The Ever Forward is finally free from the Chesapeake Bay – a month later: NPR
Julio Cortez / AP
After a month’s stay in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, the freighter Ever Forward was finally free.
With the help of high tides, several tugs and barges — and perhaps a small Easter Sunday miracle — sailors pulled the 1,095-foot-long vessel out of the shallows off Pasadena. , Md., on Sunday.
William P. Doyle, executive director at the Maryland Port Administration, announced the update on social media.
“A huge team effort with little help from Easter Sunday high tide in Chesapeake Bay. Evergreen, Ever Forward has [refloated]”, I said.
The effort to free the giant ship, he said, was a team effort that included aid from Donjon-Smit, LLC, the salvage manager, and the US Coast Guard.
Ever Forward had just loaded up in Baltimore and was heading south to Norfolk, Va., when it strand on March 13. Newspaper container ship miss a turn leaving Baltimore, causing it to end up in shallow water off Pasadena.
Crews worked for weeks to pull the ship out. They used “every aspect of the field including dredging, marine construction, tugs, barges (deck barges, crane barges and tow barges),” says Doyle.
The story of Ever Forward is reminiscent of Ever Given, also owned by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corporation. Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days last March, causing major shipping disruptions.