Photo: Stan Muller
A Maersk Line containership ran aground in the Suez Canal Tuesday afternoon causing several hours of traffic delays before being refloated.
The shipping agency GAC reports that the vessel was number 13 in a southbound convoy of 33 vessels when it rang aground Tuesday (July 5) at kilometer 133 in the Suez Canal at approximately 15:30 local time. The grounding caused some of the vessels in the convoy to be detained until the container ship was refloated.
The vessel was eventually refloated just before midnight local time and towed by Suez Canal tugs to the Suez outer anchorage located outside the canal by Wednesday morning. Both convoys were expected to be back to normal Tuesday, GAC reported.
The containership has been identified as the 10,000 teu Maersk Shams, a 117,176 dwt container ship built in 2015.
As of Wednesday afternoon the vessel was still showing at anchor in Suez.
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