High winds were blamed for a previous collision in 2019 involving the same ultra-large containership that is blocking the Suez Canal, it has emerged.

German media revealed that the Evergreen-operated, 20,388-teu Ever Given (built 2018) crunched a small ferry called Finkenwerder on the Elbe river in Hamburg on 9 February of that year.

The huge vessel was en route from China to Rotterdam at the time.