
Guide to the Largest Ocean Carriers in the World - danwyd
https://www.flexport.com/blog/who-are-the-largest-ocean-carriers/
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kitd
It staggers me that if you unloaded the largest one at Southampton Dock and
laid all the containers end to end, the line would stretch to London. That's
at least an hour on a fast motorway by car.

~~~
notahacker
Not to mention that it's a highly _relevant_ comparison, since many of those
containers will be carried overland before/after unloading, and this gives an
idea of just how much traffic it can generate, even if spread out over a few
days and exit routes.

~~~
crististm
Indeed, a relevant comparison. I've counted the visible portion of one of the
ships and I've got a length of more than 38Km.

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ksec
I am more interested in those Ships, how large are they? Are they
standardized? How do they compare to something like largest Aircraft Carriers?

~~~
macmac
The longest ones are approx 400 m long. The Nimitz class which is the largest
aircraft carrier class in the world is 333 m.

As to standardisation then no. A certain number of each (typically owner
specific) type is built, and within that type the vessels are more or less
identical.

~~~
gadders
I wonder why they don't nuclear power the tankers, like they do aircraft
carriers.

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5555624
"The objections against nuclear-powered ships are numerous and well-founded.
It could be catastrophic if any of them sank or leaked waste into the sea.
Terrorists could find few targets more enticing. They’re a nightmare to
insure. There are few ports with facilities that can accept nuclear waste and
offer refueling services. And it seems unlikely that the public would accept
them any time soon; consider that both the Russian and the Japanese ships
encountered popular opposition that wouldn’t allow them to dock."
([https://www.flexport.com/blog/nuclear-powered-cargo-
ships/](https://www.flexport.com/blog/nuclear-powered-cargo-ships/))

Discussed a week ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10664819](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10664819)

~~~
TeMPOraL
It's important to consider them in context though. The very same article
states:

"More importantly, consider its effects on pollution. Just 15 of the world’s
biggest ships may emit as much pollution as all the world’s cars. Nuclear-
powered ships emit no CO2 or greenhouse gas. Replacing just a few of the
biggest ships with nuclear reactors would make a significant dent in air and
ocean pollution."

Given what kind of fuel current ships burn, I wouldn't be surprised if the
damage to the ecosystem of such sheap leaking or sinking would be _much
greater_ than of nuclear-powered ones (people like to forget that nuclear
waste is less dangerous than many of the chemicals industry deals with, and
dumps into the environment without much supervision). I still feel that the
opposition is mostly grounded in public's unfounded fears.

~~~
ksec
Wow, that is a lot, I wonder if there could be some innovation done.

Although that numbers sounds suspiciously large.

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ckozlowski
If anyone wants to know more about container ships and while they're so
critical to global industry, read "The Box" by Marc Levinson. It was on Bill
Gates' reading list a few years back. A bit dense, but fascinating.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-
ebo...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-
ebook/dp/B003U2TR5O)

~~~
gadders
This is a good read too: [http://rosegeorge.com/site/books/ninety-percent-of-
everythin...](http://rosegeorge.com/site/books/ninety-percent-of-everything)

"Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from
Rotterdam through Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and
the height of Niagara Falls; she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy
task force; she joins seafaring chaplains, and investigates the harm that
ships are inflicting on on endangered whales. Sharply informative and
entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of
an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our
very civilization."

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tacticus
Another interesting look would be the countries where these fleets are
registered.

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vlehto
Now make "self driving container ship".

Would that scale them down? The crew cost/cargo value would go to zero. So you
could optimize for singe size of ship that is mass produced.

~~~
claudius
The relevant cost for container ships are fuel, not people.

Self-driving container ships don’t run on less fuel and considering the
massive size of these ships. For example, Maersk’s Triple-E class ships are
manned by 22 people (according to the German Wikipedia at
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-E-
Klasse](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-E-Klasse)).

