#First ship passes through Suez Canal after Ever Given freed

The Wish came through.

The first ship to make it through the Suez Canal since the vital waterway was reopened after a colossal container ship was finally freed Monday is reportedly the YM Wish.

The 1,207-foot-long, Hong Kong-flagged container ship – only about 100 feet shorter than the previously wedged Ever Given – exited the southbound canal about 9:15 p.m. Monday and proceeded to the Red Sea and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to The New York Times.

Ship tracking website MarineTraffic.com showed more than 100 vessels traveling through the newly unclogged canal in both directions Monday night following the Wish’s successful passage.

The convoys restarted after tugs pulled the 200,000-ton Ever Given free from the spot where it ran aground March 23.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Tuesday that the grounding had reaffirmed the importance of the waterway.

“We didn’t hope for something like this, but fate was doing its work. It showed and reaffirmed the reality and importance” of the canal, Sisi said as he greeted staff on a visit to the Suez Canal Authority in Ismailia, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, experts boarded the Ever Green as it idled Tuesday in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake — seeking answers to what went wrong, causing disruptions to global trade for nearly a week.

A senior canal pilot told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that experts were looking for signs of damage and trying to determine the cause of the vessel’s grounding.

When blame gets assigned, it could turn into years of legal wranglings over the costs of repairing the ship, fixing the canal and reimbursing those who saw their cargo shipments disrupted.

And with the ship being owned by a Japanese company, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, flagged in Panama and becoming stuck in Egypt, the mishap turned into an international morass.

“This ship is a multinational conglomeration,” said Capt. John Konrad, founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain.com.

The Ever Given may have sustained structural damage, he said.

“Structural integrity is No. 1. You know, there was a lot of strain on that ship as it was sagging in the waterway,” Konrad said. “They have to check everything for cracks and particularly that rudder and the propeller in the back that’s connected to the engine room.”

He added: “And then they have to go through all the mechanical equipment, make sure they test the engines, all the safety valves, all the equipment, and then determine that it’s safe to sail either by itself or with a tug escort to the next port.”

The Ever Given’s owner — Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. — said it would be part of the probe along with other parties, though it did not identify them.

It also refused to discuss possible causes of the accident, including the ship’s speed and the strong winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm, saying it cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.

Initial reports also suggested a “blackout” struck the behemoth, something denied by the ship’s technical manager.

With Post wires