Evergreen container ship freed after a month aground in Chesapeake Bay

It took five weeks and three attempts, but around 7 a.m. on Sunday the Ever Forward, a 1,095-foot container ship was finally freed in the Chesapeake Bay.

Loaded with nearly 5,000 containers, the Ever Forward was on its way to Norfolk, Va., from Baltimore when, according to the United States Coast Guard, it ran aground in the bay near the Craighill Channel on March 13.

“Initial reports indicated no injuries, pollution or damage to the vessel as a result of the grounding,” the agency said in a statement at the time. The ship, which became stuck about 20 miles southeast of Baltimore, was not obstructing the channel, it added.

More than two weeks later, after a week of dredging beneath the ship, the Coast Guard, together with the Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corp., which owns the vessel, made its first attempt to refloat it. Their efforts were unsuccessful.