Littlehampton gets taste of Suez Canal chaos as harbour blocked by cargo ship

‘Elise’ freed in a matter of hours, unlike Ever Given in Egypt

(PA)

A West Sussex waterway had a small taste of the disruption caused in the Suez Canal last week after a cargo ship became stuck across the River Arun.

The Elise, an Antigue and Barbuda-flagged vessel, had arrived in Littlehampton Harbour in southeast England in the early hours of Tuesday after setting sail from Antwerp in Belgium.

However the ship came loose from her moorings in the middle of the night, leaving the her to swing out across the waterway and become wedged.

The scene was reminiscent of that in the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest trade thoroughfares, which was blocked for six days by the Ever Given cargo ship.

However, unlike the vast container vessel, the Elise was moved on just hours later.

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The Elise’s stern drifted nearly 100ft into the River Arun after the tide fell and one of her mooring lines parted, leaving the vessel blocking most of the waterway with her position at the mercy of the tide.

Other ships were still able to pass through a narrow gap by the west bank, a harbour spokesperson said, and no injuries or pollution were reported.

At about 1.15pm on Tuesday, the Elise, which is not believed to have been damaged in the incident, was seen being moved by smaller craft until she came to rest against the bank of the Arun, leaving the river clear.

It comes in the wake of the disruption caused by the Ever Given, which proved a source of international spectacle as officials tried to clear the ship from its accidental resting place.

However while comic for many, the grounding is expected to cause a financial and legal headache stretching long into the future, as well as damage to the global supply chain that could take weeks to resolve.