You have until Saturday to see giant ship at Port of Tacoma

To get a sense of how big ships are becoming, look no further than the Port of Tacoma.

Evergreen’s Thalassa Axia, 1,200 feet long and with a 13,800 TEU capacity is believed to be the largest ship to call at the port, according to port communications representatives. (TEU stands for 20-foot equivalent unit; one TEU is equal a standard 20-foot shipping container.)

It arrived Thursday and is expected to depart Saturday morning.

It’s an example of the larger ships the port expects to see as they become more common for shipping lines on trans-Pacific routes.

Congress recently signed off on a channel deepening study to accommodate bigger ships at the port.

While this ship’s capacity is substantial, Katie Whittier, the port’s communications director, notes that it is smaller “than the 18,000-plus TEU vessels that have entered the global market, and for which our new giant cranes are designed to handle.”

Whittier said extra shifts will continue to be added to handle the increased volume coming through the port.

In October, the port reported its strongest September since 2005 with a surge in imports. It was the fifth-highest monthly volume in the port’s history, at 373,845 TEUs.

The port marks its 100th anniversary on Monday.

This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 5:42 PM.