En route from the Far East it’s groaning under the weight of 18,000 containers each the size of a removal van and packed full of electronics, white goods, toys and clothes.

Just a few years ago ships of this immense size would have been unthinkable. But as demand for cheap foreign imports has grown so too have these leviathans of the sea. Now barely a day passes without an arrival from China, Malaysia or Korea.

The Danish line Maersk alone will have a fleet of 20 identical ships within less than two years, churned out by builders in Busan, South Korea. Each of them will be able to transport 18 million flatscreen televisions, 182 million iPads, 36,000 cars or 111 million pairs of trainers.

Wider than an eight-lane motorway, 240ft high and weighing 165,000 tons the ships plough a relentless furrow along the world’s busiest sea route from Asia to Europe. But they often return less than half empty, a stark reminder of the trade imbalance that exists between Europe and the Far East.

Nick Brown, a marine expert at Lloyd’s Register, says: “Without these huge ships world trade would be impossible. They bring the goods from Asia that we all rely on.

“In the Nineties, when ships capable of carrying 4,000 containers were introduced, no one thought they could possibly get any bigger. The biggest now is carrying more than four times that amount.”