CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery, the flagship of their fleet and only launched in January, made her maiden call at the Port of Southampton and caused quite a stir.

The seventh largest container vessel in the world, CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery can carry 20,600 TEUs (containers) and is 400m long x 59m wide. (Interesting fact: you could fit the equivalent of 863 million tins of baked beans inside her). Graphic shows the scale of the new ship.

Keen port photographers Andrew Sassoli-Walker and Andrew McAlpine captured some fabulous images of the megaship during her visit to Southampton – see above.

ABP Southampton Director Alastair Welch said: “CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery is just the latest of these new megaships to visit the Port of Southampton. Not only are these vessels bigger - they are much cleaner too and we are seeing more of these new generation ships visiting across the port’s key trades.

“The Port of Southampton is ideally suited to welcome these megaships.” The graphic (right) shows the scale of the new ship.