Evergreen Must Pay up to $1 Billion in Compensation to Leave the Suez Canal

The Ever Given ship container captured the world's attention when it got stuck in the Suez Canal. It was reportedly blocking an estimated $9.6 billion of cargo from passing through each day.

After several attempts and almost a week later, the ship was dislodged but it has not yet been freed from the canal. Egyptian authorities are keeping the ship trapped until its owners agree to pay $1 billion in compensation.

"The vessel will remain here until investigations are complete and compensation is paid," Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, who leads the Suez Canal Authority, told a local news station, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"We hope for a speedy agreement," he added. "The minute they agree to compensation, the vessel will be allowed to move."

The requested amount is said to cover the equipment used to dislodge the ship, the labor force that worked on the ship, and the damage done to the canal. Egyptian authorities have also begun an investigation on what caused the ship to get stuck in the first place.

Although we don't yet know what caused the incident, we do know that rising tides from a Super Worm Moon provided the last push the Ever Given container ship needed to become dislodged. Previous to that it took several diggers, tug boats, and dredgers to get the ship to a point where it could be freed.

"We were helped enormously by the strong falling tide we had this afternoon," Peter Berdowski, CEO of the firm Boskalis which worked on the salvage operation, said at the time to Dutch radio station NPO 1, via AP News.

"In effect, you have the forces of nature pushing hard with you and they pushed harder than the two sea tugs could pull."

It's kind of sad to see that even with such celestial help, the ship is still stuck in the canal due to financial reasons. We hope things get settled soon so the ship can be on its merry way.