Legally, this seems shaky: - The ship had, as required, two pilots on board at the time. These are agents of the canal and have ultimate authority during the p

Legally, this seems shaky: - The ship had, as required, two pilots on board at the time. These are agents of the canal and have ultimate authority during the passage. - the loss in fees seems far smaller, and can easily be counted by the numbers of ships that went the long way around. - I doubt the salvage operation got close to that cost. There just isn't enough equipment to lease to run up a billion in four days or so., even counting stuff that may have never arrived - Egypt still knows it's French. Force Majeur should ring a bell. That being said, I wonder if it matters? They could have the right, or at least the power, to simply refuse passage to all vessels operated by the company. Egypt is probably party to some international agreement precluding arbitrary decision in that regard for political reasons. But they'd obviously be allowed to do so for vessels not paying the regular fee. This case would seem to resemble the latter more than the former?