Emma Maersk / History

The ship was built at the Lind Yard in Denmark. In June 2006, during construction, welding works caused a fire within her superstructure. It spread rapidly through the accommodation and bridge. She was named on August 12, 2006. The ship is named after Emma Maersk, Maersk Mc-Kinney M?ller's wife. She set sail on her maiden voyage on 8 September 2006 at 02:00 hours from Aarhus, calling at Gothenburg - Bremerhaven - Rotterdam - Algeciras - the Suez Canal - Singapore, arraived on 1 October 2006 at 20:05 hours. Emma Maersk departed Singapore the next day, headed for Yantian in Shenzhen. She sailed on to Kobe, Nagoya, arrived at Yokohama on 10 October 2006, and returned via Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, the Suez Canal, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg and finally to Aarhus, with arrival at that port 11 November 2006 at 16:00 hours. She hit the headlines in the run-up to Christmas 2006, when she was dubbed SS Santa because she was bound for the United Kingdom from China loaded with Christmas goods. The return journey after Christmas 2006 saw her return to southern China, this time loaded with thousands of tonnes of UK waste exported for recycling to China. Her appearance in the news prompted China's State Environmental Protection Administration to promise to "closely watch the progress of investigation into the dumping of garbage in south China by Britain". It added that no official approval had been given to any company in the area to import trash.