15th May 2013. The Pirates Of Somalia - Somalia. How much bigger can container ships get? 18 February 2013Last updated at 19:59 ET By William Kremer BBC World Service The world's cargo ships are getting big, really big. No surprise, perhaps, given the volume of goods produced in Asia and consumed in Europe and the US. But are these giant symbols of the world's trade imbalance growing beyond all reason?
What is blue, a quarter of a mile long, and taller than London's Olympic stadium? The answer - this year's new class of container ship, the Triple E. Each will contain as much steel as eight Eiffel Towers and have a capacity equivalent to 18,000 20-foot containers (TEU). If those containers were placed in Times Square in New York, they would rise above billboards, streetlights and some buildings. Or, to put it another way, they would fill more than 30 trains, each a mile long and stacked two containers high. This image from Maersk shows what 18,000 shipping containers look like in the wrong place The Triple E will not be the largest ship ever built.
Continue reading the main story. 21st February 2013. Ship loses power, hits North Mole after leaving Fremantle Harbour.