The six-day blockage of the Suez Canal by a megaship named Ever Given came to an end on March 29 after salvage teams used dredging and tug boats to heave the vessel back into operation.
The capacity of a single vessel to block one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, creating a traffic jam of hundreds of boats, has sparked a debate about the ever-growing size of megaships, with the Ever Given’s accident taken as evidence that they’ve simply become too large.
At 400 metres long, the Ever Given is indeed among the largest 1% of the world’s fleet. Its high-profile accident will result in a new wave of precautions to make megaships safer, but it will also prompt the shipping industry to reflect on whether such gigantic vessels actually do more harm than good.