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Biggest Ship Ever to Dock in North America Pulls Into Port of Seattle

The 200,000-ton CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin is officially docked in Seattle.

In early February we said that the 200,000-ton CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin was expected to pull into Elliott Bay and dock in Seattle sometime around the end of the month. They nailed it.

The 1,300-foot long vessel, bigger than three football fields back-to-back, has made it to The Northwest Seaport Alliance’s Terminal 18. The reason for the stop is actually as a test, to see how quickly port cranes can load and unload the ship in order to find out whether or not the infrastructure needs improvement. The ship will be unloading goods from China and taking on agricultural goods from eastern Washington. It will remain docked until Tuesday morning.

The Ben Franklin can carry up to 18,000, 20-foot shipping containers and while there aren't many ships of its size, more and more ships are being built bigger. Seattle's ability to load and unload them quickly and without incident will go a long way in showing the world that this is still a port worth stopping at.

· Massive cargo ship arrives in Seattle’s Elliott Bay [ST]
· A 200,000-Ton Container Ship is Headed Straight for Seattle [CS]