Up
to 20,000 cubic meters (706,000 cubic feet) of sand in the Suez Canal need to be removed to free the gigantic container ship that has been stuck there since Tuesday, according to the canal authorities. The Ever Given, a container ship almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall, ran aground in the Egyptian canal after being caught in 40-knot winds and a sandstorm that caused low visibility and poor navigation.
It has blocked one of the world's busiest waterways, prompting frantic salvage efforts including the use of two dredgers, nine tug boats and four diggers on the canal bank.
Dredgers are hard at work removing sand and mud from the bow of the ship -- and they will need to move between 15,000 to 20,000 cubic meters (530,000 to 706,000 cubic feet) of sand in order to reach a depth of 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet), which could allow the ship to float, the SCA said on Thursday. That's approximately eight times the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
"In addition to the dredgers already on site a specialized suction dredger is now with the vessel and will shortly begin work. This dredger can shift 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour," said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given ship, in a statement.
The SCA added that it had discussed the option of moving the boat, which measures 400 meters (1,312 feet) long and 59 meters (193 feet) wide, by dredging the area around it.
The senior canal pilot at the SCA told CNN Wednesday that re-floating the massive vessel is "technically very complicated" and could take days.
A team of expert salvors from Dutch Smit Salvage and Japan's Nippon Salvage, who worked on several high-profile operations in the past, have been appointed to help the Suez Canal Authority re-float the ship, the charter company Evergreen Marine said in a statement.
