In what has apparently become a spectator sport, a container ship remains stuck in Chesapeake Bay near to Baltimore, as the rescue has moved on to plan B after plan A failed.

Supply Chain Digest Says...   People are also flocking to a place Downs Park between Baltimore and Annapolis, which also features nice views of the bay.     What do you say?   Click here to send us your comments       Click here to see reader feedback

The ironically named Ever Forward spectacularly ran aground 24-feet deep into the mud all the way back on March 13, when it missed a turn in the shipping channel. The incident has not received anywhere near the reporting generated when the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021, but that’s because that event blocked traffic for many days through the busy waterway.

And yes, as could be guessed from the names of the ships, both stuck vessels were under the operation of Taiwanese carrier Evergreen Line.

Crews have already had to dig out at least 84,000 cubic yards of mud from around the vessel, but to no avail. Last week, five tugboats couldn’t get the ship moving forward, so the next day seven tugboats gave it a shot. That effort also failed.

So this week, Salvage crews are removing as many as 500 containers to lighten the load of the ship. A crane on a barge anchored off the port side of the Ever Forward is removing cargo containers one at a time and placing them on a barge to transport them back to the Port of Baltimore.

According to the US Coast Guard, on Saturday 22 cargo containers were removed, and Sunday an additional 21 containers were transferred.

Still more dredging is planned after the containers are removed. The target date to try the tugboats again is April 18 when the tide will be at its highest.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that there is significant interest by many in the stuck ship and the rescue efforts.

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For example, a Washington DC TV news station posted on its website a one-hour 19-minute video of a failed effort to free the ship. It has been viewed some 40,000 times.

People are also flocking to a place Downs Park between Baltimore and Annapolis, which also features nice views of the bay.

“We’ve never had this much exposure,” park superintendent Nolley Fisher told the Journal. “Every day we get people calling to ask, ‘Can you still see the ship?’”

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