MSC Oscar – Among Largest Ships In the World
By James Donahue
Meet the new breed of ocean-going cargo carriers; she is the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s motor vehicle Oscar, to date among the newest and classified as one of the largest ships in the world.
Oh yes, it is an ugly ship. But it is huge, measuring 1, 297 feet in length and capable of carrying 197,362 tons of freight. And yes, those are freight containers loaded on the top deck, each one designed to fit on the bed of an operating eighteen-wheeler truck that will receive the freight in port and carry it to an inland destination. The ship also has a refrigerated hold that will fit 1,800 containers of perishable food.
When fully loaded, each cargo container can carry an average of just over 10 tons of freight.
The Oscar is powered by a massive two-stroke diesel engine that can propel the ship at speeds of over 26 miles an hour. The engine is a giant standing 51 feet in height, 82 feet in length and 36 feet wide.
This is the new and expedient form of modern commerce, with goods being manufactured in plants all over the world; wherever cheap labor can be found.
In spite of its size and weight, the Oscar only needs a crew of 35 people to operate. The older ships needed much larger crews to feed and maintain their great engines, chart their courses, steer the vessel, trade duty hours and provide food and household services during the weeks they spent at sea.
Since labor has always been the most costly part of operating any business, nautical engineers are currently working on even newer ships that can be operated acrobatically, with literally no human on board. The commanding center would be located at some world port and the robot ship operated exclusively by radio/computer command. Thus even ships like the Oscar will be obsolete probably before their time.
The Oscar was launched in 2015 at the Daewood Shipyard in South Korea at a cost of $140 million. She is one of a fleet of three sister ships built for the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The other container ships in the fleet are the Zoe and Oliver.
To give you some idea just how international the business of shipping cargo has become, this vessel was built in South Korea for a Mediterranean based company, but lists its home part as Panama. And new construction of larger locks at the Panama Canal has recently been completed so big ships like the Oscar can take that shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
By James Donahue
Meet the new breed of ocean-going cargo carriers; she is the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s motor vehicle Oscar, to date among the newest and classified as one of the largest ships in the world.
Oh yes, it is an ugly ship. But it is huge, measuring 1, 297 feet in length and capable of carrying 197,362 tons of freight. And yes, those are freight containers loaded on the top deck, each one designed to fit on the bed of an operating eighteen-wheeler truck that will receive the freight in port and carry it to an inland destination. The ship also has a refrigerated hold that will fit 1,800 containers of perishable food.
When fully loaded, each cargo container can carry an average of just over 10 tons of freight.
The Oscar is powered by a massive two-stroke diesel engine that can propel the ship at speeds of over 26 miles an hour. The engine is a giant standing 51 feet in height, 82 feet in length and 36 feet wide.
This is the new and expedient form of modern commerce, with goods being manufactured in plants all over the world; wherever cheap labor can be found.
In spite of its size and weight, the Oscar only needs a crew of 35 people to operate. The older ships needed much larger crews to feed and maintain their great engines, chart their courses, steer the vessel, trade duty hours and provide food and household services during the weeks they spent at sea.
Since labor has always been the most costly part of operating any business, nautical engineers are currently working on even newer ships that can be operated acrobatically, with literally no human on board. The commanding center would be located at some world port and the robot ship operated exclusively by radio/computer command. Thus even ships like the Oscar will be obsolete probably before their time.
The Oscar was launched in 2015 at the Daewood Shipyard in South Korea at a cost of $140 million. She is one of a fleet of three sister ships built for the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The other container ships in the fleet are the Zoe and Oliver.
To give you some idea just how international the business of shipping cargo has become, this vessel was built in South Korea for a Mediterranean based company, but lists its home part as Panama. And new construction of larger locks at the Panama Canal has recently been completed so big ships like the Oscar can take that shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.