The world’s largest ship, which is the size of four football pitches and carrying 900 million tins of beans, docked at Rotterdam recently. Measuring 400 m (1,312 ft) in length and 58.6 m (192 ft) wide – or the size of four soccer fields for those more familiar with that alternative unit of measurement – the CSCL Globe can carry 19,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers.
The CSCL Globe was constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd (HHI) for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) and is the first of five ordered by the Shanghai-based marine shipping company in May last year.
The Globe departed Shanghai last month and reached Felixstowe in Suffolk, UK, to stay there until Thursday. The Hong-Kong registered CSCL Globe, which is longer than The Shard is tall, left Shanghai on its maiden voyage on December 8 carrying 19,100 containers. Stacked end to end, the containers would be five times the height of Mount Everest.
The cargo destined for UK shops included 109 containers full of soft furnishings and sofas, 62 containing white goods such as fridges and washing machines, 104 packed with footwear, 16 loaded with bags and 15 with children’s toys.