What connects the 'Ever Given', the Suez Canal and 7,200 rubber ducks loose in the Pacific?

Both ships were reportedly chartered by the same company

• 

  The 'Ever Given' container ship blocked the Suez Canal for six days. Reuters

• 

  The ship became grounded during high winds. Airbus Space

• 

  The incident cost the Suez Canal Authority up to $15 million in revenue. Airbus Space

• 

  Left, the canal on March 21; right, traffic waits to enter the canal on March 25. Reuters

• 

  Vessels wait to pass through the canal after the 'Ever Given' ran aground. Airbus Space

• 

  The incident caused a queue of vessels at the mouth of the canal. Airbus Space

• 

  It took six days to free the 'Ever Given'. Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation

• 

  An image captured by the European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite shows the canal during the blockage. Reuters

• 

  The 200,000-tonne cargo ship caused damage to the vital waterway. Reuters

• 

  Egypt initially claimed $900m in compensation over the incident. Reuters

• 

  An image captured from a commercial plane shows traffic waiting to travel through the canal. AFP

• 

  The 'Ever Given' will be released by the Egyptian authorities on Wednesday. AFP

• 

  The 'Ever given' was stuck for six days and caused damage to the canal. AFP

• 

  The blockage cost the canal authority millions of dollars because cargo ships were unable to pass. AFP

As the world watches efforts to free the Ever Given, a 200,000-tonne cargo ship stuck sideways in the Suez Canal since Tuesday, few will know its link to another incident that kept the world spellbound.

Evergreen Marine Corporation operates the Ever Given on behalf of the ship's owner Shoei Kisen, which has apologised for blocking one of the world's busiest commercial sea routes.

In January 1992, a ship reportedly operated by Evergreen and owned by a Greek company called Technomar Shipping spilled 28,800 plastic toys into the Pacific Ocean during a storm.

The Ever Laurel arrived in the port of Tacoma in Washington state a day later than scheduled from Hong Kong after reports of heavy storms.

It is thought the boat may have dipped and rolled in large waves, causing a container to slip off into sea.

Donovan Hohn, who wrote Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea about the spill and the fate of the floating creatures, found 7,200 each of plastic red beavers, blue turtles, green frogs and classic yellow rubber ducks were accidentally released into the Pacific.

"For years the identity of the ship was a well-kept secret, but by consulting old shipping schedules published in the Journal of Commerce and preserved on scratched spools of microfiche in a library basement, I, by process of elimination, solved this riddle: the ship was the Evergreen Ever Laurel, owned by a Greek company called Technomar Shipping and operated by the Taiwanese Evergreen Marine Corp," Mr Hohn wrote in an extract of his book printed by The Guardian.

In the years since, oceanographers have used the floating toys, nicknamed friendly floatees, to track currents, giving insight into the world's climate.

The toys have washed up on many far shores, travelling more than 27,360 kilometres by some estimates.

Evergreen now operates a different ship named the Ever Laurel, which was built in 2012.

It travels today between the Far East and South America.

Spills from cargo ships are relatively common in stormy weather.

In December, hundreds of containers were lost from the One Apus when stacks collapsed as it travelled the Pacific north of Hawaii.