Biggest ship in the word

Which ship is the largest ship of the world? The very first name which comes to our minds is the Titanic. Undoubtedly Titanic was one of the most famous ships which met with quite a memorable trouble on its first journey. There are many other giant ships of which most of us are not aware. Here we have brought a list of top 10 biggest ships ever built in history. Some of them are scrapped and some are in active service.

The world’s biggest ships are listed according to their overall length, deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage. The list includes the current record-holders, either as individual ships or ship classes, of each major ship type as well as some former record-holders and larger vessels that have been scrapped.

10. TI Class Supertanker

TI class supertanker Oceania is one of the most attractive ships ever built with massive capacity transferring crude oil. They are the four largest double-hulled supertankers in the world. They are also the largest ships in the world currently. The Maersk Triple E class container ships are longer, but the TI Class are still the biggest in terms of deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage.

The deadweight tonnage of TI Oceania is around 440,000 tones along with the speed capacity of speed between 16 to 18 knots. TI Oceaniais a master piece ship highly laden with technology to hurdle all the obstacles which might occur during the journeys. The length of TI Oceania is 380 m (1,247 ft).

9. Berge Emperor

The Berge Emperor was a large oil tanker built in the year 1975 in Japan by Mitsui and was one of the largest oil tankers of all time. It was launched on 30 August 1975. The ship weighed 211,360 tons and had a length of 381.82 meters. The ship was owned by Bergesen d.y. & Co. but in the year 1985 it was sold to Maastow BV. and the ship’s name was changed to “Emperor”. This ship was scrapped at Kaohsiung on the 30th of March 1986.

8. CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt

Named after Alexander von Humboldt, CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is an Explorer class container ship built for CMA CGM. It was the world’s largest containership until the delivery of the Maersk Triple E Class. The length of the massive big ship is 396 m (1,299 ft). The deadweight tonnage of CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is almost 187,624 tones.

7. Emma Maersk

In the list of top 10 biggest ships of the world, Emma Maerskis currently the second biggest ship which is still in service. It is the first container ship in the E-class of eight owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When she was launched in 2006, Emma Mærsk was the largest container ship ever built. As of 2010, she and her seven sister ships are among the longest container ships constructed. It’s a Container ship which carries different goods from country to country. It is able to carry around 11,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) or 14,770 TEU depending on definition. The length of the massive big ship is 397.71 m (1,305 ft).

6. Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller

Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller is the lead ship of Maersk’s Triple E class of container vessels. She has the largest cargo capacity in TEU of any ship yet constructed, and is the longest ship in service worldwide as of 2013. She was constructed for Maersk by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) of South Korea, and entered service in July 2013.

Along with her sister ships, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller is the world’s largest and most efficient operational container ship as of 2013, totalling 399 metres (1,309 ft) in length and with a cargo capacity of 18,270 TEU containers. She has a maximum speed of 23 knots.

5. Esso Atlantic

Esso Atlantic is one of the most popular name in the history of the big ships. This huge ship, 406.57 m (1,333.9 ft) long has an incredible deadweight capacity of 516,891 tons. Esso Atlantic has served the world with its consistent services level of straight 35 years. There’s no need to say that it used to be the best ship of its time. Esso Atlantic was an oil tanker basically and was disposed off as scrap on 2002 in Pakistan.

4. Batillus

Batillus was a supertanker, built in 1976 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire for the French branch of Shell Oil. The first vessel of homonymous Batillus class supertankers. Batillus, together with her sister ships Bellamya, Pierre Guillaumat and Prairial, was one of the biggest ships in the world, surpassed in size only by Seawise Giant built in 1976, and extended in 1981, although the four ships of the Batillus class had a larger gross tonnage.

With the deadweight capacity of almost 554,000 tones and the speed 16 to 17 knots and length of 414.22 m (1,359 feet), Batillus was the 4th biggest ship. She made her last journey on December 28, 1985, from Vestnes to Kaoshiung (Taiwan).

3. Pierre Guillaumat

It was the third biggest ship ever built in the history of world. Named after the French politician and founder of Elf Aquitaine oil industry, Pierre Guillaumat was a supertanker, built in 1977 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire for Compagnie Nationale de Navigation.

