2 important things to also consider as the topic has diverted from ship technology to nations capability.

Mr. Merl,
If u r specifically referring to USA with your list of the sectors in which the country scores, then you need a big time update. Because in the mentioned list atleast in 70% of the stated sectors USA is not no 1 in ranking, further it does have a bigger market global share but thats with alliance & JV's in many continents, so its just tip earning model. Lastly USA is worlds largest economy even today and thats largely because Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Latin Americans, French, Australians & Danish work for your government or companies. If we remove them then you guys are nothing more than a holloween candy stick thrown in the dustbin.

Mr. Howard Nelson,
Just few more facts, Maersk Line was reporting losses in USD Billions in last 3 years. The major reason why its showing profits in 2010 ending is due to following:
1) Selling off Norkfolkline completely to DFDS
2) Selling off Retail Bugetti & Notto stores
3) Closing and selling off Odense shipyard
4) Closing on Rosti plastic in many locations
5) Selling off shares in Norden Bank of Denmark
6) Re-issue with fresh issue of IPO for Maersk Oil & Maersk Shipping in Copenhagen Stock Market
7) Selling off a unit in Chinese manufacturing containers, although another one is still going on.
Many of the big vessels like Emma & Triple E series Eugene Maersk etc are strategically placed to carry cargo for Walmart, Tesco, Target Stores, Wilson Leather, William Sonoma, Fonterra etc, so although they are not leased to these stores on paper, they are meant to serve these clients specifically.

Its like the Danish economy is largely dependent on Maersk, and they are living like a parasite on the US trade by entering into contracts with government and biggies like Walmart. As US is a drowning baby, so will the danes drown pretty soon.

Its business

Wow! What a vessel! Danish built and Danish registered as well...
BUT...outside of the superlatives about the ship itself...the rest of the "facts" are complete BULL.
I cite:


Captain Alison's Cartoon Showboat
Spike,

I totally understand the position the local citizens have to endure with a newspaper staff too lazy to fact check their sources. Dale Alison’s editorial on Monday was filled with multiple points of false information about Wal-Mart and the Maersk ship company.

Alison states he used Google “to fact check” his forwarded outdated email story. I guess that email that got Alison's attention must have been written during the build process of these ships before they actually went into service. Because fact is not his fiction.

This type of false reporting is indicative of the plague facing old school journalists trying to compete and succeed in the world of forwarded emails filled with B**S*** people like Captain “Barnacle” Dale Alison and his liberal mob suck up like cocaine and then spew forth an opinion that amounts to nothing more than polluted bilge water.

1. Contrary to Captain Dale, Wal-Mart NEVER commissioned any ship, let alone the Emma Maersk class vessels that Maersk operates.

2. Wal-Mart does not contract ship space. The manufacturer of the goods purchases transit space.

3. There are 8 Emma Maersk class ships, not 3 as suggested by Captain Dale. Even Wikipedia got that right.

4. The Emma Maersk class ships do not operate between China and the U.S. They operate exclusively between China and Europe through the Suez Canal. They never sail to America.

5. The Emma Maersk ships could never transit a trip from China to the U.S. in 4 days. It’s approximately 5,730 nautical miles between China and the western U.S. ports. It consistently takes 12 days to sail from China to the U.S. Did Captain Dale check his charts and then use a calculator to do his math? Or was this the same “Reader Math” used to calculate the number of newspapers readers for the advertising department.

6. Maersk operates most of their ships at reduced sailing speed. Their top speed is about 30 knots, not 50 knots as Captain Dale implies. They slow sail today at about 20 knots to conserve fuel.

7. Maersk NEVER operate their ships empty as Captain Dale suggests. NEVER! Westbound ships may carry some empty containers but they never sail empty.

8. It typically takes the average ship 24 hours to unload and 24 hours to reload. Not 2 hours as Captain Dale suggests. This is primarily due to the longshoremen work rules. Up until approximately 2+ years ago, the west coast docks worked one 10-hour shift per day.

Given this flagrant disregard Captain Dale has for checking any facts contained in a forwarded email (that looked so tempting) pertaining to ships that ply the world's ship lanes, how can we begin to believe Old Barnacle about anything else he or Steve Delaney try to shove down our throats? Maybe Captain Dale should check his assertion that 93% of what Wal-Mart sells is from China before he makes his Labor Day sermon.

Ol’ Barnacle better stick to his desk and leave the forwarded emails to the professionals and sailing to the sailors that know their stem from their booby hatch. And leave the big picture analysis to people that understand what it entails.

Captain Ron

Would this be the reason Ol' Barnacle never put his column online for the whole world to sea?

Spike

http://www.burlingtonderailed...

Too good to be true. I spied the problems with the story in the 4 day crossing time and the 2 HR unload time...no way jose. Then I started in 'til I located this little truth-teller. More like it. Great ship.
Bro Lute