The giant ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal last week has been freed, officials said early Monday. Long live the stuck ship.
Ever Container, a container ship larger than the Empire State Building, disrupted an important trade route after it was jammed in the side of the canal last Tuesday, delaying billions of euros in reaching its destination.
On Monday, the canal’s service provider announced that the ship had been made afloat again and was on its happy journey.
Rescue teams in tugs had worked for six days to free the ship and were ultimately successful, thanks in part to the full moon that brought in the high tide.
A Dutch company that helped in efforts to wiggle the boat freely had previously compared the ship to a “stranded whale” and, according to Reuters, it took “weeks” to achieve this.
Despite being a global trade disaster, the hold of the Ever Given has cast a spell over the world and has become the subject of tons of jokes and memes.
When it floated free on Monday, trade officials, rescue workers and politicians celebrated.
But many, many more people made a different request:
