We take a broad interest in the world of freight forwarding at Espace so naturally we sat up and took notice when the largest container ship in the world took its maiden voyage earlier this year. This behemoth is the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller (Triple-E) and it’s the biggest container ship in the world. Read on for details of this colossal containerised transporter.
 
Physical proportions
 
Weigh up the sheer scale of this over-sized ship and it really does take your breath away. Its total length is 400m which equates to a quarter-of-a-mile if you want to put it into some kind of perspective. You could park 33 coaches next to the ship nose to tail and they’d just about match the length.
 
It’s 195ft wide as well, so you wouldn’t want to take it down the Panama Canal because it simply wouldn’t fit! And it stands tall at 240ft high so it’s not hard to spot when it’s coming towards you on the water.
 
Carrying capability 
 
A ship this size should have plenty of storage space and the Moller doesn’t disappoint for its cargo-carrying ability. The Triple-E comfortably carries 18,000 containers and every unit is the size of a van. This enables the ship to transport more goods than any other vessel across the ocean and has the ability to lug an amazing 165,000 tons of cargo. The unusual hull on the ship assists when it comes to carrying containers, it’s shaped like a tub so there’s extra room for an additional 1,500 containers.
 
Performance
 
Once out of dock the Triple-E only manages to average 16 knots which might seem snail-like but the speed is set on purpose. It’s known as ‘super slow steaming’ and it’s the best method to eke the best fuel figures from the ship. In fact, the ship’s owners are hoping to save an estimated £750,000 on fuel when the ship sails from Shanghai to Rotterdam.   It’ll burn less fuel, averaging around 150 tons a day which might sound a lot, but other containers ships burn around 40% more fuel than this figure.
 
Cost
 
If you wanted to buy the biggest container ship in the world shake the cash out of your piggy bank and hope there’s £123,000,000 inside. That’s what each ship costs to build but we thing they’re worth every penny because of the sheer amount of freight they can ship, not that we’ll be buying one any time soon!

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