The Hanjin Boston — A Photo Tour

 

 Approaching the Hanjin Boston from dockside.

It’s difficult to convey the scale of this mighty machine, but she’s roughly 1,000 feet long and 142 feet wide.  You’ve driven beside containers like these on the highway, usually mounted on 18-wheel tractor-trailer rigs.  On a typical voyage, this vessel carries about 4,000 containers full of everything from fresh produce and live crabs (in reefer units) to running shoes and iPhones.  That’s 4,000 of those trucks you see on the highway, which is equivalent to approximately 40 unit trains, or half a Bay Area traffic jam.

Sailing toward the Oakland Bay Bridge…

… then under the Golden Gate.  Turns out it’s not really all that high!

Some of what’s on my reading list; plus a very special journal.

Alas, no Internet…

An immersion suit and life jacket in case we must abandon ship.

Coffee is served in the Super Cargo cabin every day at 10:00.

The 2nd Mate on watch on the bridge.  Look, Ma, no hands!

Actually, the ship’s computer handles all routine navigation while at sea.  The curved red line is our course to Pusan; the straight black line, our current heading.  The small box at our 11 o’clock indicates another container ship, the NYK Pegasus, which departed Oakland shortly before us.  Our course will take us to within five miles of the southernmost Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

Running in fog off the coast of Southeast Alaska.

 The Chief Engineer in the engine room.  That’s a straight-12, two-stroke diesel engine capable of producing 93,000 horsepower; however, it is normally run at only one-quarter power to turn a single 30-foot propeller at a fuel-efficient 68 RPM.  The engine itself is three stories tall and sits about 40 feet below the surface of the water.  Each piston weighs 3.5 tons, and the ship carries 9,000 tons of fuel.  Its efficiency rating is 54%, which is nearly twice as efficient as the engine in your car.

Officers’ Messroom, where the Super Cargo (i.e., passenger) also eats. 

Ship’s Cook and Steward in the galley. 

Keeping track of time while at sea is very important.  Cruising at 15 kts requires changing the clocks nearly every day.

The crew locker room.

Keeping everything clean is a full-time job.

Some of the fitness equipment in the gymnasium.

The indoor swimming pool is filled with seawater, but only when the water temperature is 20°C or higher, usually only in Asian waters.

     Another method for keeping track of time while at sea.  Looks like this one requires an update…