The Big Ship

Coming Soon
I received this cartoon in the mail the other day. It was cute, but with the price of gasoline what it is today, it's really not too funny.

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I thought you might enjoy learning about this large cargo ship, if you have not seen the pictures of it, look at the little slide show below.

World's Largest Cargo Ship
Get a load of this ship! 15,000 containers and a 207' beam! And look at the crew size of 13 people for a ship longer than a US Aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier has a complement of 5,000 men and officers. Think it's big enough? Notice that 207' beam means it was NOT designed for the Panama or Suez canal. It is strictly transpacific. Check out the "cruise speed". It is 31 knots which means the goods arrive 4 days before the typical Container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. So this behemoth is hugely competitive carrying perishable goods. This ship was built in three, perhaps as many as five sections. The sections were floated together then welded. The ship is named Emma Maersk. The command bridge is higher than a 10 story building and has 11 crane rigs that can operate simultaneously. Additional information:

• Country of origin - Denmark
• Length - 1,302 ft
• Width - 207 ft
• Net cargo - 123,200 tons
• Engine - 14 in-line cylinder diesel engine (110,000 BHP)
  
• Cruise Speed - 31 Knots
• Cargo capacity - 15,000 20 ft containers
• Crew - 13 people
• First Trip - Sept. 08, 2006
• Construction cost - $145,000,000+ in US dollars

Silicone painting applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year. Here a short slide show with 9 pictures of this humongous ship.

more text....

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Quotes of the Day

An apology is a good way to have the last word.
~Author Unknown

You can't run away from trouble.
There ain't no place that far.
~Uncle Remus

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Jokes of the Day

My wife and I were sitting out on our back porch, enjoying a glass of lemonade after a long hard day. A bird flew over and, with perfect aim left a deposit squarely in the middle of my wife's head.

She reached up, felt the damage, and shouted: "Quick, get some toilet paper!"

"It wouldn't do any good", I quipped, "He's miles away by now."

Note: In the joke above, it really wasn't Tennessee Granddaddy that did that to his wife.

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