CSCL Globe: Felixstowe arrival for world's largest container ship

The CSCL Globe arrived into Felixstowe after leaving China about a month ago

The world's largest container ship has arrived in the UK for the first time.

The Hong Kong-registered CSCL Globe, measuring more than 400m (1,313ft) in length, docked at Felixstowe loaded with about 19,000 standard containers.

The previous largest ship to have docked at the port was the Maersk Triple-E, which arrived in November, carrying about 18,000 containers.

The new ship, which left China in December, arrived at the Suffolk port sometime after 12:30 GMT.

"I would probably mortgage my house if they would have me on board," said one spectator

Hundreds of spectators arrived along the coast to watch the ship dock at Felixstowe's deep-water berths eight and nine, which were opened in 2011, at a cost of £300m.

Brian Hall, a shipping enthusiast watching the ship come in, told BBC Radio Suffolk: "It's an awesome sight. It is a great coup for the port to get the biggest container ship in the world into port. It is very prestigious."

Paul Davey, from the Port of Felixstowe, said: We've had largest ships in the world before, but the ships do keep getting bigger and keep choosing the Port of Felixstowe as their UK port of call, which is good news for us.

"It's good news also for the 30 odd thousand people in Suffolk who make their living in the transport industry."

The CSCL Globe could be seen for some miles off the Suffolk coast as she approached Felixstowe

The CSCL Globe made its maiden voyage from the Port of Qingdao, China in December

Local shipping journalist Chris Gosling said the CSCL Globe will be the biggest ship in the world for only a short time.

"In about eight or 10 weeks there will be a bigger ship coming into Felixstowe, one called the MSC Oscar, which is capable of carrying about 120 more containers than the CSCL Globe," he said.

"That's how we measure how big ships are. In actual length she is about four metres shorter than this ship."

The previous largest ship to arrive at Felixstowe was the Maersk Triple-E with 18,000 containers in November

Work on the deep water berths at Felixstowe pictured in 2010

Berths eight and nine were opened in November 2011

The port said ships of this size would not be able to use Felixstowe if it had not made the investment.

It is carrying a large range of consumer goods including food, drink, clothing, electrical goods and furniture.

The ship's last port of call was at Kelang in Malaysia.

CSCL Globe

• 400m length

• 184,000 tonnes weight (equivalent of 14,500 London buses) when carrying a full cargo load

• The 19,000 containers would stretch 72 miles if laid end-to-end

• It could carry 900 million tins of beans or 300 million tablet computers

• Built by China Shipping Container Lines Co Ltd and South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries

• Made its maiden voyage from the Port of Qingdao, China on 4 December 2014

Source: Port of Felixstowe