The world's largest container ship, the Globe, is docking in
Britain
for the first time as it continues its maiden voyage. But how vast and powerful
is it and how long until it's superseded?
Size
The Globe is more than 400m (1,312ft) long, the equivalent
of eight Olympic-size swimming pools. It is 56.8m (186ft) wide and 73m (240ft)
high, its gross tonnage is 186,000 - the equivalent of 14,500 London buses.
But the record-breaking aspect of the Globe, owned by
Shanghai-based China Shipping Container Lines and built in South Korea , is its capacity. It
can carry 19,100 standard 20ft containers. That's estimated to be enough space
for 156 million pairs of shoes, 300 million tablet computers or 900 million
standard tins of baked beans.
Laid end-to-end, the maximum number of containers on board
would stretch for 72 miles, the distance between Felixstowe and London , or Birmingham and Manchester .
"You would feel dwarfed by the Globe," says Damian
Brett, container expert at Lloyd's List shipping publication. "It's like
an office block lying on its side. It's a huge beast."
