Australian_Science_Illustrated_Issue_52_2017

50 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

average freight charges from 15 to 1 % of the

price of the product. And the economies of

scale of huge vessels is not only a thing of

the shipping industry. The world’s biggest

cruise ship, the 362-m-long Harmony of the

Seas, which was launched in 2016, is a

floating city with 6,780 passengers and

2,300 crew members.

However, the growth comes at a price:

the world’s largest container vessels can no

longer berth in North America.

LARGER SHIPS REDUCE POLLUTION

The development of larger ships is not just a

matter of economy. For many years, the

I

n 1956, a modified oil tanker, the SS

Ideal X, carried 58 containers from

New Jersey to Texas. Until then, coffee

and bananas had been laboriously

loaded and unloaded bag by bag. Now,

they could be placed in large containers and

lifted directly from truck to vessel. Ever since,

ships have grown tremendously.

Since the days of the SS Ideal X, container

vessel capacity has grown by a factor of

300+. The world’s largest container vessel is

the MSC Oscar, which is 395 m long and

carries 19,224 containers – corresponding to

1,150,000 washing machines or 38,448 cars.

Container vessel growth has reduced the

shipping industry has been among the worst

polluters in the world, and so, authorities

have been pushing to reduce the ships’

emissions. As from 2021, ships sailing in the

North and Baltic Seas must reduce their

emissions of harmful nitric oxides (NOx), by

75 %. More containers in one single ship

cause less pollution per container, so larger

vessels are an efficient way of making the

shipping trade greener.

Whereas vessels longer than four soccer

fields benefit economy and environment,

they are a huge challenge to ports. Docks

must be longer, wider, and deeper, and cranes

must be higher to be able to reach across

Huge propeller

rotates slowly

2

The propellers of the

largest container vessels

are designed for low,

economical speeds. This means that

they are longer – the MSC Oscar's

propeller blades are 10.5 m

long – and only rotate a

few times per minute.

The MSC Oscar

measures 73 m from keel

to navigation bridge, 16

m of which are located

under the water.

MSC (MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING COMPANY)

PROPULSION

TRANSPORT SHIPS