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Crew Celebrate After Ever Given Is Freed From Suez Canal After Six Days

Crew Celebrate After Ever Given Is Freed From Suez Canal After Six Days

They dug and tugged and got the job done

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

It's finally done, the Ever Given has been released from where it became stranded, blocking off the Suez Canal - one of the world's busiest shipping lanes - for six days. Let's take a second to talk about the brave folks who helped get it out.

While it has been a figure of fun for most of us, we shouldn't forget the efforts of the relatively small number of people who worked tirelessly to free it.

The ship became wedged across the canal on 23 March while travelling to Rotterdam from Malaysia.

It quickly became a worldwide incident, because the Suez Canal is obviously very important to world trade.

Basically, if a 400-metre long boat gets jammed right across it, things start to get very difficult indeed.

However, an intrepid crew of people from the Suez Canal Authority in Egypt and Dutch salvage firm Boskalis worked tirelessly to dredge the sand from beneath the boat, tug it back into position, and refloat the ship, allowing for it to be taken out of the canal for further inspection.

Workers from the Suez Canal Authority.
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As you can see from the above video, they're pretty happy with their work.

In the video, some crew members can be heard shouting, "Mashour is number one!"

Mashour was one of the tugboats that eventually managed to get the ship out to safety and open up the shipping channel once more.

After Ever Given was freed, the CEO of Boskalis, Peter Berdowski, released a statement that said: "Shortly following the grounding of the Ever Given we were requested through SMIT Salvage to provide assistance with the salvage operation."

The ship was freed through dredging sand and tugging with boats.
PA

"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."

They were understandably delighted with their work.
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There you have it.

The team dredged, dug and tugged, and eventually managed to get the boat out safely. Now they'll take it outside the channel and check it over for damage.

It's been fun while it lasted, but at least the goods on the boat - and all the others in the queue - can now head on to their final destination.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News, Weird