Elly Maersk – the world's largest container ship

Source: Wikipedia

Elly Maersk is the sixth of eight PS-class container vessels, together with Emma Maersk; Estelle Maersk; Eleonora Maersk; Evelyn Maersk; Ebba Maersk; Edith Maersk; Eugen Maersk.

The vessel set sail on her maiden voyage at the end of 2007 under the command of Captain Poul Buchholz Hansen with Jan Niemann Kristensen as Chief Engineer.

Ship particulars

Like her five predecessors, Elly Maersk is part of the series of the world’s largest container ships. She is 397m in length, almost four times that of a football (soccer) field. The vessel’s beam (width) is 56m, and the depth is 30m with draft of 15.5m.

After demolition of the supertanker Knock Nevis (Mont) in 2010, the PS-class series are the longest vessels currently in service. To help those mega vessels sail at speed of 25.5 knots at sea, the largest engine in the world, 14-cylinder Wärtsilä RT-flex diesel engine is equipped to generate a power of 109,000 HP.

Interesting Facts

On their website, Maersk Lines provides a very impressive and interesting illustration about a PS-class vessel like Elly Mærsk:

• A PS-class vessel can carry 11,000 full 20-foot containers. That equals a train of 71 kilometers long;
• A single 20-foot container can hold about 48,000 bananas. So, in theory, a PS-vessel like the Elly Mærsk could transport approximately 528 million bananas in a single voyage - enough to give every person in Europe or North America a banana for breakfast;
• The main engine of a PS-class vessel produces 109.000 horsepower, equal to that of 1,156 family cars;
• The anchor of a PS-class vessel weighs 29 tons, equivalent to the weight of five adult African elephants;
• The newly developed, more environmentally friendly silicone paint used below the waterline on a PS-class vessel creates a streamlining effect, saving an estimated 1,200 tons of bunker fuel per year;
• A PS-class vessel is equipped with a waste heat recovery system, saving up to ten percent of main engine power. This equals the average annual electrical consumption of 5,000 European households.

Related links

• Emma Maersk
• The world’s largest container ships over year
• Knock Nevis - world's largest ship ever

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