In light of the increasing costs arising from the continued attempts to refloat the 12,000 TEU Ever Forward, Evergreen declared General Average today.
The vessel, owned by Evergreen Marine (Hong Kong) Ltd., a subsidiary of Evergreen Marine Corporation, ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay after leaving Baltimore on the evening of March 13.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to the ship or its cargo and no indication of fuel leakage or pollution. The grounding occurred outside the shipping channel and the vessel has not been blocking navigation since.
After the incident happened, Evergreen immediately activated its emergency response plan and appointed the salvor Donjon-Smit to conduct underwater inspections and design refloating plan.
The program included dredging around the stranded vessel to increase buoyancy and deploying tugboats for the rescue operation.
With the approval by the competent authorities, dredging operation began on March 20.
Subsequent to the completion of the initial dredging phase, the rescue team made two attempts to refloat Ever Forward on March 29 and 30.
Unfortunately, both attempts proved to be unsuccessful.