On March 13th, the container ship Ever Forward missed a turn in the Craighill Channel in the Chesapeake Bay, not long after leaving the Port of Baltimore, and ran up on a mudbank just outside the channel while traveling at a speed of 13 knots. The ship had a draft of 42 feet when it hit the bank, in water only 24 feet deep, burying its bow and much of the hull up to 18 feet deep in the muddy bottom.

Now, 23 days later, after dredging around the ship and several failed attempts to pull the ship free by six tugs, the 1,095-foot long Ever Forward remains seriously stuck. The salvors working with the Coast Guard have now decided to lighten the ship by using floating cranes to unload a portion of the reported 5,000 containers onboard.

The removal of containers is expected to take about two weeks and will involve two crane barges with suitable lifting heights for the operation, the Coast Guard said Monday. The cranes will lift containers from both the port and starboard sides and place them on receiving barges, which will shuttle the containers back to the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore where they will be offloaded by shore-based cranes.

If all goes well, another attempt to refloat the ship has been tentatively scheduled for April 15. The Ever Forward has the dubious distinction of being the largest vessel to have ever run aground in the Chesapeake Bay. 

A couple of large, 700-to-800-foot long vessels have been stuck in the Chesapeake for multiple days, but were freed within about a week in recent decades. The most notorious grounding in the bay came in 1950, though, when USS Missouri, an 888-foot Navy battleship, was stuck on a shoal off the Norfolk Naval Station for 15 days.

In addition to a delay in the delivery of their cargoes, the owners will also be subject to additional costs. Last Thursday, Evergreen Marine, the ship’s owner declared General Average (GA), a provision in Admiralty law in which the shipowner and cargo owners proportionately share in the costs associated with rescuing a vessel after a major casualty. When GA is declared, cargo owners are required to contribute to a GA fund before their cargo can be released.

The 12,000 TEU capacity Ever Forward, measuring over 1,100 feet in length, is owned by Evergreen Marine (Hong Kong) Ltd., a subsidiary of Tawainese shipping company Evergreen Marine Corporation. The appointed salvor in the operation is Donjon-Smit.

There were no reports of injuries or damage to the ship or its cargo and no indication of fuel leakage or pollution. The grounding occurred outside the shipping channel and the vessel has not been blocking navigation since. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.