J3778 : The 'Karin Schepers' leaving Belfast

taken 13 years ago, near to Holywood, Co Down, Northern Ireland

The 'Karin Schepers' leaving Belfast
The 'Karin Schepers' leaving Belfast
The container ship 'Karin Schepers' shortly after leaving the Port of Belfast and heading out into Belfast Lough. The ship is bound for Rotterdam via Dublin and is one of a number of vessels that operates between the three ports each week. The service is operated by B.G. Freight Line LinkExternal link / Eucon LinkExternal link (I can't work out the technicalities - both companies claim to operate the same ships and both seem to operate the same service - is Eucon the shipping agent and B.G. Freight Line the operator of the ships?) and you can see other ships that operate the routes at J3678 : 'Emstal' loading in Belfast and J3880 : The "BG Ireland", Belfast Lough. Built in 2007 the 'Karin Schepers' is 141 metres in length, flagged to Antigua Barbuda and can take a total of 803 twenty-foot long shipping containers onboard. It is typical of the type of container vessel that uses the Port of Belfast which can only handle these 'feeder' ships - to see the massive ships such as the 396 metre long 'Emma Maersk' which can carry nearly 15,000 shipping containers you will need to go to ports such as Felixstowe TM2634 : Container ships at Trinity Terminal, Felixstowe Docks.
Shipping containers

The idea and creation of the modern shipping container can be credited to American businessman (and former trucking company owner) Malcolm McLean in 1955. Rather than wait days for ships to be loaded and unloaded he devised a simple system where goods could be packed into standardised, rugged containers - these could then be carried by road or rail but also loaded, locked and stacked securely on board ships for transport across the globe and easily unloaded at the other end. The system revolutionised modern transportation of goods, increasing efficiency, lowering costs but also costing thousands of jobs across ports around the world. Today around 90% of non-bulk cargo is carried via shipping containers. In the UK, enormous ships that can carry over 14,000 containers arrive into ports such as Felixstowe and Harwich or nearby Rotterdam. Containers are then unloaded and moved across the country by road, rail or onto smaller 'feeder' ships that can navigate other ports around the country. To understand more about the process see the BBC Box project at LinkExternal link which tracked the route of a shipping container across the globe or the excellent programme 'The Box that Changed Britain' - frequently repeated on BBC4 and thus available on the iPlayer at LinkExternal link .

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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J3778, 254 images   (more nearby search)
Photographer
Date Taken
Tuesday, 8 March, 2011   (more nearby)
Submitted
Wednesday, 9 March, 2011
Category
Boat or ship > Container ship   (more nearby)
Subject Location
Irish: geotagged! J 375 789 [100m precision]
WGS84: 54:38.4193N 5:52.2528W
Camera Location
Irish: geotagged! J 378 784
View Direction
Northwest (about 315 degrees)
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