The Explorer class is a series of large container ships built for CMA CGM.

The first five ships are 365 metres (1,197 ft 6 in) long with a nominal capacity of 13,830 TEU; the last three are larger, at 396 metres (1,299 ft 3 in) and 16,020 TEU, making them the world's largest container ships until the delivery of the Triple E class.

Advanced simulators were built to help crews learn how to handle the new ships.

Benjamin Franklin was not an explorer but made contributions to oceanography, Georg Forster was a naturalist and ethnologist who travelled with explorer James Cook, and Jules Verne was a novelist who wrote about explorations.

There exist four different ship types within the Explorer class.