Always forward to be unloaded before the next refloat attempt

Salvage experts determined they would be unable to overcome the ground forces of the more than 1,000-foot-long Ever Forward loaded with nearly 5,000 shipping containers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection and the Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp. , the operator of the ship, said in a press release. Unloading the ship offers the best chance of getting it back afloat, officials said.

Dredging will continue to a depth of 13 meters, but once two crane barges are installed, the containers will be removed and returned to Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal, officials said. Then the tugs and barges will try again to get the ship afloat again. The shipping canal will remain open to one-way traffic during the operation, which is expected to last about two weeks.

The ship was headed by the Port of Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia on March 13 when it ran aground north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Officials said there were no reports of injuries, damage or pollution.

The Coast Guard said it has not yet figured out why the Ever Forward ran aground. The ship is outside the shipping channel and has not blocked navigation, unlike last year’s high-profile grounding Suez Canal of the sister ship Ever Given, which disrupted the global supply chain for days.

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