Southeast : Barbara Bush Christens Huge Cargo Ship
Port of Long Beach shipping executives cheered Monday as former First Lady Barbara Bush christened the OOCL America, one of the world’s three largest container vessels.
The 905-foot-long ship, built in Japan for Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Lines, takes its first load of cargo today to Oakland before heading to Hong Kong. It is the third of the company’s six new container vessels, each with a record-breaking capacity of nearly 5,000 cargo containers.
Bush called the ship a “vital link of world trade” that will “promote understanding and tolerance and be an ambassador of peace.” Company executives then smashed a bottle of champagne on its hull and pitched streamers as the ship’s fog horn bellowed.
Orient Overseas, one of the world’s largest cargo shippers, became the first line to ship containers across the Pacific Ocean, from Hong Kong to Long Beach, in 1969. The America, at an estimated cost of $83.3 million, will also service trans-Pacific trade, one of the company’s main routes.
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