'Oh no!': After Suez Canal chaos, cargo ship Elise blocks River Arun in Sussex

After Ever Given had blocked the Suez Canal for a week, an 80-metre long vessel, called Elise, wedged itself across a river in West Sussex on March 30. According to BBC, Elise was moored in Littlehampton harbour with a 2,600-tonne cargo but drifted into the middle of the River Arun when one of its mooring lines parted. The ship, which has now been safely returned to its berth, was stranded diagonally across the river and it drew comparisons with the crisis in the Suez Canal over the past week. 

Netizens compare Ever Given and Elise 

It is worth mentioning that Suez Canal has now reopened after the 1,300 feet Ever Given got wedged across the waterway, blocking one of the world’s busiest trade routes. Meanwhile, after Elise also got stuck across River Arun, social media users were quick to point out the similarities between the two situations in West Sussex and Suez. Netizens shared the images of the two wedged ships and wrote, “anything Suez can do”. 

According to a local UK media outlet, a 300 metre stretch of the harbour was closed to all vessels while workboats brought the ship in, causing delays up to three hours for a small number of fishing and leisure boats. A spokesman for Littlehampton Harbour said that after much preparation, the operation to move Elise back to her berth was commenced at 10.30am (local time) when it began to float again on the rising tide and was concluded by 1.45pm. the spokesperson added that during this period, a limited 300-metre long section of the harbour where these ships discharge, between the Red Footbridge and Littlehampton Marina, had to be closed to all craft to ensure the safety of other harbour users.

Meanwhile, Egypt was able to dislodge the mammoth Panama flagged vessel on March 29, however, the backlog caused could take days or even months to clear, top container shipping firm Maersk said in a statement. As salvage rescue efforts continued to dislodge the supertanker and resume navigation of the cargoes waiting at anchorages through the maritime passageway, it was estimated that it could take “six days or more for the complete queue to pass.” “Ripple effects on global capacity and equipment are significant and the blockage has already triggered a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel,” Maersk stated

(Image: Twitter)