong?
As convoys of ships again began traveling through the artery linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas, a canal service provider said more than 300 vessels carrying everything from crude oil to cattle were still waiting for their turn. Egyptian government officials, insurers, shippers and others similarly waited for more details about what caused the skyscraper-sized Ever Given to become wedged across the canal on March 23.
When blame gets assigned, it probably will lead to years of litigation to recoup the costs of repairing the ship, fixing the canal and reimbursing those who saw their cargo shipments disrupted. Because the vessel is owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, flagged in Panama and now stuck in Egypt, matters quickly become an international morass.
“This ship is a multinational conglomeration,” said Capt. John Konrad, the founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain. com.
Experts boarded the Ever Given as it idled Tuesday in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it blocked the canal. A canal pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists, said that experts were looking for signs of damage and trying to determine why the vessel ran aground.
There could be significant damage to the the ship, Konrad warned. Stuck for days across the canal, the ship’s middle rose and fell with the tide, bending up and down under the tremendous weight of some 20,000 containers across its quarter-mile length. On Monday, when workers partially floated the ship, all of that pressure came forward to its bow.
“Structural integrity is No. 1. You know, there was a lot of strain on that ship as it was sagging in the waterway,” Konrad said.
The ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., said Tuesday that it would be part of the investigation with other parties, but it did not identify them by name. It also refused to discuss possible causes of the grounding, including the ship’s speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm, saying it could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Initial reports also suggested a “blackout” struck the vessel, something denied by the ship’s technical manager.