The Houston Express is a cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 owned by the Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owns other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Ships and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises which is now integrated into TUI AG, Hanover...

 company out of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and was completed in 2005. The ship is capable of transporting up to 8400 containers

Containerization

Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...

 at any one time. The Deadweight Tonnage

Tonnage

Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...

 is 107,000 metric tons

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

 and the maximum speed of this ship is 25 knots (49 km/h). The ship is 332 meters long and has a beam

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

 (or width) of 43.20 meters. The engines are capable of outputing 68,520 kilowatts of power.

The Houston Express, as well as her sister ships Savannah Express

Savannah Express

Savannah Express is a container ship owned by the Hapag-Lloyd company out of Hamburg, Germany. She was completed in 2005. The ship is capable of transporting up to 8401 TEUs at any one time. The deadweight tonnage is 107,000 metric tons and the maximum speed of this ship is 25 knots. The ship...

and Mærsk Stralsund, are owned by Norddeutsche Vermögen and managed by Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt. The ships have been built in a series of five vessels. They feature the first twisted leading edge full spade rudder (TLKSR) of Becker Marine Systems. The 67sqm rudder avoids rudder cavitation

Cavitation

Cavitation is the formation and then immediate implosion of cavities in a liquidi.e. small liquid-free zones that are the consequence of forces acting upon the liquid...

and saves 2% fuel.

External links

• Houston Express, Hapag-Lloyd.