Big boxboats debut at Southampton

摘要

Five brand-new container ships made their debuts at Southampton during May as newbuilds continue to visit the port (see SM, July). The first was OOCL Berlin, which arrived on 1 May, followed a week later by OOCL Brussels, and then Hapag-Lloyd's Shanghai Express arrived for the first time on 12 May. The fourth was MOL Quest (2013/151,963gt), which is the second of a series of ten APL-owned 13.900TEU container ships. MOL Quest is one of five to be chartered from Singapore-based APL by the Japanese Mitsui OSK Lines. The 369m vessels have been designed to operate at moderate service speeds for low fuel consumption. They are the first jumbo twin-isle ships designed with a fully enclosed bridge, and the vessels' deck houses are built with flush outside bulkheads to combat pirate attacks.