Evergreen Marine: Bath Toy Spills, the Ever Given and the Giant Ever Ace

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Evergreen Marine Corporation was founded in Taiwan on September 1, 1968, by Chang Yung-fa with a single cargo ship, the Central Trust, offering a go-anywhere service. A second ship joined in 1969 for Middle East routes, and a U.S. office opened in 1974. The parent rebranded as Evergreen International SA in 1981, and in 1984 the company launched a round-the-world service in both directions. Acquisitions followed: Uniglory Marine in 1984, Italia Marittima in 1993, whose lineage runs back to Österreichischer Lloyd in 1835, and Britain's Hatsu Marine in 2002. In 2007 its divisions merged as the Evergreen Line. By 2023 it ranked seventh among the world's shipping companies, with over 150 ships calling at 240 ports.

Containers come in Evergreen green, Uniglory orange and white refrigerated units that reflect heat. Ships grew from the 646-TEU Everspring class of the 1970s to the Ever Ace, delivered in July 2021 as the world's largest container ship at nearly 24,000 TEU. In 2009, during a recession, Evergreen announced 100 new vessels, and orders now run to 2030. The mishaps are well known: the Ever Laurel lost a container of nearly 30,000 bath toys in the Pacific in 1992, the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in March 2021, and the Ever Forward grounded in Chesapeake Bay in March 2022 for over a month.

• Oceanographers used the spilled yellow ducks for decades to map ocean currents.
• The Ever Forward refloating invoked general average, under which all cargo owners share salvage costs.
• In January 2019 the Ever Summit struck a crane at a port, with no injuries.
• On August 1, 2025, the Ever Lunar lost about 50 containers near Callao, Peru, during a tsunami warning.
• The group founded EVA Air in 1989 and UNI Air in 1998, and runs hubs at Taichung, Kaohsiung and Colón, Panama.