Yellow Fleet

Scuttled ships, sea mines, and other debris continued to block transport through the canal until the wake of the Yom Kippur War, after which the blockade was lifted.

Fourteen ships were forced to anchor in the widest part of the Suez Canal, the Great Bitter Lake.

Even if the political issues surrounding the canal could have somehow been resolved, its maintenance would have been economically nonviable since very few (if any) shippers would have been willing to send their vessels and crews through what was effectively a no man's land in an active combat zone.

[1] In October 1967, the officers and crews of all fourteen ships met on the Melampus to found the "Great Bitter Lake Association" which provided mutual support.

Life boat races were arranged and soccer games were played on the largest ship, the MS Port Invercargill, while church services were held on the West German motorship Nordwind and movies were shown on the Bulgarian freighter Vasil Levsky.

[1] In early 1975, the Suez Canal was once again opened for international transport, and on 24 May 1975, the German ships Münsterland and Nordwind finally reached Hamburg port, cheered by more than 30,000 spectators.

Two books have been published that chronicle the eight-year sojourn of the ships in the Great Bitter Lake, Acht Jahre gefangen im Großen Bittersee (in German) by Hans Jürgen Witthöft (2015),[5] and Stranded in the Six-Day War (in English) by Cath Senker (2017).