By Joleen Murphy
A giant cargo ship that was blocking the Suez Canal has successfully been set free nearly a week after it got stuck.
A flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bow of the Ever Given from the sandy bank of the waterway.
Hundreds of vessels have been waiting to use the world’s busiest shipping lane in Egypt.
Lecturer at the Maritime College of Ireland Bill Kavanagh outlines just how big the ship is.
"The typical vessel that I navigated through was 174 metres in length, 27,000 tonnes in dead-weight, almost two rugby pitches in length.
"At the time they were quite reasonable sized ships.
"But we are now talking about ships that are 400 metres in length, 4 Aviva stadiums, 15 metre drafts and 9 containers high."
The Junior Minister for International Logistics in Ireland says she's unaware of any impacts on Ireland caused by the Suez Canal blockage.
Minister Hildegarde Naughten says workers in Egypt are making good progress.
"It is concerning but from Ireland's perspective I am not aware of any impact of blockage on Ireland."
The salvage operation relied on tugs and dredgers alone, and avoided the far more complex task of lightening the vessel by offloading almost 20,000 containers.
The huge container is now continuing it's journey after hitting the bank last week.
Photo credit: commons.wikimedia
