Tug boats had spent several hours on Monday working to free the bow of the massive vessel after dislodging the stern earlier in the day. Marine traffic websites showed images of the ship away from the banks of the Suez Canal for the first time in seven days following an around-the-clock international effort to reopen the global shipping lane. The successful refloating was met with triumph and relief, as hundreds of vessels that have been trapped since last Tuesday prepare to restart their journeys. “We pulled it off!” Boskalis, a salvage company which helped with the operation, said in a statement Monday. The ship has been towed towards Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, where it will undergo an inspection, the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Osama Rabie said, according to state-run Al Ahram newspaper. The vessel’s charter company will decide on the next steps once that has been carried out.
SOURCE: CNN