The containership North-ern Jasper made its first stop in the Baha-mas arriving at Freeport Container Port around midnight Tuesday March 9, 2010.

Northern Jasper, a German-owned ship that flies a Liberian flag, is one year old and at nearly 1,093 feet long (333 metres), 141 feet wide (43 metres) and has a maximum draft of nearly 48 feet, is among the larger such vessels ever to berth at Freeport Harbour.

The huge ship weighs in at about 108,000 deadweight tons and is rated to carry the equivalent of 8,402 20-foot cargo containers – thousands more than is typical of ships that normally berth at Free-port Container Port.

Northern Jasper typically averages about 20 miles per hour (16.6 knots) but reportedly can make a top speed of nearly 30 m.p.h.

"Freeport Container Port can accommodate the largest vessels in the world and those being planned as evidenced by the recent visit of MSC's Tomoko and now Northern Jasper, said Gary Gilbert, CEO Freeport Container Port (FCP), Grand Bahama Air-port Company (GBAC), and Freeport Harbour company (FHC).

"Expansion plans for the container port involving the addition of 10 more cranes and six berths – to make 2,000 metres of quay berth-ing space, along with being the deepest port in the Carib-bean, gives us the distinction of being the most diversified port in the Western Hemis-phere with a very bright future," said Gilbert.