Maersk Shenzhen Comes to Baltimore July 7, 2019
This 324x48m (1063x157ft) container ship was built in 2016 by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering according to BalticShipping.com. She is owned and operated not by Maersk as the name suggests but rather by Zodiac Maritime based in London. A look at their container ship fleet list shows other familiar names besides Maersk including Hyundai and MSC among other ship names. In addition to container ships they own ships of nearly every major type except general cargo. The connection between Zodiac Maritime and Maersk is unclear.
According to this detailed data sheet provided by Zodiac Maritime she can carry a hefty 10,081 TEUs. Unusually it does not appear that she has any reefer plugs for refrigerated containers. Compare to record breaking largest container ships to come to Baltimore, Maryland: Gunde Maersk (11,000 TEU) and Evergreen Triton (14,424 TEU).
Surprisingly I have not found any video of this ship other than my own, the one shown below plus this one I took of her a few months ago while at dock here in Baltimore, Maryland. I found two other blog entries on this ship at tugster: a waterblog: First, Rounding Bergen Point 4, and second Wall of New York.
In her arrival video below you can see the pilot boat approaching the ship and if you look carefully the pilot can be seen climbing up from the boat then disappearing into a door in the side of the ship. As the ship nears the camera and the pilot boat scoots ahead of the ship note the blue Z painted on a white circle on the ship’s superstructure which is the logo of her owner. As she continues to near you’ll see she is riding so high out of the water her bulbous bow is clearly visible. Also note that her superstructure is closer to the bow of the ship while the funnel towards the stern. I am unsure of why this design was chosen or if it has a particular name.
A large number of container companies are represented on her deck and container sizes seen include 20′, 40′, and 45′. As the ship passes under the Key Bridge the tugboat April Moran appears from the left side of the screen before disappearing on the far side of the ship. In the following scene the tugboat Lynne Moran can be seen pacing the ship while travelling in reverse while they both pass the docked roro ship Morning Cherry. As she continue past the camera watch as the two tugs assist her in turning towards Seagirt Marine Terminal then pushing her to dock.