Megaship is mega-interesting

Shipping is a lifeline for the Commonwealth; it’s how the islands get just about everything. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that.

But you might want me to tell you about a very interesting documentary about shipping. And thus we meet “Megaship,” a National Geographic documentary that features the [I]OOCL Atlanta[/I], which is one of the world’s largest cargo ships. I’m not savvy in the ways of television, on Saipan or anywhere else, but November is slated for the Asian debut of the documentary. I highly recommend getting your eyeballs on this show, but how you get them there is up to you.

Want to talk big? This ship weighs 135,675 tons (134,000 metric tons) and is 1,058 feet long. It holds the equivalent of 8,063 20-foot containers; I say “equivalent” because 40-footers appeared to be very common, so I guess one 40-footer counts as two 20-footers. That’s a lot of stuff. The OOCL Atlanta is too big to even make it through the Panama canal.

OCCL, by the way, stand for Orient Overseas Container Line, a Hong Kong-based company. I have no idea where the “Atlanta” comes from, given that a city in northern Georgia isn’t likely to host a Pacific-going cargo ship.

Anyway, Megaship opens as the [I]OOCL Atlanta[/I] is making its way through Malaysian waters to Singapore, one of the stops on a 42-day route between Asia and California. The port of Singapore itself is worthy of a documentary, there’s all sorts of precision planning and logistics involved in cargo handling and fuel loading.

After conducting its port business, the [I]OOCL Atlanta[/I] heads for Hong Kong, and we get a look at life at sea, which, for those of us who have lived at sea, means one thing: Work. And lots of it.

The entire ship is crewed by just 22 men, four of them officers.

From engine inspections, to the cook preparing meals, to fire-fighting drills, to inspection of the refrigerated containers for proper temperature, viewers get an overview of just what it takes to keep this ship, and its crew, operating, moving, and safe. Oh, and don’t forget the pirates: The crew practices repelling pirates using high-pressure fire hoses. I’ve seen pickup trucks in South Carolina better armed than this ship, but I guess defenseless ships help keep the pirate industry in business.

What the [I]OOCL Atlanta[/I] lacks in protection, it does make up for in horsepower. I didn’t know it was possible to build piston engines this big: The12-cylinder turbo-charged diesel looks about the size of a small house, and it produces 93,120 horsepower, pushing this behemoth ship to speeds that can average 25 knots (about 29 mph). In the ship world, that’s mighty fast. I’ve crossed the Pacific several times at less than half that speed.

The documentary concludes as the ship makes its way into the congested Hong Kong port at night, and the lights on the city must look pretty good after being at sea.

Then beers for the crew in Wan Chai? Nobody says, but perhaps not; they seem to keep to a tight schedule.

I don’t think that the Commonwealth sees any of these megaships in local ports, but the documentary still makes one appreciate all the work, dedication, and money that has gone into building the world’s shipping lines.

The documentary was made by Southern Star Singapore for National Geographic, and I’d like to thank Southern Star’s Australian office for providing me with the DVD so I could share the highlights of it with [I]Saipan Tribune[/I] readers. These guys obviously do first-rate work.

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“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.” —Oscar Wilde