It served the world for only 6 years before it was disposed of as scrap because of the huge unprofitability and declining demands. Because of her gigantic proportions the usability of the Pierre Guillaumat was very limited. She couldn’t pass through either the Panama or Suez canals. Because of her draft, she could enter a minimal number of ports in the world, and was therefore moored on offshore rigs, and oil terminals like Antifer and after off-loading to reduce her draft, at Europoort. The deadweight tonnage of Pierre Guillaumat was almost 555,000 tones with near about 16 knots of speed. The length of Pierre Guillaumat was almost 414.22 m (1,360 feet).

2. Seawise Giant

Mont, previously known as Oppama, Knock Nevis, Jahre Viking, Happy Giant and Seawise Giant, was a ULCC supertanker. Mont became the longest and largest ship by deadweight tonnage after lengthening. Seawise Giant was also called the Queen of oceans and rivers. It was built in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries,Ltd. at their shipyard in Japan. During the Iran-Iraq War it was damaged by an air force attack. It was sank and was considered completely lost. However the wreckage was salvaged and repaired. After the repairs she was back in service as Happy Giant.

The vessel was sold to Indian ship breakers, and renamed Mont for her final journey in December 2009. After that, it was intentionally beached in India for demolition. Along with the title of being the biggest ship of the world at that time, it also holds the title of being the biggest Oil tanker type ship ever built.

1. Prelude FLNG

Prelude is the biggest ship of the world ever built till present. A hull longer than the Empire State Building is tall, was launched in South Korea in December 2013. Measuring 488 m (1,601 ft) long and 74 m (243 ft) wide, the hull belongs to Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, which is the largest floating facility ever built. More than 260,000 tonnes of steel is used in its construction. In operation, it would weigh more than 600,000 tonnes; more than five times the weight of the largest aircraft carrier.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The world’s longest ships are listed according to their overall length (LOA), which is the maximum length of the vessel measured between the extreme points in fore and aft. In addition, the ships’ deadweight tonnage (DWT) and/or gross tonnage (GT) are presented as they are often used to describe the size of a vessel.

The ships are listed by type. Only ship types for which there exist a ship longer than 300 metres (1,000 ft) are included. For each type, the list includes current record-holders either as individual ships, ship classes or standard designs, up to four runner-ups, and all longer ships that have been scrapped.

The list does not include non-self-propelled floating structures such as the 488 m (1,601 ft) long Prelude FLNG.^[1]

Oil tankers[edit]

Name	Length overall	DWT	GT/GRT	In service	Status	Notes	Image	Ref
Seawise Giant	458.46 m (1,504 ft)	564,650 DWT	260,851 GT	1979–2009	Broken up	Originally smaller, jumboisation made Seawise Giant the largest ship ever by length, displacement (657,019 tonnes), and deadweight tonnage.		[2]
Batillus class (4 ships)	414.22 m (1,359 ft)	553,661–555,051 DWT	274,837–275,276 GT	1976–2003	Broken up	The largest and longest ships ever to be laid down per original plans. They became second only to Seawise Giant (after its jumboisation) for deadweight tonnage and length overall.		[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Esso Atlantic Esso Pacific	406.57 m (1,334 ft)	516,421–516,891 DWT	247,160–247,161 GT	1977–2002	Broken up			[8]
Nai Superba Nai Genova	381.92 m (1,253 ft)	409,400 DWT		1978–2001	Broken up			[9] [10]
Berge Emperor Berge Empress	381.82 m (1,253 ft)	423,745 DWT		1975–2004	Broken up			[11] [12]
TI class (4 ships)	380 m (1,247 ft)	441,893 DWT	234,006 GT	2002–	In service			[13]

Bulk carriers[edit]

Name	Length overall	DWT	GT/GRT	In service	Status	Notes	Image	Ref
Valemax (68 ships)	360–362 m (1,181–1,188 ft)	380,000–400,000 DWT	200,000 GT	2011–	In service	As of 2018, there are five different ship designs that are referred to as Valemax ships.		[14]
Berge Stahl	342 m (1,122 ft)	364,767 DWT	175,720 GT	1986–2021	Broken up	Berge Stahl was the longest and largest bulk carrier in 1986–2011.		[15]
Tubarao Maru Brasil Maru Global Harmony	340 m (1,115 ft)	327,095–327,180 DWT	160,774 GT	2007–	In service			[16] [17] [18]
Ruhr Ore Alster Ore	340 m (1,115 ft)	305,836–305,893 DWT	171,924 GT	1987–2011	Broken up			[19] [20]
Stellar Ace Stellar Banner Stellar Crown	340 m (1,115 ft)	300,660 DWT	151,596 GT	2015–	In service	Stellar Banner sank in 2020.[21]		[22] [23] [24]

