Overview

Suez Canal Jam refers to a ship jam that occurred in Suez Canal after container megaship Ever Given ran aground sideways and blocked it. The event inspired multiple viral memes on social media, with a photograph of the megaship and an excavator next to it becoming an object-labeling meme format. The blockage continued for six days until the ship was successfully refloated.

Background

At 7:40 a.m. Eastern European Time (UTC+2) on March 23rd, 2021, cargo megaship Ever Given, operated by Taiwanese transport company Evergreen Marine, ran aground in the Suez Canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea — one of the world's busiest trade routes.^[1] The 400-meter-long (1,312 feet) ship was knocked off course by strong winds, blocking the canal sideways at the southern end of the canal and creating a massive ship jam.

Later that day, Instagram^[2] user fallenhearts17 (Julianne Cona) posted a photograph of the ship made from a vessel behind that received over 10,900 likes in one day (shown below).

Ship in front of us ran aground while going through the canal and is now stuck sideways looks like we might be here for a little bit…

Within three hours, Twitter^[3] user @jsrailton made a post about the situation in the Suez Canal, with the tweet gaining over 10,500 retweets and 22,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Developments

On March 23rd, 2021, eight tug boats and excavators were dispatched to refloat the ship.^[1] No injuries were reported.

On March 23th, 2021, Twiter^[8] user @jsrailton posted an image of the path that ship travelled before entering Suez Canal, logged by vesselfinder.com, with the path's pattern resembling a penis (tweet and image shown below).

On March 24th, Lloyd's List^[9] reported that Ever Given was blocking a rough estimated of $9.6 billion worth of daily marine traffic, which amounts to approximately $400 million per hour.^[10]

On March 25th, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, Japanese company which owns the ship, apologized for the disruption to global trade.^[11]

As of March 26th, the blockage had not been cleared as Thursday and Friday attempts to refloat the vessel were not successful.^[12]

On March 29th, at 3:05 p.m. Eastern European Time (UTC+2) Ever Given had been refloated through the use of tug boats after the stern was successfully dislodged earlier in the day. ^[16] The ship was then towed to Egypt's Great Bitter Lake for an inspection, while shipping traffic resumed in the canal.^[17] The backlog of ship traffic was expected to take 2.5 to 3 days to clear, with at least 369 vessels awaiting passage as of March 29th.

Online Reactions

The event spawned multiple viral discussions and memes on social media, particularly in the form of object-labeling memes and references. On March 23rd, Twitter^[4] user @jsrailton posted a cropped image of an excavator working on refloating the ship that gained over 1,400 retweets and 5,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Another same-day post about the excavator by Twitter^[5] user @lib_crusher gained over 450 retweets and 2,700 likes (shown below, center). Later, Twitter^[6] user @worace posted an object-labeling meme that gained over 1,300 retweets and 4,800 likes (shown below, right).

Also on the same day, Twitter^[7] user @CoryDNewman posted used an Austin Powers GIF to joke about the situation in the canal (shown below). The post received over 340 retweets and 2,100 likes in one day.

There's a ship stuck in the Suez Canal right now. pic.twitter.com/0k3MrXYu6o

— Cory Newman (@CoryDNewman) March 23, 2021

The event maintained viral status into the following days, with more viral posts being made.

On March 25th, 2021, website istheshipstillstuck.com was launched,^[13] providing updated information on the ship's status accompanied by a rough estimated of the economic damage dealt by the blockage.

Gimmick Accounts

On March 25th, 2021, gimmick Twitter accounts @ever_given^[14] and @SuezDiggerGuy^[15] were launched, roleplaying as the ship and an excavator working on dislodging the bow of the ship from the bank, respectively (example tweets shown below, left and right). The accounts accumulated over 4,500 and 22,800 followers in one day, respectively.

Object-Labeling Memes

The photograph of an excavator working next to the megaship posted by Instagram user fallenhearts17, as well as photographs made by Reuters and other news agencies, have been used as object-labeling memes, usually to express inadequacy of one's efforts in the face of a difficult challenge (examples shown below).

Ever-chan / Ever Given Gijinkas

Ever-chan or Ever Given Gijinkas refers to a series of gijinka fan art of the cargo vessel Ever Given stuck in Suez Canal. The drawing usually depict the ship as a scantily-clad woman stuck in the canal due to her bodily proportions, unable to free herself.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References