PORT ANGELES — Directing the largest ship to ever dock in North America into Elliot Bay in Seattle was “awesome,” said the president of the Puget Sound Pilots on Tuesday.
Pilots boarded the Benjamin Franklin, one of the largest container ships in the world, in Port Angeles at about 3 a.m. Monday morning.
They steered the huge ship on its inaugural run into Seattle and returned with it as the behemoth sailed past Port Townsend, Dungeness Spit and Port Angeles on Tuesday.
“It was flawless. It went off without a hitch,” said Capt. David Grobschmit, president of Puget Sound Pilots, who was on the ship during its trip into Seattle.
“It was awesome. It’s been the lifelong goal of every pilot to handle a ship of that size,” Grobschmit said.
The 200,000-ton ship was maneuvered into its berth at Pier 18 on Harbor Island by lead pilot Capt. Jim Schaffer, Grobschmit said. Electronics pilot Capt. Ed Marmol recorded the journey.
Grobschmit and Shaffer got off in Seattle, where the ship was unloaded of electronics and other goods for such stores as Target and Best Buy and loaded with some of Washington state’s biggest exports, including lumber and apples.
Capt. Peter Giese, accompanied by Marmol — who kept filming — piloted the ship out of the Port of Seattle.
North Olympic Peninsula residents oohed, ahhed and snapped photos of the 1,310-foot-long cargo ship — which is twice as long as the Space Needle, nearly three times longer than the largest Washington state ferry and wider than a football field — as it made its way through Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Tuesday.
The ship was shrouded in fog as it passed Port Townsend, but the sun broke through long enough to allow clear views of the vessel as it passed Sequim Bay and Ediz Hook.
The ship, owned by France-based CMA CGM, which operates a fleet of 428 ships, is headed for the port city of Xiamen on China’s southeast coast across a strait from Taiwan.
It had come from Oakland, Calif., where it cleared the Golden Gate Bridge by just 20 feet, KOMO News said.
It can carry 18,000 containers; most cargo ships can carry about 10,000 each.
The Benjamin Franklin dwarfed everything else in Elliott Bay as it maneuvered slowly toward the Seattle dockyards Monday, KOMO said, adding that the success of the journey could mean big business in the future for the Port of Seattle.
The run was an opportunity for the port to prove it can handle the next generation of megaships, which are typically used between Asia and Europe, KOMO said.
The Puget Sound Pilots organization had trained senior pilots for 20 hours in a simulator to practice bringing the gigantic ship into port.
The pilots practiced 25 different scenarios dealing with varying wind speeds.
“We took it slow and controlled,” Grobschmit said.
“There were no problems. Everything was smooth.”
The size of the ship made the experience memorable.
“It’s heavier, slower to respond, wider, longer” than any other ship the Puget Sound Pilots had handled, he said.
Grobschmit said the Northwest Seaport Alliance got the port ready for the big ship while the Coast Guard ensured it had a safety zone and Foss Maritime supplied four tugboats.
He also thanked CMA CGM for bringing the ship in and said he’s looking forward to the next time.
“Keep ’em coming,” Grobschmit said.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
KOMO News of Seattle contributed to this report.