Image of the Day: And Then There Were Twelve!

Maersk Line has taken delivery of their 12th Triple-E vessel named Mogens Maersk. Maersk Line’s Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Schueler decided to memorialise the moment by snapping a few photos during the delivery ceremony at Busan Shipyard in South Korea.

The Maersk Triple E class is a family of large, fuel-efficient container ships, designed as a successor to the Maersk E-class. In February and June 2011, Maersk awarded Daewoo Shipbuilding two USD 1.9 billion contracts (USD 3.8bn total) to build twenty of the ships.

The name “Triple E” is derived from the class’s three design principles: “Economy of scale, Energy efficient and Environmentally improved”. These ships are expected to be not only the world’s longest ships in service, but also the most efficient container ships per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) of cargo.

The ships are 400 metres (1,312 ft) long and 59 metres (194 ft) wide. While only 3 metres (9.8 ft) longer and 4 metres (13 ft) wider than E-class ships, the Triple E ships are able to carry 2,500 more containers. With a draft of 14.5 metres (48 ft), they are too deep to cross the Panama Canal, but can transit the Suez Canal when sailing between Europe and Asia.