Largest ship to ever enter the Thames docks at London's newest port (and it's so big it can carry as many as 8,500 lorries)

The 8,500-container Gudrun Maersk arrived last week at the London Gateway port, which opened in November

It was originally bound for Felixstowe, Suffolk, but made a detour to avoid the effects of high winds and rains

The ship could enter because 27million cubic metres of material from the Thames riverbed has been dredged
Operators say the new London Gateway port will protect UK industry, as ships would otherwise dock in Europe
The new London Gateway port welcomed the largest ever ship to enter the Thames this week, after a huge container vessel was diverted by bad weather.

Driven from its original destination of Felixstowe by high winds and rains, the Gudrun Maersk was towed into port laden with goods from the Far East.

The port, in Thurrock, Essex, opened in November after a huge dredging operation made the river Thames deep enough to accommodate the very larger cargo ships which are becoming standard in the shipping industry.

Docking: The huge Gudrun Maersk container ship makes its way into the London Gateway

Cranes: Equipment at the London Gateway, which only opened in November, can operate in high wind speeds
The ship, which can carry as much as 8,500 lorries, and weighs 115,000 tonnes when fully loaded, docked in the new port on Wednesday.

When it was constructed in 2005 it was the largest container ship in the world, but has since been eclipsed a new model which can carry more than twice as much cargo.


Ships as large as the Gudrun Maersk have been able to venture into the Thames thanks to long-running efforts to remove some 27million tonnes of silt from the river bed.

The change, which affects some 100km of waterway, now means that even the world's largest container ship can comfortably dock just miles from London.

According to the port's operators, the move will help keep the UK competitive, as without the increased capacity the giant goods ships would have started stopping off in mainland Europe instead.


After its time in port, the ship contained to Le Havre in France, and is currently making its way towards Tangiers in Morocco.

Close to land: The huge ship - which weighs 115,000 tonnes when fully loaded - is towed into port

Laden: The ship can hold as much cargo as 8,500 lorries

Route: The ship was bound to Felixstowe, but headed to the new London Gateway port instead
A spokesman for the London Gateway said: 'The ship wouldn't have been able to come in before we dredged the Thames.

'You need deep water to get the ships in, so we have conducted over 100km of dredging, about 27million cubic metres has been dredged from the Thames, all the way up to the estuary and the channel.

'And we have built London Gateway, which only opened on 7 November, for the large ships. This is the future of shipping – so to keep the UK competitive that’s what we’ve done.

Cranes: Equipment at the London Gateway, which only opened in November, can operate in high wind speeds

'We’re hoping to get a much larger ship actually – the largest in the world. It’s an 18,000-container Maersk EEE.'
'The way the ships run is they stop at maybe 8 ports then start the loop again. The vessel wasn’t actually due to come here, but because of the bad weather over the Christmas period we had a number of ships come that would have gone to Felixstowe, due to high winds.'

This was a Far East service, so would have carried electronics, textiles and things like that. It would have mostly been importing as there is not a great deal of exporting in the UK.

'The whole reason London Gateway was built was to allow these ships to come in – if we hadn’t built this they would have just gone to Europe instead.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537654/Towed-port-largest-ship-EVER-enter-Thames-pulls-new-London-Gateway-port.html#ixzz2q751xbQH