This May, CMA CGM is bringing the UK flag’s biggest ship in the world - the 17,722 teu Kerguelen – to the port of Southampton.

Delivered to CMA CGM last month, Kerguelen rivals some of the world’s biggest ships at 398 m long and 54 m wide. The ship features an optimized hull design as well as various efficiency technologies including a new-generation engine and a twisted leading edge rudder with bulb, providing a 10% fuel saving, CMA CGM claims, and an estimated CO2 reduction of 37g per container, per km.

Deployed on the FAL route linking Europe to Asia, Kerguelen calls in 11 countries, exporting various British goods to Asian and Middle-Eastern markets. The vessel is named after the 18th century French navigator Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec, “who discovered the archipelago which was named after him thanks to the suggestion of James Cook, one of England’s prominent navigators.”

Kerguelen is the first of the series of six vessels of the same size set for delivery this year, and in keeping with the UK theme, CMA CGM notes that the vessel is “wider than the Wembley stadium arch,” and “longer than two London Axe Towers together.”