Port of Valencia Welcomes Biggest Containership Ever

Eleonora Maersk, a 397.71m long vessel, entered the Port of Valencia on June 11th with assistance of tugboats VB Poder, VB Sonador and VB Llevant. She is the biggest container vessel ever to enter the port.

Maneuvering the ship of these dimensions is more difficult that those with conventional dimensions which cause a big inertia once they are started, forward as well as backward. This can get complicated when the maneuver is done in a reduced space due to the length and draft.

These conditions request a bigger effort from the tugboats, which have to use high power for its twisting, and need all the experience and professionalism of the tugboat’s captain, bigger control of the inertia.

Eleonora Maersk is one of the world’s largest container ships operated by A.P. Moller and registered to Svendborg Denmark.

She was constructed in 2006 at the Odense Steel Shipyard, based in Denmark. Her maiden voyage was in the Suez Canal.

There are seven other identical sister ships in the A.P. Moller fleet, and one of these ships is Emma Maersk. The Eleonora Maersk and sister ships in her class are among the biggest ever built.

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Press Release, June 17, 2014; Image: Wikimedia