h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This morning the world's biggest shipowner (and of course Denmark's richest man) Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller died at the age of 98. Only a few days after participating in the general meeting of his company (he still controlled the majority of shares)

If you live anywhere near the seven seas you will recognize the light blue vessels of the Maersk Line, most of them built in Maersks own shipyards - and some of them (nine, I believe) now the largest ships on the seas

Not bad for a man from a nation counting only 5.5 million inhabitants - but this certainly tells you more about the man than about his nation. Most of us are hobbit-like. He was something completely different. Yet always very humble and claiming he owed it all to his father

I am not in favour of kings, queens and capitalists, but you have to respect what the man achieved - if not for anything else than for the fact that nobody else came anywhere close to his achievements though many had the same chances

My US friends should know that Mr. Møller was a great friend of America. So much that when the presidents Bush & Bush went to war against the Iraq he offered to transport their troops - for free

I am not in favour of wars either - but he followed his heart. And at least I share his love for the sea and what better way to celebrate a special countryman by showing you this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nkctTviDgg&feature=related

Maersk are the world's second biggest users of marine diesel. I've had that nugget stored away for a few months and I'm glad to have the chance to be able to release it into the wild.

More people live in London; I think I've pulled one of his containers once.

wow, 98, not a bad innings.

I use his containers all the time, and some of his ships. Wasn't the Emma Maersk the biggest container ship in the world when it was first commissioned?

She was indeed. Only one ship has been bigger (Knock Nevis) but it was scrapped in 2010 - and Now Emma has 7 sisters. Each capable of carrying 15000 containers

http://www.largestshipintheworld.com/

I do remember waking up in a hotel room in Singapore once some years ago, drawing the curtains and seeing the seven-point star* outside the window on ships and many containers in the terminal. Did make me feel a little proud to be Dansih, to be honest.

* rumours have it that according to the Mærsk company credo, that is one point per work day of the week

minor correction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_longest_ships

seems a few other ships have also been longer than Emma and her sisters, but you will notice that even longer Maersk Line ships will be launched in 2014

Old friend of mine, who sailed the seven seas, told me that if you sail into ports around the world you will see houses in the Maersk colour. No coincidence: Sailors would often pay some local ladies with a bucket of paint for certain services - thus at the same time making it clear to colleagues where to find said services

I see Maersk 18 wheeler semi truck and trailer rigs almost every time I go on the freeway and Maersk container cars on the railways with almost every train I see.

Railways and the merchant marine are strongly integrated in the USA.

(On the 7 pointed star motif, it is also used for Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriff badges in the State of California.)

Hr. Møller liked a luxury yacht as much as the next billionaire, however he did not invest in a giant motor yacht with hundreds of hands and moored it in Monte Carlo. Instead he bought a very fine genuine sailing boat with a crew of only two - himself standing at the helm - and sailed around the many Danish waterways

His last yacht was a Finnish Nautor Swan. The first was bought when Møller lived in the USA during WWII and he bought at least eight through the years (on top of the hundreds of oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships etc. etc.)

He ordered the last one as a gift to himself when he was approaching his 90th birthday. Or so he thought. Fact is he had to rebuild it when his wife Emma took sick and was sat in a wheelchair. To prevent the ship from rolling too heavy in the Baltic waves a lot of concrete was loaded as ballast

After the death of his Wife in 2005 he ordered a new Swan built because the old one was now boring. The last - Klem VIII - was a Nautor Swan RC 82, take a closer look at it here:

http://lifestyle.euroinvestor.dk/lifestyle/maersk_mckinney_shopper_ny_lystyacht_9954566.html

Although I have never heard of him, I have seen quite a few Maersk Line lorries and when I am in Grays I have seen Maersk Line containers been sent by rail.

That is a nice dingy. Suspect he was better than Stobart; must have been.

Can't stand Stobart nor anybody that thinks themselves part of the master race.

We need some proper entrepreneurs in this country, and not thick people with stupid tv shows with a stupid giggling girl and stupid managers who's only job is to answer the radio, and stupid fork lift drivers who can't write down numbers and weights on a piece of paper and stupid giggling girls that forget electric lifts needs to be plugged in, to stupid aircraft engineers that have smelly accidents with airplane toilets.

Is that too many mentions of stupids

I like proper entrepreneurs with names wot I can't pronounce; Maersk.

They also have Lego.

...'ae', as in "rather" or "at" or "Gaelic" ('gallic')...

"Maersk" pronounced that way is a bit of a glottal challenge, at least for most English speakers.

Attempting to speak Danish is A Bad Idea. You're bound to mangle the pronunciation into incomprehensibility and their English is always better than yours to start with.

...I feel a short-short for Jabberwock's thread* coming on, on the 'stupids' and stupidity. Later, this evening. http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F2606954?thread=6506119&latest=1

mærsk/maersk as in hair

Capisce.

Bene