Ships Monthly Magazine No.602 Folkestone Favourites - February 2015 Back Issue

In this issue of Ships Monthly we have
reports on various new ships that are
making waves because of their size.
Shipowners and corporations are looking
to build bigger and bigger vessels, the
main benefit of which is a lower unit cost. Of
particular note was the recent naming of the
new container ship CSCL Globe, which has a
capacity of approximately 19,000TEU and takes
the title of world’s biggest container ship from
the Maersk Triple-E ships. But Maersk are not
resting on their laurels, and are set to build
even more ships in the Triple-E series.
As well as container ships getting ever bigger,
with speculation that a 24,000TEU vessel is on
the cards at some point, cruise ships are also
increasing in size. Those ships such as Oasis of
the Seas, featured last month, can carry upward
of 5,400 passengers, while newbuilds like
Quantum of the Seas take ‘only’ 4,100.
But these boxboat giants, and indeed the
massive cruise ships, are almost dwarfed in
comparison to Pieter Schelte, which measures
382m by 124m and is basically two ships joined
together. With a lift capacity of 48,000 tons,
she is intended to service oil rigs, and will be
examined in depth in a future issue of SM.
While the same goes for new ferries in terms
of size, with CalMac about to introduce its new
7,800gt flagship Loch Seaforth as a larger and
more capacious craft on the Lewis route, this is
in stark contrast to the two Folkestone ferries
featured in this issue. Hengist and Horsa were
Channel favourites for many years, but the
5,596gt pair measured just 118m in length and,
by modern standards, are tiny.