On 23 March 2021 at 07:40 local time, the 400 m container ship Ever Given was sailing north in a convoy through the southern part of the Suez Canal. In a sandstorm with gusts of more than 40 knots she swung off course and drove her bow into the east bank, near canal kilometre 151, not far from Suez. She ended up lying across the canal and blocked it completely. For six days tugs pulled and pushed and dredgers sucked tens of thousands of cubic metres of sand from under her bow. Meanwhile ships kept arriving at both ends of the canal. The Suez Canal Authority reported more than 300 ships waiting on 27 March and more than 400 by the time she came free. Some companies sent their ships the long way around Africa, adding a week or more to the voyage. About 9 billion dollars of trade was held up every day. On 29 March at 15:05, helped by the spring tide and 14 tugs, the Ever Given floated free and was towed to the Great Bitter Lake. Convoys then ran day and night, with more than 100 ships a day against a normal 50, and on 3 April the backlog was cleared. The ship is drawn to scale at her reported position. The tugs, the dredger and the waiting ships are schematic. The number of waiting ships follows figures reported by the Suez Canal Authority between 26 and 29 March and is interpolated in between.
Source: Facts: Suez Canal Authority via press reports, Wikipedia (2021 Suez Canal obstruction), Port Economics, Management and Policy (Notteboom, Pallis, Rodrigue). Canal: © OpenStreetMap contributors. Coastline: GSHHG. Visualisation by The Moving Sea
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