Ever Forward container ship stuck in muddy bottom of Chesapeake Bay for over a month finally freed
Officials had made two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge
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A container ship that was stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for over a month has finally been refloated, officials said.
The Ever Forward, operated by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp., was refloated just before 7 a.m. Sunday by two barges and five tugboats.
Evergreen Marine's Ever Forward container ship passes under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge after it was freed from mud outside the shipping channel off Pasadena, Md. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP / AP Newsroom)
Officials had made two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the vessel and removed roughly 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying. A full moon and high spring tide helped provide a lift to the salvage vessels as they pulled and pushed the massive ship from the mud and back into the shipping channel.
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Once refloated, water tanks weighed down the ship to ensure its safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on its way to an anchorage off Annapolis, The Baltimore Sun reported.
The cargo ship was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Va., on March 13, when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP / AP Newsroom)
Marine inspectors will examine the ship's hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to the Port of Baltimore to retrieve the offloaded containers.
The causes of the grounding remain unclear. The vessel was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia last month when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
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The ship became stuck outside the shipping channel. It did not block marine navigation like last year's high-profile grounding of its sister vessel, the Ever Given, in the Suez Canal which disrupted ship traffic and the global supply chain for days.
After two failed efforts to free the more than 1,000-foot vessel, salvage experts determined earlier this month that unloading some containers offered the best chance to refloat it. Crews also continued dredging to a depth of 43 feet around the vessel.
Evergreen Marine's Ever Forward container ship passes under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge after it was freed from mud outside the shipping channel off Pasadena, Md., where is had spent the past month aground. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP / AP Newsroom)
Salvage crews continued to offload containers from the Ever Forward until 10:30 p.m. Saturday. The containers were placed onto barges and taken to Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal. The grounding did not result in reports of injuries, damage, or pollution, officials said.
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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan called the vessel’s refloating "great news on this Easter morning."
"Thank you to all of the captains and crews involved in this operation," the Republican governor tweeted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.