The UK's largest container ship docks in Southampton on its maiden voyage
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Version 0 of 1. As long as five jumbo jets and able to carry the weight of 200,000 transit vans, Britain’s largest ship has docked in Southampton on its maiden voyage. The Kerguelen container ship was built in South Korea but is registered in the UK, allowing it to claim the title of the country’s biggest vessel. Named after the 18th-century French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec, it is 398 metres long and can carry goods weighing 200,000 tonnes. The construction of the $150m (£95m) vessel highlights how vast container ships have become in the wake of surging global trade. “Fourteen years ago, when I commanded my first ship, it transported 4,000 containers and that was a record,” the ship’s captain, Pierre-Gilles Coat, told Le Monde. Now, the Kerguelen can carry 17,722 standard-sized shipping containers. If all of the containers were laid end to end they would cover a distance of 67 miles, just edging the distance from London to Cambridge. The Kerguelen is expected to depart on Thursday from Southampton, the first and only UK stop on its maiden voyage, after a short stay in a purpose-built 500 metre-long deepwater quay. The French-owned boat left the French port of Le Havre on Tuesday, following an inauguration ceremony, where it was christened by a priest. Hamburg is its next stop. A total of five cabins on the Kerguelen have been set aside for tourists at a cost of €120 a night – a pricey holiday for anyone who stays for the entirety of the average 77-day voyage. But the Kerguelen is only the third largest container ship in the world, with the MSC Oscar in first place. Although it is a few metres shorter than the Kerguelen, the Oscar can carry 19,224 containers. The Kerguelen’s owner, CMA CGM, said the ship was registered under a UK flag because of the “safety and reliability” of the country’s shipping industry. |