Who says size doesn't matter? Amazing in size, the giant vessels are built with the latest technology and transport more than 90% of the total number of cargoes by sea (and this is not counting people). The largest ships in the world are oil tankers, container ships and cruise ships.
Large ships are built for different human needs. Some, with large diesel engines, carry goods over long distances, and naval vessels usually sail on nuclear engines to be able to depend on fuel and stay at sea for many months. But, regardless of the method of transportation, with one glance at one of the megacities you understand how much human effort and what engineering genius it took to build each giant.
Here list of the largest ships in the world with photo and detailed description.
10. Planet Solar - 31 meters
What types of energy did the shipping industry not try to use - diesel, gas, nuclear, wind energy. But the solar region remained unreached until the advent of Planet Solar. This is the largest ship using exclusively solar energy in the world. Its length is 31 meters, and the panels are able to absorb almost 103.4 kW of solar energy.
The speed of the ship is still low - only 8 knots, but, in the end, this is a unique development. It will certainly be improved.
9. Club Med 2 - 194 meters
Built in 1992 in Le Havre, France, Club Med 2 is the largest sailing ship in the world. Its length is 194 m, and the carrying capacity is 14 983 tons. For comparison: the wing length of the largest aircraft in the world is 117.3 meters.
In addition to 214 crew members, 386 passengers can board the Club Med 2. The sailboat has a speed of up to 10-15 knots and is currently operating as a cruise ship - in summer it floats along the waters of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, and in winter it passes to the Caribbean.
Club Med 2 has five masts. In addition to the seven sails (they are not controlled by people, but by the ship's computer), four diesel engines are installed on the ship. Entertainment for passengers includes ballroom dancing, card games, music shows and, of course, stunning sea views - Club Med 2 floats, like many sailing ships before it, along the coastline and only during the day, and at night it anchors.
8. SSV-33 - 265 meters
The largest ship in Russia is also known as the Ural. It belongs to the class of reconnaissance ships with a nuclear installation. The Ural was built during the Cold War, when the USSR and the USA were following each other with might and main. And it was intended for reconnaissance operations in the largest ocean in the world, where the United States possessed several test sites for ballistic missiles. The length of the Urals was 265 m., The crew totaled 950 people, cruise speed - 21.6 knots. Thanks to the nuclear engine, the Ural was autonomous and, after refueling, could not enter the port for three months.
The Ural began its service on the Far East coast, where, due to its gigantic size, there was no berth of suitable size for it, so the ship spent most of the time anchored in the bay. But his calm was deceptive - in the 80s, the Urals served as the main source of information about what is being done in the military circles of the USA and Japan.
It all ended with the beginning of perestroika. First, junior conscripts were transferred to the reserve, then nuclear boilers were damaged as a result of the fire. For a while, the ship lived on diesel generators, until the painful half-starved existence ended in 2001 - the Urals were joked. In 2008, its disposal began, and by 2016 it was finally disassembled.
7. USS Enterprise (CVN-65) - 342 meters
No, this ship has nothing to do with Star Trek, but its size is truly impressive - it is the largest warship in the world in the history of the navy. Its length is 342 m, it can carry up to 4,600 military personnel, 2,520 tons of weapons, and the cruise speed of the namesake Enterprise is 33.6 knots.
USS Enterprise has a long and glorious history.
- Once it became the first among nuclear carriers (launched in 1961) and its price was so high that it was decided to abandon the planned series of ships of the same purpose and size.
- He started the USS Enterprise service during the Caribbean crisis, then patrolled the Mediterranean, participated in the Vietnam War and, almost twenty years later, in Iraq, fought with sea pirates ...
- In general, his service life was 51 years in a row - longer than any other U.S. aircraft carrier to this day.
But the world was changing, and even such a technically perfect ship, regularly undergoing modernization, is hopelessly outdated. In 2012, the ship made its last voyage. And by April 2018, he was finally disabled.
6. RMS Queen Mary 2 - 345 meters
The world's largest transatlantic liner is the RMS Queen Mary 2, built in 2004. Its ship got its name in honor of the first "Queen Mary", which left the shipyard in 1936, and only the fastest and most reliable ships were awarded with the abbreviation RMS (royal mail ship). Currently, the RMS Queen Mary 2 is the only transatlantic ship cruising between Southampton and New York. However, once a year the Koroleva still works as a cruise ship, making a round-the-world tour.
The Queen Mary is 345 meters long and can accommodate 2,620 passengers and 1,253 crew members. She has a speed of 30 knots. Although the ship is inferior in size to the titanic cruise liners (by only 15 meters), however, it still does not give up its position as the largest ocean liner.
- The cruise differs from the ocean liner in that the first of them goes on a trip and lowers passengers on the spot at the same port, while the goal of the second is to transport passengers from one point to another.
- However, the difference is not the only one. The transatlantic liner makes long trips, therefore, it often encounters adverse weather conditions. Therefore, its design should be stronger than that of cruise liners sailing in comfortable conditions, seaworthiness - better, and engines - more powerful.
- Instead of a seaworthiness and endurance, a cruise ship can afford to focus on the number of passengers carried - therefore, they have such a fun box shape for better passenger capacity.
