More than three months after it got stuck in the Suez Canal and held up world trade for almost a week, the internet’s favourite cargo ship is finally on the move.
The MS Ever Given weighed anchor on Wednesday after a deal was reached between Egyptian authorities and the ship’s owners.
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The 400m ship got diagonally wedged across the Suez Canal – a key waterway for international trade – on the 23rd of March during high winds. Immediately before it became stuck, it had charted a course that strongly resembled a giant ocean-going dick.
It took six days to free the Ever Given, but it was immediately impounded in the Great Bitter Lake, a natural passing point in the Suez Canal, by the canal’s authorities.
They initially demanded $1 billion (around £725 million) in compensation from the ship’s Japanese owners over the cost of the salvage operation, lost transit fees, and the disruption to world trade. These demands were later lowered to around $550 million (around £400 million), but the terms of the final deal – signed on Wednesday – have not been disclosed.
The Ever Given will now resume its journey to the Netherlands and the UK to finally unload its containers.
