21st February 2011 Maersk Line has signed a contract with Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering co., Ltd. to build 10 Triple-E's with an option of an additional 20 vessels. Scheduled for delivery between 2013 and 2015, they will entirely change the shipping industry's understanding of size and efficiency.

Size:

Four hundred meters long, 59 meters wide and 73 meters high, the Triple-E will be the largest vessel of any type on the water today. It's 18,000 TEU (twenty-foot container) capacity is 16 % greater (2,500 additional containers) than today's largest container vessel, Emma Maersk.

Propulsion:

The Triple-E's are designed with a 'twin-skeg' propulsion system (two-engine, two-propeller). The Triple-E's two propellers are 9.8 meters in diameter with 4 blades each. The engine is an ultra-long-stroke engine, operating with a lower number of revolutions compared to a traditional engine. The total power is appr. 30,000 kW per engine.

Capacity and hull specifications:

The hull of the Triple-E is more like a U-shape compared to traditional container ships. An additional row of containers has been added to the Triple-E, giving it 23 rows across its width, compared to 22 rows onboard Emma Maersk. The more spacious hull and extra row provides additional capacity and with the more forward navigation brigde, containers can be stacked higher in front of the bridge without losing visibility. In addition to that, more containers fill the space behind the bridge above deck and below deck, using the space created by the engine room's position further to the back of the vessel.