Aground in Suez -in 1977

摘要

A great deal of attention has recently been given to the Ever Given - one of the world's largest containerships which ran aground l in the Suez Canal last month and blocked one of the most vital waterways in the world. Some of the more excitable coverage suggested that this was a previously unknown event. In fact, it reminded me of an incident some 44 years ago (1977) when I was a deck officer on the Tokyo Bay - at the time, one of the world's largest container ships at 3,043 TEU. Like Ever Given, it grounded in the southern section of the Suez Canal. While the dimensions of the ship and the Suez Canal at the time were smaller, the vulnerability of the Canal to being blocked by an incident associated with a single ship was clear.