Modern international trade is only possible because of our fleets of seafaring cargo ships. And as these gigantic vessels continue to grow to meet the increasing demands of a rapidly globalizing marketplace, so too do their components. Spanning nearly 34 feet in diameter and weighing a stout 113 tons, this massive cargo ship propeller is the largest of its kind (by width, at least) ever built.
Constructed by Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH in Waren, Germany, the propeller was loaded into the the belly of the 13,000 TEU (Twenty-foot container Equivalent Unit) Hyundai Together last Saturday. It is currently en route to a South Korean shipyard, where it will be attached to the back end of an 85,000 HP power train aboard an as-of-yet unnamed 18,000 TEU container ship (presumably one of the titanic Maersk Triple-E line ).
This is only the first of a batch of such propellers entering service. A half dozen more equally-huge props are expected to make the transoceanic trip to South Korea later this year. [Port of Hamburg via G-Captain]