Clifford Maersk is the tenth vessel in a series of large containerships built by AP Moller subsidiary Odense Steel Shipyard at its yard in Lindo on the Danish island of Fyn. The vessel was delivered to AP Moller in November 1999.
Clifford Maersk was named in a ceremony at Odense Steel Shipyard on 13 November 1999 by Mrs Anne Pram Kjølbye, wife of Mr Michael Pram Rasmussen, managing director of Topdanmark A/S.
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After sea trials in Skaggerak, the waters south of Norway, Clifford Maersk entered service for AP Moller’s container shipping arm, Maersk Sealand. The vessel has been deployed on Maersk Sealand’s AE5 service, which serves ports between Gothenburg in Northern Europe, Singapore, Japan and China. In entering the AE5, Clifford Maersk joins a number of her sister vessels.
The AE5 service offers weekly fixed day calls at Gothenburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Felixstowe, Algeciras, Salalah, Tanjung Pelapas, Singapore, Yantian, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Kobe, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Tanjung Pelapas, Algeciras, Felixstowe and Rotterdam.
Clifford Maersk is registered in Haderslev, flies the Danish flag and has American Bureau of Shipping classification.
In addition to its well-publicised purchase of CSX’s container shipping arm Sealand, AP Moller also owns Safmarine (SCL), which operates mainly in the North-South African trades. In the container trades AP Moller also has a series of five 4,300 TEU vessels on order from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. These vessels are scheduled to be delivered from June 2002.
AP Moller’s transport interests also extend to other transport types, such as dry bulks, liquid bulks, offshore supply and ro-ro. The company is active in the newbuildings market for other vessel types.
DESIGN
Clifford Maersk has an official capacity of 6,600 TEU, which includes the ability to carry 700 refrigerated 20ft containers. Clifford Maersk is 347m long overall, has a moulded breadth of 42.8m, a depth of 24m and a draught of 14.5m when fully loaded.
As the tenth in a series, Clifford Maersk reflects AP Moller’s commitment to developing a global network on deepsea East/West container shipping routes using large, fast, modern container carrying vessels to serve the larger ports in each region. These deepsea routes are supported by a network of feeder routes to transport cargo to its final destination. Over the past few years, AP Moller has been phasing out smaller vessels in its flagship Europe to Far East services in favour of its new, larger series, which is able to offer greater economies of scale and improved efficiency and speed.
PROPULSION
Propulsive power on the Clifford Maersk is provided by a twelve-cylinder MAN BW diesel engine, which provides an output of 74,640bhp at 94rpm. This translates into a speed of 25 knots when fully laden. Such a speed is necessary for the Clifford Maersk to meet her schedule commitments on the competitive Europe – Far East trade.
The vessel is additionally equipped with five auxiliary diesel engines, each providing more than 3,000kW.
To facilitate easy manoeuvring in port, a bow thruster of 30t transverse thrust has been installed, in addition to two stern thrusters each with 15t transverse thrust.
