China's largest-ever oceanographic research and training vessel, named "Sun Yat-sen University" after its developer, was delivered in Shanghai on Saturday.

The vessel has a displacement of 6,880 tonnes, 114.3 meters in length and 19.4 meters in width.

Chief construction engineer Zhang Wenlong said the huge displacement allows it to carry more heavy equipment and make sailing more stable.

The "Sun Yat-sen University" boasts global navigation capability. It has a maximum trial speed of 16 knots and an economical cruising range of 15,000 nautical miles, which can facilitate 60-day expeditions and carry 100 crew members.

The vessel is described as "a large mobile laboratory at sea." Apart from a 760-square-meter stationary laboratory, its quarterdeck can carry more than 10 mobile container laboratories.

But the huge boy is not clumsy. The electric propulsion system allows it to travel like a "new energy car." Starting, accelerating and turning directions are much easier for it than other research vessels.

Construction began in October 2019 in Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard Group under China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited. It took about 20 months to complete it.

Since the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen University, based in Guangzhou, has conducted marine scientific research in the South China Sea. In 1928, China's first scientific research examining the Xisha Islands was completed by researchers from the university.

Since 2015, the university has conducted more than six scientific research expeditions in the South China Sea.

Luo Jun, principal of the university, said at the delivery ceremony that the university will take the vessel back to the Xisha Islands on the first stop of a new scientific research mission starting in October. 

(With input from Xinhua)