With all this talk about unmanned ships, could this be a glimpse into the future of containerships? Let’s hope not.
But seriously… pictured here is the soon-to-be manned MSC Venice, the last in a series of six 16,000 TEU containerships for Mediterranean Shipping Company. The vessel is currently under construction at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding in South Korea, where the ships are launched without forward or aft superstructures – which are installed later on in the construction process.
At 399 meters long, the MSC Venice and its sister ships are the same length as the world’s largest 19,224 TEU Oscar-class vessels, but they measure only 54 meters wide (as opposed to 59 meters), so can transport far fewer containers.
The five sister ships are MSC London, MSC New York, MSC Amsterdam, MSC Istanbul and MSC Hamburg.
The six ships were ordered in 2012 for US $1.6 billion.
Photo courtesy lappino
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