A 400-meter long ship in a waterway only 300 meters wide is an accident waiting to happen. It happened last week when the Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, got wedged in the Suez Canal.
Traffic through the waterway, one of the world’s most important trade arteries, was blocked for almost a week, with mounting costs to the international economy. What was first thought of as some kind of cosmic joke has instead become a symbol of the dangers of interdependence and the fragility of the global economy.
The Ever Given, a 224,000-ton ship en route to the Netherlands from China, got stuck last Tuesday when a dust storm hit during its passage through the 192-km canal. The containers stacked across the ship’s surface reportedly acted like a giant sail, catching the wind and overwhelming control of the rudder as the vessel reportedly lost power. The ship was turned and wedged into the sand on both sides of the canal, blocking traffic in both directions. The ship was afloat and moving again Monday evening and traffic had resumed Tuesday morning.