We have selected seven of the most amazing giant ships. Five of them were sent to sea recently, two have already been written off, and you can even buy a ticket for one. Each of them is a champion in their own category.
Longest ship on Earth
Length - 488 m, width - 74 m, deadweight - 600,000 tons. Launched in 2013.
The largest ship on the planet and the largest floating structure ever made by man is the Prelude FLING. It is equal in length to the famous Wailing Wall in Israel. The board could accommodate five full-size soccer fields or 175 Olympic swimming pools. However, its purpose is different: it is the world's first floating plant for the production and liquefaction of natural gas.
The vessel belongs to the Dutch-British oil and gas company Shell, was built in South Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries, and will operate off the coast of Australia, producing gas from the ocean floor - the first drilling is scheduled for 2017. In the strict sense of the word, this is not quite a ship: the Prelude will not be able to sail under its own power, and it will have to be towed to the workplace. But this monster is unsinkable and indestructible: it was created specifically for service in the "cyclone zone" in the open ocean and is able to withstand a hurricane even of the fifth, highest category. The planned service life is 25 years.
Petronas Towers with spiers
Length - 458, 45 m, width - 68, 86 m, deadweight - 564 763 tons. Launched in 1979, disposed of in 2010.
The largest tanker for the transportation of oil Seawise Giant for its size got into the Guinness Book of Records. The ship is 6 meters longer than the 88-story Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, including the spiers, and is about the same width as a football field. It is so large that the draft did not allow it to pass through the Suez, Panama Canals and the English Channel.
Designed and built in Japan by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. in the mid-1970s, the tanker was intended for a Greek customer. However, he refused to buy: during the tests, a strong vibration of the hull was found while sailing in reverse. As a result, the ship was resold to a Hong Kong company and rebuilt: its displacement at full load reached an absolute record - 657,018 tons. During its long life, the ship changed owners and names several times, it was Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, Mont, went under the Liberian, Norwegian, American flags and the Sierra Leone flag.
In 1986, Seawise Giant was nearly destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War. A missile launched by an Iraqi fighter jet caused a fire on board, the crew was evacuated, and the ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz and was presumed to have sunk. The Norwegians found it, repaired it and sent it on a new voyage. Since 2004, the world's largest tanker has ceased to be floating and was used as an oil storage near Qatar. In 2009, he made his last trip to the shores of India and was scrapped. After the giant was dismantled, the largest supertankers are four TI-class ships with double hulls: Oceania, Africa, Asia and Europe. They are 380 m long and surpass their competitors in deadweight - 441,585 tons.
Four Statues of Liberty
Length - 382 m, width - 124 m, deadweight - 48,000 tons. Launched in 2013.
The catamaran vessel Pioneering Spirit, which until February 2015 was called Pieter Schelte, is the absolute champion in deck area. The creators claim that it can fit a small town. In length, four Statues of Liberty could be laid (93 m with a pedestal). The ship was built in South Korea by a Finnish company. Its function is to lay subsea pipelines and move drilling platforms. In January 2015, the ship arrived in Europe and has already been at the center of a scandal because of its name - in honor of the Nazi criminal Peter Shelte Heerm, an SS officer who was convicted of war crimes and escaped punishment by deception. Seeing a giant ship with this name in Rotterdam, the Jewish communities of Great Britain and Holland made a fuss, as a result of which even the British government spoke out in favor of renaming the ship. Under pressure from the public, the head of the Allseas company, which owns the wonderful ship, and the son of Peter Shelte, Edward Heerma, agreed not to use his father's name in the name of the catamaran and changed it to the neutral Pioneering Spirit.
