Video shows tug boats honking in celebration as they moved the lodged Suez Canal ship by 2 inches

  • Date: 28-Mar-2021
  • Source: Business Insider
  • Sector:Transport
  • Country:Egypt
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Video shows tug boats honking in celebration as they moved the lodged Suez Canal ship by 2 inches

A new video posted to social media on Saturday shows tugboats in the Suez Canal honking in celebration after they were able to move the massive container ship that has been lodged in the sandbank for days by two inches.

Canal officials said "significant progress" had been made after workers dredged about 20,000 tonnes of sand on Saturday, the BBC reported.

Fourteen tugboats moved The Ever Given, which weighs 220,000 tons and is roughly the same length as the Empire State Building, 30 degrees in two directions.

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However, all other attempts to completely free the giant vessel failed.

The Ever Given, operated by the Evergreen Marine Corporation, has been wedged in the Suez canal for over 100 hours.

More than 300 ships have been forced to queue up on either side of the blockage, with some opting to take a 15,000-mile detour around Africa instead. The fiasco is costing the global economy an estimated $400 million per hour. 

General Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told reporters on Saturday that officials are hopeful the vessel could refloat again by Sunday after water had started running underneath it.

"We expect