Four months later, giant boxship Ever Given arrives in Rotterdam

Almost four months after it got stuck in the Suez Canal, the 20,000 TEU containership Ever Given has reached its planned destination in Rotterdam.

The giant resumed its voyage to Rotterdam after receiving the official approval to depart the waterway from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

According to Marine Traffic data, the Ever Given arrived at Rotterdam’s container terminal on Thursday at 5 a.m. (local time).

The vessel, one of the world’s largest container ships, had become wedged diagonally across the southernmost, single-lane stretch of the canal for six days in March, disrupting global trade.

For the refloating of the 224,000-ton container vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to help free the vessel and a total of eleven harbor tugs and two powerful seagoing tugs (Alp Guard and Carlo Magna) were deployed.

The intense salvage effort has focused on removing sand from below the front and rear of the ship, while also pulling the ship with tugboats.

One person was killed during the operation.

Workers managed to free the rear part of the ship first, swinging the stern into the canal while the bow was still stuck in the sloping sand that forms the side of the canal.