Big Container Ships

Port of Los Angeles posting

This is where a lot of the containers we see on the transcon in Illinois originate.

PR comment:

Aerial view of CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest cargo vessel to visit North America, docked at Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles.''

Ricardo Canales: At 1,300 feet long, 177 feet wide, and 197 feet tall, with a crew of 27, the Benjamin Franklin can transport 18,000 TEUs of shipping containers, but its massive size precludes it from passing through the Panama Canal. The ship’s engine is as powerful as 900 Ford Focus cars, and its 21 knots thrust equals 11 Boeing 747-400 engines, according to the Hellenic Shipping News. Its mammoth size dwarfs other ships, as it is capable of transporting one-third more cargo than average container ships arriving in Los Angeles.

(TEU is Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit.)

Ricardo Canales: The ship is:

1,300 feet long — longer than the Empire State Building if it were laid on its side;

177 feet wide — wider than a football field or an Olympic-sized swimming pool; and

197 feet tall — equivalent to a 20-story building.The crew of this self-run enterprise comprises 26 members who operate the various facets of the vessel inclusing its own waste recycle system, chef, and swimming pool,

Almost 24k TEUs    The investment in containers is almost as impressive as the investment in the ship.

Earthly Mission post
The world's largest container ship, Evergreen's monster called "Ever Ace." Built this year, the ship can carry 23,992 standard containers at a time.
W Tyson Little: The holds extend several stories below the water line.
John Louis Lassen Perry: Wow. How much is just marginally useful, disposable crap? It would be interesting to know how much of the stuff on board will be in a landfill in 5 years.
Gerald Deal: Takes longer to unload than to cross the ocean.
Bob Smith: An age old struggle between whether we 'can' and whether we 'should'. The ship would be in dock for a month just unloading it. But let's not forget the annual 'once in 500 years' typhoon that would surely doom the ship and some developing nation's economy, insurance companies getting bailed out...etc.
Dominic Nappi: Zoltan Gyulai the top 12 cargo ships pollute more then every car in the world.......then you also got those ridiculous cruise ships that do the same. [I wonder how accurate this "top 12 fact" is.]
Jerry Gatine: There is not a porttainer crane in the world that can reach out that far or high to offload this ship. Even the newest cranes at Everport in Oakland can only pull 9 high and 25 wide. They will have to turn this ship multiple times to offload it.
[I quit looking after 50 comments.]

J.B. Rail Photog shared
Jon Kelley: I assume that a “standard size container” means not high cube?
Dennis DeBruler: Jon Kelley It means 20' long. In practice, most containers are 40' so there is generally a factor of 2 between what you see and the rating.