World's biggest ship symbolizes world's biggest problems

Giant ship delivers Christmas to UK - CNN.com

 Popular

Giant ship delivers Christmas to UK
POSTED: 1135 GMT (1935 HKT), November 4, 2006

 LONDON, England (AP) -- Groaning with gifts and larger than any sleigh, the world's biggest container ship docked in Britain on Saturday on a maiden international voyage to deliver thousands of tons of Christmas presents, decorations and food across the globe.

The MS Emma Maersk -- which weighs 170,000 tons (190,400 U.S. tons) -- set sail from Gothenburg, Sweden, in September, collecting and delivering festive supplies in Yantian, China, Hong Kong and Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia.

Operated by a crew of 13, the vessel is the largest at sea -- a quarter-mile (half-kilometer) long, 200 feet (60 meters) high and powered by the biggest diesel engine ever built.

Among goods packed into 11,000 containers are 2 million Christmas decorations, 12,800 MP3 players, 33,00 cocktail shakers, 150 tons (168 U.S. tons) of New Zealand lamb, thousands of frozen chickens and 138,000 tins of cat food, the vessel's owner, Danish shipping company Maersk Line said in a statement.

Around 45,000 tons (50,400 U.S. tons) of goods were due to be unloaded Saturday at Felixstowe port, in southern England, before the ship sails to mainland Europe to deliver 8,000 containers of cargo.

The journey is the ship's first voyage from China to Europe, specifically planned to deliver Christmas stocks to shopkeepers -- including a haul of electronic dinosaurs, radio-controlled cars, pinball machines and computers.

Maersk Line said the ship was capable of traveling about 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) every year -- the equivalent of seven and a half trips around the world.

The majority of supplies onboard have been produced in China, which last year exported 16 billion pounds (US$30.5 billion; euro24 billion) worth of goods to Britain, said Caroline Lucas, a European Parliament legislator with Britain's environmentalist Green Party.

That should make Britons think twice, Lucas said. "People should see the ship as a little microcosm of all the major problems with world trade."

"The thousands of tons of goods being delivered are items which once would have been produced in Britain and Europe, but which are now made in China -- where exploitation of the labor market means we cannot compete on price," Lucas told The Associated Press.

The ship's two-month voyage also highlighted concerns about the environmental impact of transporting goods and food long distances, she said.

powered by performancing firefox

powered by performancing firefox