In the past few days, a 1,050-foot container ship ran aground in the Chesapeake after leaving the Port of Baltimore, and a 1,070-foot cruise liner with 3,000 passengers ran aground after leaving Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. There were no reports of injuries in either grounding.
In the Chesapeake, the container ship Ever Forward ran aground near Craighill Channel outside the Patapsco River. The ship, holding 11,850 20-foot containers, draws 42.6 feet; it was sitting in 24 feet of water.
The Coast Guard and the state’s Department of the Environment were trying to coordinate efforts to refloat it. Local reports said the Ever Forward was under control of a pilot at the time, about 10 p.m., and it ran aground outside the channel.
AIS showed it failed to make a turn to stay in the channel. It was not known whether the problem was a mechanical issue or operator error.
The Ever Forward was on its way to Norfolk, Virginia, at the time. It is a sister ship to the 1,300-foot Ever Given container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week last year
In the Caribbean grounding, the Norwegian Cruise Line issued a statement that the Norwegian Escape “made contact with the channel bed” as it was departing Puerto Plata. Local tugs were trying to free it.
The Norwegian Escape was on a seven-day cruise out of Port Canaveral, Florida. It was headed for the Virgin Islands, with stops in St. Thomas and Tortola, as the time of the grounding. After the ship was stuck for more than three days, the cruise line cancelled the rest of the trip and was working with charter flights to get passengers back home. See videos of the two groundings below:
El crucero Norwegian Escape encalló este lunes cuando salía del puerto Taino Bay, en Puerto Plata, con cientos de turistas a bordo, según reportó el periódico El Atlántico.
Algunos remolques han tratado de moverlo, pero ha sido imposible hasta el momento. pic.twitter.com/TiRH2pyImy
— Ensanche Isabelita (@EnsancheIsabeli) March 14, 2022
