Rescue efforts to free the Ever Given container ship from the Suez Canal continue, as the skyscraper-sized vessel remains stuck. This comes after many publications posted that the ship had been "freed" earlier today.
In reality, only part of the ship has been dislodged from the shoreline.
Per NBC News, Peter Berdowski - who is the head of the company Smit Salvage - has told the world on Dutch station NPO Radio 1 earlier today: "Don’t cheer too soon."
Berdowski then added: "The good news is that the stern is free but we saw that as the simplest part of the job."
BBC News is now reporting that the Ever Given is now 102 meters off the shore and has been corrected by 80%, according to the Suez Canal Authority. This means that the stern is no longer blocking the entire width of the canal.
However, Berdowski added that workers will now have to fight to haul the fully laden 220,000-ton vessel over the clay of the canal bank.
Smit Salvage, along with local authorities, reportedly restarted rescue efforts this morning at 09:30AM local time.
Per the Associated Press, authorities have confirmed that the Every Given has been "partially refloated", but have given no timeframe as to when the world can expect to see the vessel fully free.
The Ever Given, operated by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine, became stuck in the Egyptian waterway on Tuesday, March 23, blocking one of the world's most vital shipping routes.
Incredible aerial footage has shown rows and rows of ships waiting to pass through the Suez Canal after it was blocked by the Ever Given ship last Tuesday (March 23).
The Ever Given is 400 meters in length - taller than the Empire State Building - and a ship of its size can carry as many as 20,000 twenty-foot containers.
BBC News reports that 367 ships are waiting to pass through, with officials saying that it will take three and a half days to clear the traffic jam.
Watch the ariel footage below:It is estimated that 90% of the delayed vessels have not been insured for such an incident, the shipping data and news company Loyd's List reports.
CNBC later reported that Lloyd’s List had estimated that the blockage was holding up $400 million an hour in trade (based on the approximate value of goods that are moved through the Suez Canal every day.)
Sailing under a Panamanian flag, the Ever Given was headed for Rotterdam, Netherlands, from the Yantian district of China, per the ship-tracking site Vessel Finder.
After initially becoming stuck, social media users were quick to get a few laughs out of the unfortunate traced by its path:
After running aground on the canal's banks at 7:40AM local time on Tuesday, the 200-foot-wide and 1300-foot-long vessel blocked the entire width of the channel.
Since becoming lodged, it is still unclear as to why the ship ran aground, with everything from high winds to power failures to "human error" all being reported.
Over the course of the following days, Egyptian authorities attempted to simultaneously dig the ship out of the shore, as well as use tugboats to tow the Ever Given back into position.
The incident quickly spurred an onslaught of memes on social media, as the rest of the world made light of the situation.
