The H class is a class of

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

s operated by the Danish shipping company

Maersk Line Maersk Line or Maersk SeaLand is a Danish international container shipping company and the largest operating subsidiary of the Maersk Group, a Danish business conglomerate. Founded in 1928, it is the world's largest container shipping company by ...

. The ships were built by

Hyundai Heavy Industries Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division of the ...

at their

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

located in

Ulsan Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...

, South Korea. The ships are each long and wide. The ship has 21 container bays and can carry a maximum of 21 TEU containers wide on deck. They are not designed with a specific speed and draft in mind and thus can be deployed on both east-west and north-south maritime routes. The first nine ships were ordered by Maersk in 2015. In 2018 Maersk announced it had ordered two additional ships from the same shipbuilder.

Service history

2018 ''Maersk Honam'' fire

On 6 March 2018, a large fire broke out in one of the cargo

holds A hold (abbreviated HLD, H or HD) is awarded to a relief pitcher who meets the following three conditions: :1. Enters the game in a save (baseball), save situation; that is, when all of the following three conditions apply: :: (a) He appears i ...

of the ''Maersk Honam''. It took more than three days to get the fire under control and the ship continued to burn for several more days. Four crew members died and one more was reported missing. The ship was salvaged and the damaged parts of the vessel were rebuilt. The ship was renamed ''Maersk Halifax'' before entering into service again.

Attack on ''Maersk Hangzhou''

On 30 December 2023 ''Maersk Hangzhou'' was attacked in the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...

by Houthi forces, attempting to board the vessel. Personnel aboard the ship repelled the attack and with the aid of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, drove off the attackers.

List of ships

References

{{reflist Container ship classes Ships of the Maersk Line Ships built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group