Container ships[edit]

Name	Length overall	DWT	Gross tonnage	In service	Status	Image	Ref
Ever Ace Ever Act Ever Aim Ever Alp Ever Alot Ever Arm Ever Art	399.9 m (1,312 ft)	235,579 DWT	235,579 GT	2021–	In service		[25] [26]
Barzan Al Muraykh Al Nefud Al Zubara Al Dahna Tihama	400 m (1,312 ft)	199,744 DWT	195,636 GT	2015–	In service		[27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
MOL Triumph MOL Trust MOL Tribute MOL Tradition	400 m (1,312 ft)	192,672 DWT	199,000 GT	2017–	In service		[33] [34] [35] [36]
MSC Diana MSC Ingy MSC Eloane MSC Mirjam MSC Rifaya MSC Leanne	400 m (1,312 ft)	202,036 DWT	193,489 GT	2016–	In service		[37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]
MSC Anna MSC Viviana	399.98 m (1,312 ft)	185,503 DWT	187,587 GT	2016–	In service		[43] [44]
Ever Golden Ever Genius Ever Gifted Ever Glory Ever Globe Ever Goods Ever Given Ever Grade Ever Gentle Ever Govern Ever Greet MOL Treasure MOL Truth	399.96 m (1,312 ft)	199,692 DWT	219,775 GT	2017–	In service		[45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57]

Passenger ships[edit]

Name	Length overall	Gross tonnage	In service	Status	Image	Ref
Oasis class (5 ships)	360–362 m (1,181–1,188 ft)	225,282– 226,963 GT	2009–	In service		[58] [59] [60] [61]
Quantum class (5 ships)	347.06–348 m (1,139–1,142 ft)	168,666 GT	2014–	In service		[62] [63] [64] [65]
Queen Mary 2	345.03 m (1,132.0 ft)	148,527 GT	2003–	In service		[66][67]
Iona	344.5 m (1,130.2 ft)	184,089 GT	2020–	In service		[68]
Mardi Gras	344.4 m (1,130 ft)	181,808 GT	2020–	In service		[69]

Other[edit]

Other longest ships of their type.

Name	Type	Length overall	DWT	GT/GRT	In service	Status	Notes	Image	Ref
Pioneering Spirit	Crane vessel	382 m (1,253 ft)	499,125 DWT	403,342 GT	2015–	In service	Pioneering Spirit is the largest twin-hulled vessel ever built as well as, at 124 metres (407 ft), the widest ship in the world. Photo is prior to renaming of vessel.		[70][71]
Q-Max (14 ships)	LNG carrier	345 m (1,132 ft)	128,900 DWT	163,922 GT	2008–	In service			[72]
USS Enterprise	Aircraft carrier	342 m (1,122 ft)			1961–2013	Retired	USS Enterprise, the longest aircraft carrier ever built, was inactivated in December 2012.		[73][74]
Paul R. Tregurtha	Lake freighter	309 m (1,014 ft)			1981–	In service	The current Queen of the Lakes (the longest ship operating on the Great Lakes), and last of the «1000-footers» launched there.		[75]

See also[edit]

• List of large sailing vessels
• List of large sailing yachts
• List of longest naval ships
• List of motor yachts by length
• Timeline of largest passenger ships
• List of longest wooden ships
• List of largest ships by gross tonnage

References[edit]

It’s been a year and a half since the shipping industry found itself in a new game without a play book. The COVID-19 pandemic made container, tanker, cruise ship and other companies as well as seafarers adjust to the new lockdown reality in a painful haste. 

People doing their jobs at sea have shown particular courage and resilience staying on board for months, enduring quarantines and remaining at the constant risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

It seems that today the maritime industry has fully recovered, so it’s high time to check the list of the largest ships in the world 2021.     

Contents

The Biggest Container Ship in the World
The World’s Largest LNG Powered Container Ship
The Largest Sailing Cargo Ship
The Biggest Cruise Ship in the World 2021
The Largest Vessel in the World Resumed Operations
The World’s Largest Bulk Carrier

The Biggest Container Ship in the World

HMM Algeciras – 23 964 TEU

As of August 2021 the grand prix still belongs to HMM Algeciras – flagship of the South Korean shipping company HMM (formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine). Her capacity is 23 964 TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent) which surpasses the previous champion MSC Gulsun (2019) just for 208 containers.

Panama flagged HMM Algeciras was launched in April 2020. The ceremony at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard was attended by Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea.

