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A massive container ship has run aground in the Chesapeake Bay
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now an update on that container ship that ran aground coming out of the Port of Baltimore - the Ever Forward.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Now, if you're thinking, wait, isn't that the one that got stuck in the Suez Canal a year ago? - then let's rewind for a second. That was a sister ship, the Ever Given.
MARTIN: The Ever Forward was leaving Baltimore on March 13, and it apparently missed a turn, then suddenly wasn't in the deep shipping channel anymore.
DAVE O'CONNELL: We responded to make sure where she was, that she was outside the channel.
MARTIN: That's Coast Guard Captain Dave O'Connell.
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O'CONNELL: There was no injuries, there was no pollution, and there was limited effect on commerce in terms of vessels being able to get around her.
MARTÍNEZ: Still, you do have this 1,100-foot ship loaded with shipping containers.
O'CONNELL: It's - in terms of weight, it's about roughly 130,000 tons.
MARTÍNEZ: And O'Connell says that ship needs a depth of 42 feet of water in order to operate.
O'CONNELL: And where it is stuck is 24 feet of water.
MARTIN: So way too shallow. And to make matters worse...
O'CONNELL: It's buried about 15 feet or so into the mud. So that's a lot.
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MARTIN: For the past week or so, crews have been dredging - basically digging around the ship to try and free it up.
MARTÍNEZ: They'll siphon off fuel and also some of the water that's carried as ballast. The trick will be to keep the ship upright and balanced.
O'CONNELL: Containers are stacked five, six stories high. You know, you slide containers off of it - that would be a bad situation.
MARTÍNEZ: Hats off to Captain Dave O'Connell and all the pros working very carefully to get the Ever Forward moving forward again. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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