The CMA CGM Marco Polo, the world’s largest containership, began its first voyage November 7 Ningbo, China, and sails under the flag of the United Kingdom. Built in South Korea, the giant ship is "reportedly" more than 1299 feet long and more than 177 feet wide, and she has a draft of more than 52 feet. She is the first of three such vessels, all to be named after great explorers; delivery of the next two ships is due in 2013.
To help put things in perspective, her length is more than three NFL football fields laid end to end, and her width is about nine feet shy of the clearance under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Marco Polo can hold 16,000 20-foot-equivalent units (reusable steel boxes used to store and move materials and products as freight).
The ship is equipped with an electronically controlled engine designed to allow significantly reduced fuel and oil consumption, a twisted leading-edge rudder to improve the vessel's hydrodynamics and reduce energy expenditures and carbon dioxide emissions, a "pre-swirl stator" to straighten the water flow upstream from the propeller to improve its productivity, an exhaust gas bypass system to improve the vessel's energetic efficiency, an optimized hull design to improve propulsion through the water, and a ballast water treatment system that avoids rejecting chemicals into seawater.
Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 20:08
The CMA CGM Marco Polo, the world’s largest containership, began its first voyage November 7 Ningbo, China, and sails under the flag of the United Kingdom. Built in South Korea, the giant ship is "reportedly" more than 1299 feet long and more than 177 feet wide, and she has a draft of more than 52 feet. She is the first of three such vessels, all to be named after great explorers; delivery of the next two ships is due in 2013.
To help put things in perspective, her length is more than three NFL football fields laid end to end, and her width is about nine feet shy of the clearance under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Marco Polo can hold 16,000 20-foot-equivalent units (reusable steel boxes used to store and move materials and products as freight).
The ship is equipped with an electronically controlled engine designed to allow significantly reduced fuel and oil consumption, a twisted leading-edge rudder to improve the vessel's hydrodynamics and reduce energy expenditures and carbon dioxide emissions, a "pre-swirl stator" to straighten the water flow upstream from the propeller to improve its productivity, an exhaust gas bypass system to improve the vessel's energetic efficiency, an optimized hull design to improve propulsion through the water, and a ballast water treatment system that avoids rejecting chemicals into seawater.