Jubilation on Suez marred by salvage statement

Traffic has resumed in Egypt’s Suez Canal after Ever Given was finally able to move again. Jubilant tugboats honked horns as the 400m-long, 60m-wide ship was dislodged on Monday.

According to the BBC, Egyptian officials say the backlog of ships waiting to transit through should be cleared in around three days, but experts believe the knock-on effect on global shipping could take weeks or months to resolve.

The ship ran aground last week in high winds and a sandstorm which reduced visibility.

For the refloating of the 224,000-ton container vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to help free the vessel, and a total of eleven harbour and two seagoing tugs were deployed, says the BBC.

High tides helped early yesterday as the stern was freed. Hours later, the bow came unstuck, and the Ever Given was able to move, heading for full inspection at the Great Bitter Lake.

Disgruntlement about credit

Dutch salvage company Boskalis has come under fire for its announcement of the successful salvage operation.

A statement from Peter Berdowski, CEO, has riled social media commentators for its lack of credit to the Egyptian community, specifically because of its title: ‘We pulled it off!’

Many comments have been pointed, suggesting edits are needed.

“It is fair to say ‘we participated in the successful refloat of the ship’ and don’t take that credit for yourself. Thanks to Egyptian hands, engineers and workers, for their contribution in solving this crisis,” says one online commentator.

Another addresses the numbers. “You were 2 from 10 ships who helped to unblock the canal, the other ships were Egyptian and you were part of the plan, so you should recorrect (you pulled it off) you just gave help.”

Berdowski’s statement continues: “Shortly following the grounding of the Ever Given we were requested through SMIT Salvage to provide assistance with the salvage operation. I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given on 29 March at 15:05 hrs local time, thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.

“I’m extremely proud of the outstanding job done by the team on site as well as the many SMIT Salvage and Boskalis colleagues back home to complete this challenging operation under the watchful eye of the world. The time pressure to complete this operation was evident and unprecedented and the result is a true display of our unique capabilities as a dredging and marine services provider.”

“We refuse to give all the credit to one party rather than the other,” says a third commentator. “This work and effort was through a large team, starting from the small excavator who freed the bow of the ship to the Mashhour, which removed sand from underneath, to all tension locomotives.”

High tides made the difference

As conventional earthmoving equipment worked on shore, tugboats and dredgers were busy in the water.

Two dredgers played an important role in refloating the container ship: the 10th of Ramadan and the Mashhour, both owned by the Suez Canal Authority.

The Mashhour is reported to be the largest and most powerful cutter suction dredger in the world, according to USA Today. It was used to widen and deepen sections of the Suez Canal in previous operations.

High tides made a critical difference in freeing the ship. Salvagers were aided by a full moon which added a few inches of water inside the canal, making removal easier.

Collaboration recognised by Svitzer

Meanwhile, Copenhagen-based Svitzer has highlighted the collaborative efforts of a number of key partners after six dramatic days of work.

In a statement, it says ‘Svitzer contributed to the multilateral effort to free the vessel with two tugs and four full crews operating in shifts, spanning some 20 people.’

Its tugs were called to the location of the grounded boxship last Tuesday morning, some 10 hours of steaming from the company’s base in Port Said. As soon as the tugs arrived on location, Svitzer engaged with the salvage operation and were deployed at the aft port side, where they pushed to free the vessel for around four hours. Svitzer says its crews were specifically tasked with pushing at this critical part of the vessel because of support provided to the SCA during two previous groundings.

Once it became apparent that more work would be needed to free Ever Given, from Wednesday 24th through to the early hours of Monday 29th, Svitzer continued to provide support by pushing the vessel and assisting with refloating trials.

Now that the vessel has been freed, Port Said 2 is escorting Ever Given back to the Bitter Lakes. Meanwhile, Port Said 1 is towing one of the dredgers that freed Ever Given to the south of the Canal.

“After six challenging and nerve-wracking days, and with the eyes of the world on all of us, we are extraordinarily proud of the relentless work that our crews onboard Port Said 1 and 2 have done to expedite the refloating of the Ever Given,” says Kasper Nilaus, CEO. “At Svitzer, doing difficult things in difficult places is in our DNA, but, even so, this has been one of the more spectacular and difficult tasks we have faced as global towage operator.

“The outstanding project management and orchestration of the SCA has been instrumental to solving this situation in a quick and safe fashion. We would like to thank our crew, the SCA, and all other parties involved in this spectacular salvage operation in the Suez.”

The unique circumstances of Ever Given’s grounding made the rescue operation a highly complex task. Svitzer has highlighted the exceptional coordination, partnership and collaboration from SCA and all other involved parties that ultimately managed to refloat the vessel sooner than expected. Since the initial callout nearly a week ago, it has been Svitzer’s key priority to provide all support possible to the SCA and all other partners.