In what has put a question mark over its efficacy, the big box that BP hoped would be its savior sat idle hundreds of feet away encased in ice crystals even as a massive oil leak spit thousands of gallons more crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was the company's first attempt to divert the oil, which did not work out. The box took about two weeks to be built and another three days for being carried 50 miles out and then to be slowly lowered to the well a mile below the surface. The frozen depths, however, overpowered it. 

For their part, the BP officials won’t give up, still optimistic that a containment box, either the one brought there or a larger one being built, could cover the well. The next attempt to capture the oil and funnel it to a tanker at the surface, however, could take some time.

“I wouldn't say it's failed yet. What I would say is what we attempted to do... didn't work,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.

Meanwhile, the oil spill seems to be getting from bad to worse, as thick blobs of tar continued to be washed up on the white sand beaches of Alabama.