The length of HMM Algeciras is 400 meters (1309 feet) which equals a standard Olympic stadium lap;  the beam is 61 meters (200 feet) and the height is 33.2 meters (108.2 ft). The vessel works on a North Europe – Asia line.

HMM’s leadership looks more convincing from the 2021 year’s perspective as the flagship is now joined by eight sister ships named after famous maritime cities (HMM Oslo, HMM Copenhagen, etc.). In total, there will be 12 such behemoths carrying 24 000 TEUs each by 2022.

The World’s Largest LNG Powered Container Ship

CMA CGM Jacques Saade – 23 112 TEU

Although HMM Algeciras claims to be the most technologically advanced vessel, the true hi-tech champion arrived on September 22, 2020. CMA CGM Jacques Saade has become the biggest LNG fueled container ship in the world. It is 400 m (1 312 ft) long, 61.3 m (201 ft 1 in) wide and carries 23 112 TEUs, just 852 containers less than the world’s biggest container ship.

CMA CGM Jacques Saadé was the first from the fleet of 9 LNG-fueled super container ships. The flagship is named after the founder of CMA CGM company and her delivery was delayed by 10 months. 

At present, all nine vessels have been transferred to CMA CGM; the latter, CMA CGM Concorde, was delivered just a month ago (7th July 2021). These vessels have become a true breakthrough in maritime technology. The capacity of the fuel tank is above 18 600 cubic metres (660,000 cu ft) of LNG which is enough to complete a vessel’s round trip between Asia and Northern Europe (23,372 nm or 43,285 km) without additional bunkering.

Naturally, LNG fuel presents some challenges as it must be stored at a temperature of −161 °C (−258 °F), but it helps to reduce sulfur dioxide emission by 99%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 92% and CO2 imprint is reduced by up to 20% compared with fuel-powered systems.

The Largest Sailing Cargo Ship

New generation LNG-fueled container ships are able to cut CO2 emission considerably, but what if that is not enough. According to IMO, the maritime industry accounts for 2.2% of global CO2 imprint. To put it in the context, if international shipping were the county it would be on the 6th place among the gravest carbon emitters ranking higher than the entire Germany.

Many companies go ‘back to the future’ seeking a solution. Sailing cargo ships are tested all over the world. The biggest concept today is Oceanbird constructed by Swedish Wallenius Marine.

The Oceanbird will be a car carrier able to transport 7 000 vehicles across the Atlantic in 12 days. Engineers promise an average speed of 10 knots.

The amazing vessel will be 200 m (656.2 ft) long and 40 m (131.2 ft) wide with 5 wing sails 80 meters high (262.5 ft) each. The total height of the vessel will be 105 meters above water, but it can be adjusted to 50 meters since wing sails are telescopic. Incidentally, the rigging is made of steel and composite materials and turns 360 degrees to harness the wind in an optimal way.

The Oceanbird will be equipped with an auxiliary engine to maneuver her from harbours, but CO2 inprint will be reduced up to 90%, nevertheless. 

The delivery of the first big sailing cargo vessel is expected in mid 2024. The construction price will be higher compared to the ordinary RO-RO ship, but operational costs will be more modest. The creators claim that the same design can be applied as a cruise vessel, bulk carrier, tanker and so on.

The Biggest Cruise Ship in the World 2021

Speaking about cruise ships, there is still no change in the list of Top 10 Largest Cruise Ships in the World. The Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas holds her champion’s title.

The Symphony was built in 2018 and measures 361 meters (1,184 ft) in length, 66 meters (217 ft) in beam, 72,5 m in height (238 ft) and her DWT is 18 095 tonnes. There are 18 decks accommodating 6 680 passengers at maximum capacity and 2200 crew members. 

Today this giant cruise liner is doing 7 days round-trips around Western Caribbean (Miami – Mexico – Honduras – CocoCay, the Bahamas – Mexico again – Miami).

It is expected that she will remain in the Caribbean Sea for 2022 as well; adding Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Kitts & Nevis and other destinations to her itinerary.

Meanwhile, in 2022 the title of the ‘biggest cruise ship’ will be intercepted by Wonder of the Seas. Royal Caribbean have opened sales for the inauguratory season of the new largest cruise ship in the world.

The company’s fifth Oasis-class ship is currently under construction in Saint-Nazaire (France), the delivery much delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic. She is 95% completed at the moment and will sail from Shanghai to Japan on 4 and 8 days trips starting from mid-March 2022. 

