Ships are not usually discussed much, unless they sink. For thousands of years, ships have been the drivers of human migrations, economy, trade, and culture but we do not pay much attention to them. They just go about their business silently, running the world.
March 2021 was an exception. It was a time when almost the whole world took notice because a ship got stuck. And what a place it was to get stuck indeed.
Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world, got stuck in the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021, and since the Suez Canal is so narrow, the stuck ship blocked the Canal. That was it, a ship got stuck and a significant chunk of global trade came to a halt. That was when the world took notice.
It was not exactly the poor giant’s fault. There was a sandstorm just when it was crossing the Canal and in a nasty gust of wind, the ship ran aground to a sandbank.
Suez Canal drives 12% of global trade, so that is a very, very wrong place to get stuck. Estimates said, the block was holding up goods worth 9.6 billion dollars a day, that is 400 million dollars an hour.
You know that feeling when you stall at the lights and hold up traffic? This is a bit like that. A big boat is stuck in the Suez Canal and the queue is quite something. https://t.co/UZRiM6K98u pic.twitter.com/hSj4oR9AtP
— Jack Stilgoe (@Jackstilgoe) March 23, 2021
The ship, while stuck, became the world’s favourite news, and favourite meme material of the year. After all, it is not the well behaved, disciplined ships that make history.
It took every single tugboat around that part of the world, a lot of ocean salvage specialists, and a lot of efforts to free the 200,000-ton cargo ship. But before the ship was freed, a little excavator also became famous.
The little guy, trying its best to dig up sand to refloat the Goliath ship looming before it will be the image of hope and determination and efforts for a long time to come.
The ship inspired some of the best, most creative memes this year.
The ship is freed but the meme live on, thanks @ever_given for giving us full week of wholesome meme in expense of world economic pic.twitter.com/GxWunJdpzs
— RESTORER37.status(“space shot”); (@restorer37) March 29, 2021
The only "Ever Given" meme I'll share. pic.twitter.com/8klDav87Qa
— Liam McBaen #Persist #NoToFascists (@LiamMcBaen) March 30, 2021
People were coming up with ideas to refloat the ship or deblock the Canal.
A Canadian woman won a Halloween costume contest by becoming ‘Ever Stuck’.
A Canadian woman named Lauren Hunter just won Halloween with her perfect costume of the Ever Given ship, which famously ran aground in the Suez Canal in March 2021 🚢 pic.twitter.com/I0HzlMwMKM
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 29, 2021
There is a website that allows you to make poor Ever Given get stuck anywhere you’d want it to get stuck. The creatively named website, ‘Ever Given Ever Ywhere’ allows you to stuck Ever Given anywhere, because, why should the Suez Canal have all the fun.
Ever Given was finally freed after nearly a week. Egyptian authorities had declared a state of emergency while the Canal was blocked. They had even sued the ship owners for a billion dollars. While the legal battle lingered, Ever Given was stuck, not physically, but legally, in the Great Bitter Lake, for months after being refloated.
BREAKING NEWS: The #EverGiven is still in the Great Bitter Lake🙃
— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) June 16, 2021
The most famous ship of 2021 has been stuck in the #Suez for 85 days, since Mar 23.During that time, 4343 vessels have passed through the Great Bitter Lake @ an avg of 54 a day
But the Ever Given is still there😦 pic.twitter.com/T2BDU0lGqR
Finally freed, the ship completed its voyage in July and in August this year, it crossed the Canal again, thankfully not getting stuck. The world-famous ship has since crossed the canal a couple of times safely and is currently in the North Sea, after arriving at the UK’s Felixstowe port on December 27. It is currently en route to Germany’s Hamburg.
The Suez Canal, roughly 120 miles long, is the shortest shipping route between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. It links the Persian Gulf with the Mediterranean and is very important, because, if the Canal were not there, ships would have to circulate around the entire landmass of the African continent before arriving in the Indian Ocean, as they did till 1869.
By getting stuck, Ever Given provided us with some much-needed respite from the Ever-gloom that the Covid pandemic has been. For a change, we were not discussing death, viruses, pathogens and hospitals. In a way, the ship symbolised how the world needs to keep running, the pandemic is just a sandbank. It can halt us, but not stop us.
Let us all hope that global trade continues uninterrupted in 2022, and no ship gets stuck anywhere.
