The Ever Given is a container ship.
It belongs to Evergreen Marine Corp.
The container ship is very big.
It is almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall.
It ran aground on March the 23rd ad blocked the Suez Canal.
The wind was heavy on that day.
The ship ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal.
It is stuck in place even today.
It may be stuck in place for weeks, experts say.
Some say that the massive container ship is like
an “enormous beached whale.”
Others believe that it is actually a black swan.
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VOAA massive container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal and blocked all traffic in the important waterway for more than a day.
The Suez Canal Authority said the 400-meter-long ship, called Ever Given, got stuck Tuesday morning after facing high winds and a dust storm.
Experts said that had never happened before in the canal’s 150-year history.
The Panama-registered ship transports goods between Asia and Europe. Evergreen Marine Corporation is a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship. It said in a statement that Ever Given had been hit by strong winds as it entered the canal from the Red Sea, but none of its containers had sunk.
The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
About 30 percent of the world’s container ship traffic passes through the waterway each day.
About 30 ships waited at Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake midway on the canal, The Associated Press reported.
In addition, about 40 waited in the Mediterranean near Port Said, while another 30 were stopped at Suez on the Red Sea.
Among the ships were at least seven carrying around 5 million barrels of crude oil.
Each day, an average of 50 ships pass through the canal.
Every day the canal is closed container ships and tankers are not delivering food, fuel and manufactured goods to Europe.
And goods are not being exported from Europe to the Far East.
Security experts also warned that ships stuck in the Red Sea could be targets after a series of attacks against shipping in the Mideast as tensions rose between the United States and Iran.
Oil prices rose more than 2 percent Wednesday as news of the blockage led to concerns over supply. Industry experts said the effects of the incident on oil and gas flows will depend on how long it takes to reopen the canal.
VOCABULARY
aground [ə’graund]: to run aground сесть на мель
beached [biːʧt] выброшенный на берег
black swan [swɔn] чёрный лебедь; редкое и неожиданное событие, которое имеет значительные последствия
concern [kən’sɜːn] обеспокоенность
deliver [dɪ’lɪvə] v. доставлять
dust [dʌst] пыль: a dust storm пыльная буря
enormous [ɪ’nɔːməs] огромный
flow [fləu] поток
get stuck [stʌk] v. застревать
Great Bitter Lake Большое Горькое озеро
midway [ˌmɪd’weɪ] посередине
sink (sank – sunk [sʌŋk]) v. погружаться (под воду), тонуть (о судне)
supply [sə’plaɪ] снабжение, поставка
target [‘tɑːgɪt] мишень
waterway [‘wɔːtəweɪ] водный путь; судоходное русло, фарватер
whale [weɪl] кит
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