Around 90% of all global trade is transported in shipping containers, so if you’ve ever wondered about container ships, here are some fun facts about one of the largest container ships in the world:
- Since its maiden voyage in September 2013, The Triple-E Class ‘Marie Maersk’ travels a continuous 45,000-kilometre route between Asia and Europe. A task it has been designed to do non-stop for the over 25 years.
- Fully laden it can carry over 18,000 shipping containers.
- The Marie Maersk carries the shipping containers in stacked columns, 23 across its width, 24 along its length and 21 high (half of these are concealed below its deck).
- This ship is a quarter mile long and weighs over an astounding 250,000 tonnes, only 63,000 tonnes are the actual ship itself.
- The shipping containers are stacked from 10m below sea level.
- If the shipping containers were placed end to end, they would reach all the way into space.
- Each diesel engine has 43,000 horsepower.
- The side-by-side engines power two bronze propellers that cost $1m each, and each propellor weighs 70 tonnes and measures 10m across.
- The gantry cranes that load the ship tower 120m above the port and shift 10,000 tonnes of cargo an hour. They are so tall you need to take a lift to get to the top.
- The ship is loaded and unloaded at the same time by computer automations to enable the swift 48hr turnaround.
- The shipping containers are locked together with twist-locks to form a solid steel structure to prevent the containers from toppling off the ship in strong seas.
Pretty amazing stuff isn’t it…
