the ever given ship has been partially freed in the suez canal — you can put it back

following a week of blocking egypt’s suez canal, the ever given container ship has been successfully refloated. ‘this was the result of successful push and tow maneuvers which led to the restoration of 80% of the vessel’s direction; with the stern 102 m. away from the bank of the canal now instead of 4 m. prior to the refloating.’ said the suez canal authority (SCA) chief osama rabie in a statement. ‘maneuvers are set to be resumed once more during high tide at 11:30 a.m.; as it shall reach 2 m., allowing for the full restoration of the vessel’s direction so it is positioned in the middle of the navigable waterway.’

images by suez canal authority (SCA)

this doesn’t mean the ever given ship has been completely freed. in reality, the most difficult part is missing and that is moving the bow away from the canal bank where it is stuck in sandy clay. the situation, which has been terrible for the economy, has proven to be hilarious for the internet which was created not only memes but also a glitch app that allows users to place the large vessel anywhere on a satellite map of the world and a microsoft flight simulator mod that features the cargo ship still stuck in the suez canal.

I found this much easier to use once I read the instructions

I have freed the ship now though, so we’re all set pic.twitter.com/E52ytP8FqR

— Alasdair Rae (@undertheraedar) March 28, 2021

the ever green, which has been jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal, weighs 224,000 tons and is longer than four football fields combined. its stoppage has been costing the canal around $15 million a day, it has disrupted global supply chains and has created costly delays to an already-COVID-19 restrictive panorama.

good thing we can have a laugh while all this happens.

Cargo ship stuck in Microsoft Flight Simulator pic.twitter.com/SczumWI5mD

— Mat Velloso (@matvelloso) March 28, 2021