Hans Hozeman News

A Helping Hand in Stralsund

The Stralsund ship lift reportedly breaks all records, as nowhere in the world is there a lifting and lowering facility on a larger scale than this 754 x 115 ft. (230 m x 35 m) lift. Equally impressive is its power, which enables it to raise and lower a ship of up to 20,700 tons to a maximum of 36 ft. (11 m) without difficulty, the Maersk Valencia in December 1999, serving as an example. The bow of the oceangoing giant peers out of the 36 ft. (75 m) high shipyard bay, its steel hull follows: the Maersk Valencia, a 682 ft. (208 m) containership, edges slowly forward. On 432 wheels, a strange vehicle trundles along the rails like a steel centipede, at two meters a minute.