OF THE CENTURY
There is no argument that the containership has revolutionized
the movement of cargo. But pinpointing its origin is a bit tricky.
"During the 1950s, there were many innovative ideas regarding
containerships and RO/ROs, and they were all developed about
the same time," says
George G. Sharp's Charles Barker. "You may get many "firsts'
claimed in these two categories, and they are all valid. Some
are the first conversion, some are the first newbuild, some,
the first vehicle RO/RO," adds Barker.
The father of containerization, Malcom McLean, converted several
vessels to containerships in the late 1950s and early 1960s for
a shipping line that would eventually become Sea-Land.
Some of the first newbuild containerships under the U.S. flag
were the 2,100 dwt M/V Floridian and the M/V New Yorker. The
sister ships were designed by George G. Sharp and built at Maryland
Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.
Since those early days,
the container revolution has brought us to the era of the post
-Panamax 6,000 TEU containerships, initiated by the Moller Group's
Maersk Lines--now Maersk-Sealand.
The tenth delivery in this
series from Moller's Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark is the
Clifford Maersk with a capacity of 6,600 TEU (twenty-foot containers)
which include more than 700 forty-foot reefer containers.
The giant vessel is 347
metres long, 43 metres wide, has a depth of 24 metres and a draft
of 14,5 metres when fully loaded.
It is powered by a 12-cylinder
MAN-B&W diesel engine developing 74,640 bhp and at 94 rev/min
the fully loaded vessel reaches a speed of 25 knots.
of your favorite historic ships did we miss?
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