G is for Ever Given blocks Suez Canal

This year's theme for my A-to-Z Blogging Challenge is Significant Events from 2021 and the first 3 months of 2022.

At the end of today's post is a teaser for tomorrow's H post.  Enjoy! 

Ever Given blocks Suez Canal March 23, 2021 through March 29, 2021.

This is the Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world.  If you count those containers, this ship is something like 25-30 railroad cars long [400 meters, 1300 feet, more than 4 football fields].

The above photo was probably taken with a zoom lens which distorts the size of the smaller ship compared with the Ever Given.  Here's another photo showing the size.

Here's the Suez Canal

Here's another photo of just how big the Ever Given is!

On March 23, 2021, the Ever Given ran aground and became stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking all maritime traffic.  The ship is so big, it took six days to get it unstuck!

So what did all the other ships wanting to go thru the Suez Canal do for six days?

This is a photo taken from space on March 26, 2021.  The other ships basically had no choice but to wait until the Ever Given was unstuck.

Why didn't they just go around?  Well, look at this photo again.

They would have to go ALL THE WAY AROUND AFRICA, which would take way more than six days.  I looked it up.  A trip from Mumbai, India, to London would take 26 days through the Suez Canal, and 44 days if sailing around Africa.

However, the "long way around" is actually less costly.  Even counting the additional fuel and the extra days wages for the crew, a typical oil tanker pays $465,000 to go through the Suez Canal, but going the long way around would save as much as $235,000 per trip.  This just might be the world's most expensive toll road!

After it was unstuck, the Ever Given was then impounded by the Suez Canal Authority which demanded payment for the salvage operation and disruption.  It was released 3 months later.  The amount of the payment isn't known but is probably around $500million. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57746424

https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/shunning-the-suez-tankers-take-the-long-route-cash.htm

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ever-given-global-supply-chain

Here's a teaser for tomorrow's H post.  Remember, to avoid spoiling the answer for the next blog visitor, please comment on something related to the answer without giving the actual answer.