Salvage crews harnessed the power of a full moon and a spring tide in a third and final push to free the ship that had sat stuck for more than a month.
Coast guard officials have still not revealed how the biggest ship to ever be so stuck in the Chesapeake Bay missed a turn and jumped the narrow Craighill Channel, propelling into at least 18 feet of mud and silt the night of March 13. The blunder has created a national spectacle marveled by onlookers and mounted a logistical nightmare for marine engineers.
The tugboats Atlantic Enterprise, left, and Atlantic Salvor, bottom right, use lines to pull the container ship Ever Forward, top right, which ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay, as crews began to attempt to refloat the ship, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Pasadena, Md. Exactly what the Ever Forward is transporting from China isn’t clear, though some items include a New York reporter’s furniture shipped from Hong Kong and 10,000 copies of a Los Angeles author’s recent graphic novel.
Dozens of dredging boats cycled through the bay, digging around the ship, which needs 42 feet of water to safely navigate, and dropping mud at Poplar Island in Talbot County. The powerful Dale Pyatt, the largest clamshell dredge in the Western Hemisphere, was tapped for the excavation for its ability to scoop 60 cubic yards at once.
If the hull is unharmed, the ship then heads back to the Port of Baltimore to reload the 500 captive containers before taking a second run at its journey to Norfolk. People sit on a park as they watch tugboats, top left, use lines to pull the container ship Ever Forward, top right, which ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay, as crews began to attempt to refloat the ship, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Pasadena, Md.Maarten Maarschalkerw, 76, watched the sunrise and ate an early breakfast while waiting for refloating effort to begin. Binoculars in hand, the Arnold resident sat in a foldable chair by a waterfront home with a clear view of the Ever Forward.