The Wonder of the Seas’s characteristics impress. For instanse, 51 Boeing – 777 jets might be needed to transport the same number of people:

Length – 362 m (1188 ft)

Beam – 64 m (154 ft)

Gross Tonnage – 236 857 t

Maximum Capacity – 6 988 guests

Cabins – 2 867

Crew – 2 300

Decks – 18

Engine – 4 x 7 500 hp

Speed – 22 knots

Starting from November 2022, The Wonder will head to Hong Kong for 4- and 9-night Christmas cruises with stops in Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.

The Wonder, as all Royal Caribbean vessels, promises some new experience compared to sister ships. There will eight ‘neighborhoods’:

1. The beloved Central Park which features 20 000 plants growing around cafes and restaurants.

2. Boardwalk – an open-air entertainment space at the aft with a classic hand-carved carousel, twin rock-climbing walls and the AquaTheater which will host famous acrobatic shows.

3. Pool & Sports Zone containing surf simulators (FlowRider), swimming pools and whirlpools. There is also a zip line stretching for 10 decks and the highest slide at sea – the Ultimate Abyss of the same height. 

4. Entertainment Place will host all night-time shows, ice-skating rink and live karaoke space. 

5. Royal Promenade – up-market boutiques and family entertainments. 

6. Vitality Spa & Fitness Centre;

7. Youth Zone will provide all imaginable activities for children aged from 3 to 17 and nursery for infants and toddlers.

8. Suite Neighbourhood is Wonder’s specialty. It is reserved for suite guests only and offers private dining areas, sun deck and clubs. The Ultimate Family Suite is also situated there. This 1 134-square-foot cabin (105m2) sleeps 8, has a floor-to-ceiling LEGO wall and a whirlpool slide to speed up moving from the second level.

Judging from the reviews, though, the cabin is not particularly ‘parents-friendly’. It appears to be too noisy and offers no privacy as the master bedroom is effectively an open messonine.  

The Largest Vessel in the World Resumed Operations

In case you’ve missed our piece on Offshore Giants, FLNG Prelude remains the biggest vessel in the world. This is an ingenious project by Shell that intended to develop a remote gas basin some 200 km off Australia coast. No pipeline can bridge this distance, so Shell has constructed a floating LNG plant which can be fixed over the basin and produce liquefied gas on the spot.

FLNG Prelude is 500 m long, 74m wide; capacity of her gas stores equals 175 Olympic size pools and she requires 840 engineers and crew members for day-to-day operation. It shipped its first gas in July 2019 (two years later than intended) and was forced to stop production in January 2020 due to safety issues in the liquefaction unit.

Officially, the problem was in an electrical trip, but Shell had faced a number of issues over the rest of 2020 trying to restart a full production. Operations were resumed in January 2021, but the proclaimed output of 3.6 million tonnes of LNG a year has not been reached so far.

“Prelude is a multi-decade project, and our focus is on delivering sustained performance over the long term,” Shell said in a statement, but the construction of FLNG required an unprecedented USD 17 bn.

Prelude costs more than the latest US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford which has a $13 billion price tag. The company is bound to go a great length to return this money. We’ll keep you updated.

The World’s Largest Bulk Carrier

The 2nd-generation Valemax Bulkers remain the largest and most efficient bulk carriers in the world. The class derives its name from the Brazilian mining company Vale S.A; there were 68 such vessels in the world as of July 2020.

Valemax bulker (VLOC) details amaze:

Length – 362 m (1188 ft) that is 40 meters (131 ft) bigger than the Eiffel Tower;

Beam –  65 meters (213 ft) – the standard width of a soccer pitch.  

Cargo capacity – 400 000 tons of iron ore;

Speed – 15 knots making a journey from Brazil to China (the largest importer in the world) in 45 days.

The timing is everything here as Brazil competes with Australia in the Asian market; and it takes 15 days only to cover the distance from the mines to Chinese ports for Australian vessels. Therefore, Valemax bulkers should offer some really convincing advantages:

• VLOC can transport more cargo per one trip;
• 16 000 tons of ore are loaded per hour;
• Valemaxes are designed to sail for 30 years;
• VLOCs have received Green Seal for releasing 35% less CO2 compared to standard Capesize Bulk Carrier.

There will be no record-breaking in the dry bulk sector in a short time perspective. The newbuilding orderbook is shockingly low at the moment (7.4% of the fleet); and experts agree that there might be even some shortage of vessels once the Covid-19 turmoil ceases and normal demand is restored in the market.