The Ever Given’s finally free but people don’t want the meme frenzy to end

The world’s most iconic container has finally been freed from the Suez Canal shoreline after almost a week lodged across the waterway.

On Monday, engineers refloated and shifted the 220,000 ton Ever Given, which ran aground the previous Tuesday, holding up $9 billion each day in global trade.

The obstruction of the crucial waterway has been a nightmare for supply chains, with around 400 other vessels – carrying everything from crude oil to cattle – still waiting to pass through.

And yet, while the release of the Ever Given will allow companies across the world to breathe a sigh of relief, social media users aren’t quite ready to give up their favourite meme muse.

Twitter has reacted to news that the ship has been set on her merry way by requesting that she be “put back”.

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Here are some of the best responses so far:

The refloating of the vessel followed intensive efforts to push and pull her with 10 tugboats when the full moon brought spring tide, raising the canal’s water level and hopes for a breakthrough.

Videos shared widely on social media showed tugboats in the canal sounding their horns in celebration of the Ever Given being partly wrenched from the shore.

Meanwhile, Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed that the ship’s bulbous bow, once firmly lodged in the canal’s eastern bank, had been wrested partially from the shore — although it remained stuck at the canal’s edge on Monday morning.

"Don’t cheer too soon," Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given.

"The good news is that the stern is free but we saw that as the simplest part of the job,” he told Dutch NPO Radio 1.

The toughest challenge remained at the front of the ship, he added, noting that workers would struggle to haul the fully laden vessel over the clay of the canal bank.

However, hours later – at around 2.30pm (UK time) – the canal service provider Leth Agencies confirmed that the ship had been successfully prized free.

The vessel’s next stop is the Great Bitter Lake – a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal – where it will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the centre of the artery.

Overnight, several dredgers had toiled to vacuum up 27,000 cubic metres of sand and mud around the ship. Another powerful tugboat, Carlo Magno, arrived at the scene to join the work on Monday.

Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the Japanese company that owns the Ever Given, confirmed that her engine remains functional and insisted it could pursue her trip normally when freed.

Godspeed, dear friend.

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