Inside One of the Biggest Container Ships in the World.

Get an inside look at one of the biggest container ships in the world capable of storing up to 18,000 containers. It is difficult to understand the size of one these ships until you get a tour.

The largest container ship in the world is the Pioneering Spirit, which is operated by the Dutch shipping company Van Oord. The Pioneering Spirit is a “multi-purpose” vessel that is designed to be able to remove offshore oil and gas platforms, as well as install and remove offshore wind turbines. It is also capable of carrying and installing large pipes and other heavy loads.

The Pioneering Spirit has a length of 382 meters (1,253 feet) and a width of 124 meters (407 feet). It has a deadweight tonnage of around 105,000 metric tons, which is the maximum weight of the vessel when fully loaded, including the weight of the vessel itself, its crew, and its cargo.

The Pioneering Spirit is larger than many traditional container ships, which are typically between 300 and 350 meters (984 to 1,148 feet) in length and have a deadweight tonnage of around 50,000 to 60,000 metric tons. However, there are other container ships that are larger in terms of their capacity, which is measured in terms of the number of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) they can carry. For example, the Emma Maersk, which was launched in 2006, has a capacity of around 11,000 TEUs.

Shipping Quotes

“This also applies to the industry of container shipping, ports, and logistics, which largely has been driven by the traditional business models focused on optimizing how you move goods.” ~Soren Skou
“A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.” ~Thomas Carlyle
“No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.” ~Charles Kettering
“Digitization and new technologies are rapidly changing all industries, forcing them to prepare for a tomorrow that is unpredictable.
“Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.” ~Epictetus
“One ship drives east and other drives west by the same winds that blow. It’s the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way they go.” ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“To my knowledge, the Department of Homeland Security has focused on detection devices that are large, expensive, use a large amount of energy, and cannot easily be placed in or on a shipping container.” ~Jim Ryun
“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” ~Grace Hopper