2019 Hamburg collision On 9 February 2019, the ship collided with and heavily damaged
Finkenwerder, a
HADAG ferry boat which was berthed at
Blankenese, near the
harbour of Hamburg. Two minutes after the collision, a traffic ban on the
Elbe river was mandated due to high winds.
2021 Suez Canal grounding At 07:40
Egypt Standard Time (
UTC+02:00) on 23 March 2021, as she was passing through the Suez Canal on her way to
Rotterdam from
Tanjung Pelepas,
Ever Given became stuck (coordinates ) near the village of Manshiyet Rugola and blocked the canal. According to a statement by the
Suez Canal Authority (SCA), the ship ran
aground diagonally after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm. In a separate statement, Evergreen Marine said that it had been told the ship "was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate from [the] waterway and accidentally hit the bottom". , 27 March 2021 The ship, which had no tugboat, was the fifth in a northbound convoy, behind two prior container ships that were each paired with a tugboat. There were fifteen vessels behind her when she ran aground. Traffic in both directions was blocked for just over six days, leading to a traffic jam of over two hundred vessels. On 24 March, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the ship, denied earlier reports that she had been partially refloated. Eight
tugboats worked to re-float the vessel in collaboration with
excavators removing sand from the side of the canal where the bow of the vessel was wedged. After an overnight break, the salvage work resumed in the morning of 25 March. Egyptian meteorologists reported that high winds and a sandstorm had affected the area on the day of the grounding, with winds gusting as much as . Addressing a press conference on 27 March, Admiral
Osama Rabie, chairman of the SCA, said that weather conditions were "not the main reasons" for the ship's grounding, adding, "There may have been technical or human errors ... All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation." Aided by high
spring tide, the ship was partially freed from sediment and
re-floated on 29 March 2021 at 05:42
EGY (03:42 UTC), apart from the bow, which was still caught. The ship was finally freed in the afternoon at 15:05 EGY (13:05 UTC), and the ship started moving under tow towards the
Great Bitter Lake for technical inspection, the first step towards reopening the canal, planned for later that day.
Aftermath On 13 April, the SCA announced that the ship had been seized on court orders until the owners paid $900 million in damages. On 4 July 2021 the German newspaper
Der Spiegel reported that the owners and the SCA had agreed on compensation, although the exact amount remained unclear. The settlement had been lowered to $540 million by the
Suez Canal Authority. The ship departed from the Suez Canal on 7 July for scheduled deliveries of cargo at several European ports. On 7 July 2021, Egyptian authorities released the ship after an unspecified settlement was reached. It was announced that Egypt would also receive a 75-ton tugboat from the ship's Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, as part of the compensation package.
Ever Given sailed to
Port Said. Hull inspections were carried out, with the vessel finally departing on 12 July, after a seizure delay of more than 100 days. The ship finally arrived at her destination, the
Rotterdam Maasvlakte,
NL,
container terminal on 29 July, after sailing for 17 days, although the trip was originally expected to take only 9.) It arrived 22 days after her release by the Egyptian government, and over four months after her grounding. It became a
tourist attraction during that time. After unloading about three quarters of the load in Rotterdam,
Ever Given departed on 2 August, mooring in
Felixstowe Trinity Container Terminal on 3 August to complete unloading, before going out of service prior to inspection at Harwich Anchorage by Leask Marine (
Orkney) on behalf of
American Bureau of Shipping. It departed 6 August, for refueling at
Malta Bunkering Area 3, preceded by
Scot Munchen, on 15 August. During the morning of 20 August,
Ever Given transited through the Suez Canal, within a 22-vessel convoy. On 20 September 2021 the ship arrived at
Qingdao Port anchorage, before berthing alongside the sufficiently large
dry dock facilities for repairs on 4 October. Qingdao is also close to Chinese shipping ports where the vessel was projected to re-enter service in late October to mid-November. Photographs taken upon arrival at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry pier indicated bow crumple damage extending as far back as the rear
bow thruster tunnel.{{Cite news|last=Towey|first=Hannah |title=These photos of the dry-docked Ever Given reveal the damage it suffered after blocking the Suez Canal ==See also==