Must See: ‘World’s Largest Ship’ Being Built in South Korea
By Alyn Wallace, Interesting Engineering, 14 October 2014.
By Alyn Wallace, Interesting Engineering, 14 October 2014.
The stunning images below were taken by photographer Alastair Philip Wiper at Opko, a port in South Korea, showing the construction of the world’s largest container ship - the Maersk Triple E (the title for largest ship goes to the Prelude FLNG). Maersk made an order back in 2011 for twenty of the vessels to be built by Daewoo Shipping at a cost of US$3.8 billion in total.
The Triple E class is 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, making it only 3 meters longer and 4 meters wider than its predecessor, the E class. Despite this small increase in size, a U-shaped hull design over more of a V-shape means that there is still an increase in the shipping capacity of the vessel to 18,270 TEU containers, 2500 more.
The draft is 14 meters which is too deep to pass through the Panama Canal, but it can pass through the Suez canal between Europe and Asia. Maersk plans to use the ship for just that route, predicting an increase in Chinese exports. Asia-Europe trade is already the companies largest market and it currently has 100 ships dedicated to this route.
“You don’t feel like you’re inside a boat, it’s more like a cathedral,” photographer Wiper says. “Imagine this space being full of consumer goods, and think about how many there are on just one ship. Then think about how many are sailing round the world every day. It’s like trying to think about infinity.”
The ship features a dual 32 MW (43,000 hp) ultra-long-stroke, two-stroke diesel engines and together with a strategy known as slow steaming (where ships travel at slower than top speed), there is an expected 37% reduction in fuel consumption and 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per container. The top speed is 23 knots.
They are designed with a ‘twin-skeg’ propulsion system (two engines and two propellers) with the propellers being 9.8 meters in diameter and featuring 4 blades. They are made at Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH in Germany and weigh 70 tonnes apiece.
The Triple E name comes from the company’s design principles: “Economy of scale, energy efficient and environmentally improved.“
Each motor drives a separate propeller and where usually a single motor is more efficient, the better distribution of pressure using two propellers increases their efficiency to be worth the disadvantages of having two motors. It also allows the engines to be lower and further back, opening up more space for cargo.
Photographer Alastair Philip Wiper met Captain Lars Peter Jensen of the 9th of the Triple E class to be built, the Matz Maersk. Jensen has worked for Maersk for 42 years and has served as captain on each of the four previous “largest ships in the world.” He will be joined aboard by a 15 man crew when the vessel is at sea.
Read More: Maersk Triple E class
Photography: Alastair Philip Wiper
Bonus video: Watch sea trials from the first Triple E vessel:
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