The equipment installation for the next stage of the refloating operation regarding the Ever Forward containership at Chesapeake Bay, is set to start.
After many failed attempts to refloat the containership at Chesapeake Bay, the revised plan for the Evergreen Marine-owned containership, Ever Forward, which run aground 3 weeks ago, is to unload the containers from the cargo ship.
To remind, the 12,000 teu Ever Forward remains stuck in Chesapeake Bay, after departing the Port of Baltimore Seagirt Terminal on a Sunday night, three weeks ago.
The staging is in preparation for the removal of a portion of the cargo containers and future pulling operation. The next pulling operation, which is scheduled for Friday, April 15th, will involve two anchored pulling barges pulling on the stern of Ever Forward.
The lightering operations of the containership are set to start on Friday, April 8, utilizing two crane barges. As informed, only a portion of the reported 5,000 individual containers on board the ship will be removed.
As informed, the containers will be removed in daylight hours only for safety purposes from both the port and starboard sides and placed on receiving barges. Subsequently, these barges will shuttle the containers back to their original onboarding facility, Seagrit Marine Terminal in Baltimore, where they will be offloaded by shore-based handling gear.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been working on the response with the Maryland Department of the Environment and the shipowner, Taiwanese carrier Evergreen Marine Corporation, in partnership with multiple state and local responders.
Donjon-Smit, a joint venture between U.S.-based Donjon Marine and Boskalis’ SMIT Salvage, is the designated salvage company.
Last week, the company declared a General Average statement, noting that “In light of the increasing costs arising from the continued attempts to refloat the vessel, Evergreen declared General Average”.
It is worth noting that last year in 2021, after the re-floating of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal, the owners of the ship had also declared a General Average. Precisely, specialist rescue teams had managed to freed the ship after almost a week, after extensive dredging and repeated tugging operations.
