The United States Navy is prepared to do everything it can to help float this boat.
The Navy may be called on to free the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal and interrupted global trade since Tuesday.
“A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Navy was prepared to send a team of dredging experts to the channel, but was awaiting approval from local authorities,” Reuters reported this morning.
The Ever Given freighter, registered in Panama and under German management, weighs about 224,000 tons and is 1,300 feet long, roughly the height of the Empire State Building.
He was forced to run aground by strong winds. Several efforts to free the ship have failed, although the ship first moved on Saturday morning, according to Egyptian officials.
“Today, we have managed to create a space with a depth of 18 meters and we believe that we can have the ship back in operation today,” said the president of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, at a news conference today.
About 12 percent of world trade goes through Suez, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Ever Given was involved in a collision with a ferry in Hamburg, Germany in 2019, an accident also attributed to the wind.