5. Gas carriers Q-Max - 345 meters
The world's largest carriers of liquefied natural gas are Q-Max vessels. Their length reaches 345 m, and the total capacity varies from 262,000 to 267,000 m3. Moreover, their speed is not bad for ships of this class - 19.5 knots.
Currently, there are 14 vessels of this type in circulation; they were built by Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo. The very first of them, Mozah, left the shipyard in 2007 and received his name in honor of one of the wives of the Emir of Qatar. All 14 vessels are owned by a Qatari natural gas company. These are the largest ships capable of docking with LNG terminals.
4. Oasis of the Seas - 360 meters
The largest passenger ships in the world are Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas, formerly known as Project Genesis. They belong to Royal Caribbean and were built respectively in 2009, 2010 and 2015. The length of the cruise liners is 360 m, and the capacity is up to 6,296 passengers, excluding the crew of 2,394 people. These are the fastest of large passenger ships - their speed reaches 22.6 knots.
There is plenty of entertainment for them so that tourists on board do not get bored. There is even surfing, zip-line (downhill) 25 m long and 9 decks high, two climbing walls 13 m high, swimming pools, a basketball court, a water park and even an ice rink. No wonder there are so many maintenance personnel on the ship!
The cost of building the Oasis of the Seas was about $ 1.14 million, the highest price paid for a civilian ship in the history of mankind. Both Oasis and Allure currently make weekly cruises in the Caribbean and are very popular with tourists.
3. TI class vessels - 380 meters
The largest oil tankers in operation were designed and built for the Hellespont Group at a shipyard in South Korea by Daewoo (or rather, its shipbuilding division) in 2003. There are four vessels in total - later the customers renamed them TI Oceania, TI Europe, TI Asia and TI Africa.
Approximately $ 90 million and 700,000 man-hours were spent on the construction of each ship. They are shorter than Knock Nevis, at 78 m; their length is 380 m, the carrying capacity is 440,000 tons, and they can develop speeds from 16 to 18 knots. In addition to the size, the ships impress with the grace of shape and beauty of the design; If you look at them high above, most of all they look like giant snow-white icebergs.
2. CSCL Globe and Maersk Triple E class vessels - 400 meters
In the fall of 2014, a “baptism” ceremony took place for the world's largest container ship, the CSCL Globe. It was the first among five vessels with a volume of 19,000 TEU (TEU - “twenty-foot equivalent”, a measure of the capacity of a cargo vehicle) ordered by a Chinese shipbuilding company in 2013. However, since then the CSCL Globe record has been broken by OOCL class trucks, the capacity of which reaches an impressive figure of 21,413 TEU - with the same length.
A mega-ship with a length of 400 m is sailing using the main engine with a capacity of 77,200 liters. sec., the efficiency of which is so high that it consumes no more fuel than a container ship with a carrying capacity of almost two times less. Fuel economy is up to 20%. This happens due to the fact that the “smart” engine responds to the situation at sea and accordingly regulates fuel consumption.
Danish company Maersk ordered Daewoo to build 20 Maersk Triple E class ships. Each of them cost about $ 200 million. Their capacity is slightly less than that of the CSCL Globe (18,000 TEU), but they are almost identical in length. The cruise speed of the new container ships is high - from 23 to 26 knots, which makes them the fastest ships of this class in the world.
Triple E, that is, “triple E” - are the principles encrypted in a short form that customers and shipbuilders adhered to:
- saving;
- energy efficiency;
- environmental friendliness.
Maersk vessels are currently one of the most efficient container carriers in terms of cost / volume of cargo transported.
1. Knock Nevis - 458.45 meters
During its service to people, the ship changed many names - Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, Jahre Viking and, finally, Knock Nevis. This is the longest ship in the history of shipbuilding - from fore to stern its length is 1504 feet (or 458.45 m), which exceeds the length of the Empire State Building laid on its side. Knock Nevis belonged to the class of oil tankers ULCC and had the largest carrying capacity of all vessels. It is considered the largest man-made object that can independently move, of all ever built by man.
At full load, the volume of cargo carried by the ship was 657,019 tons, and with a draft of 24.6 m, even the English Channel, Suez and Panama Canals were shallow for the marine giant. At the same time, the speed of the ship was surprisingly high for such sizes - 16 knots. Knock Nevis was driven by a single engine with a diameter of 9 m. The braking distance from cruise speed to a full stop was 9 km, and the turning radius of the vessel was 3 km. Served by his team of 35 people.
Knock Nevis was built in 1979 by the Japanese shipbuilding company Sumimoto Heavy Industries at the Japanese shipyard in Yokosuko. The Greek owner called the ship Porthos. Since then, the ship has seen a lot:
- traveled by sea for about 30 years;
- sustained damage in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war;
- was repaired and sold to Norway;
- in 2009, he made his last trip to the shipyard in Gujarat, India, where he was dismantled.
What is the danger of the largest ships in the world
Huge vessels are not very environmentally friendly. Transportation of goods by sea costs the planet nearly 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which is 6% of the total emissions. This number is double that of air transport.
For this reason, most marine giants are trying to convert to highly efficient and fuel-efficient engines, and they also use hybrid systems - there are ships that are powered by wind and solar energy.
