Officials said a cargo ship carrying corn that went aground early Monday in the Suez Canal was refloated and traffic was restored, avoiding a scene from 2021 that blocked traffic for six days.

Five days after a massive container vessel was freed from the Suez Canal, ship traffic there has returned to normal, the canal authority says.

More than 100 ships of similar size to the Ever Given ply the world's waterways, creating logistical challenges and concerns about mishaps — including "spectacular losses of cargo," one analyst says.

The Ever Given had been wedged at an angle across the Suez Canal since Tuesday, preventing other shipping vessels from traveling through the waterway.

If one of the world's largest container ships had remained solidly lodged in the Suez Canal for much longer, it could have had far-reaching implications.

Efforts to free the Ever Given — as more than 320 ships wait to pass through the blocked canal — have made incremental progress over the weekend, with another refloating attempt set for Sunday.

The CEO of the Dutch company Boskalis, which is working to dislodge the 1,300-foot-long ship, compared the vessel to "an enormous beached whale."

Traffic through one of the world's busiest waterways was stalled after the Ever Given ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal.