Mighty Ships Emma Maersk Subscribe to US Today! Emma Mærsk is the first container ship in the E-class of eight owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When she was launched in 2006, Emma Mærsk was the largest container ship ever built. As of 2010, she and her seven sister ships are among the longest container ships constructed. Officially, Emma Mærsk is able to carry around 11,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) or 14,770 TEU depending on definition. In May 2010, the class set a record of 15,011 TEU in Tanger-Med, Tangiers, on sister Ebba Mærsk. The ship was built at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark. In June 2006, during construction, welding work caused a fire within her superstructure.[5][6] It spread rapidly through the accommodation section and bridge, which delayed the ship by six to seven weeks. Emma Mærsk was named in a ceremony on 12 August 2006. The ship is named after Emma Mærsk, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller's late wife. The ship set sail on her maiden voyage on 8 September 2006 at 02:00 hours from Aarhus, calling at Gothenburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Algeciras, the Suez Canal, and arrived in Singapore on 1 October 2006 at 20:05 hours. Emma Mærsk departed Singapore the next day, headed for Yantian in Shenzhen. She sailed on to Kobe, Nagoya, arrived at Yokohama on 10 October 2006, and returned via Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, the Suez Canal, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg and finally to Aarhus, with arrival at that port 11 November 2006 at 16:00 hours.[7] She appeared in headlines prior to Christmas 2006, when she was dubbed SS Santa because she was bound for the United Kingdom from China loaded with Christmas goods. The return journey after Christmas 2006 saw her return to southern China, loaded with UK waste destined for recycling in China.[8] Her appearance in the news prompted the State Environmental Protection Administration in China to promise to "closely watch the progress of investigation into the dumping of garbage in south China by Britain". Ministry officials added that no official approval had been given to any company in the area to import waste.[9] 20 DKK of Emma Mærsk In 2011, the National Bank of Denmark issued a 20 DKK commemorative coin for Emma Mærsk.[10] Going eastwards on 1 February 2013, she suffered a damaged stern thruster and took on so much water in the Suez Canal that she became unmaneuvrable. Tugs, anchors and the wind[11] took her to Port Said to offload 13,500 containers, drain and be investigated by divers. She has not been in danger of sinking.[12][13][14][15] On 15 February 2013, Maersk Line confirmed that she was about to leave Port Said under tow to a yard for further assessment and repair.[16] On the 25th of February she reached the yard of Palermo (Italy) where she is scheduled to stay 4 months.[17] In August 2013, she was in service again[18] after a DKK 250 million (roughly $44.5M USD) repair.[19]

• published: 24 Oct 2013
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