Watch cargo ship charting rude shape as it entered Suez canal
The container ship that has been blocking the Suez Canal since Tuesday followed a complicated course that appeared to draw out the outline of a graphic symbol when it entered the canal.
According to a digital reconstruction provided by maritime tracking service VesselFinder, the Ever Given turned repeatedly along an holding route to create the pattern.
There has been no suggestion from officials that this particular pattern was anything other than accidental.
Experts have said it is not uncommon for ships to enter into seemingly complicated holding patterns as they wait to take their place in the queue of ships inside the busy and narrow canal.
One of them told The Associated Press that high winds at the time, and the fact that the vessel sailed around its anchor line, could account for the pattern.
Despite efforts to free the Ever Given, the 220,000-ton, 400-metre-long remains wedged in the man-made canal blocking the major trade artery.
The Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula.
In the time since, efforts to free the ship using dredgers, digging and the aid of high tides have yet to push the container vessel aside - affecting billions of dollars' worth of cargo.
Over 10% of global trade, including 7% of the world’s oil, passes through the canal.
After the blockage, the price of international benchmark Brent crude shot up some 3% to $63 a barrel.