There’s an abundance of plane threads going on which are fascinating but isn’t it time for massive ships and other types of weird floating sea vessels

I myself have nothing to show nor any facts so am relying on you kind folk

The Titanic had four funnels, but only three were operational. The fourth was for show, like on a Citroen Saxo.

I’ve occasionally sat and watched in amazement as the container ships come up into Southampton

… and only the smaller ones can get in here, so the big ones must be **** AWESOME !

And Laings of Sunderland used to launch ships in sections for assembly elsewhere

We also have a concrete boat still sat in the river where it sank whilst being towed up the river after being hit by a bomb in WWII

How about a ship which can lift a ship?

Shell Perlude FLNG Ship.

Bigger than Panamax
Bigger than Suezmax
Bigger than Chinamax (i.e it’s significantly bigger than the biggest bulk carriers bringing raw materials into china)

And for scale, that’s an LNG tanker next to it.

Being a Geordie I always liked this picture, sorry no facts though but it must have been impressive living on these streets at the height of tyneside shipbuilding

Here’s another on the tyne thats more recent, Asian Hercules floating crane transporting the millennium bridge up the river.

That’s a classic meeeee

I remember seeing that very view meeeee. Quite surreal.

The last big ship made in Sunderland. My dad took me around it before they launched it and fitted the crane.

This thread is just exposing the posters from the North East

Heres a fact for you OP

If you play the film ‘Titanic’ backwards its a film about a ship emerging from the depths just in time to rescue hundreds of drowning passengers before wining and dining them on their way back to home to Southampton. Happy ending for all.

Titanic on the deck of USS Ronald Reagan

From here

Putting Big Things in Perspective by Comparing Them To Something More Familiar

I’ve done some shoreside work for Heerema and Saipem who run enormous heavy lift semi-sub crane vessels that build oil platforms at sea

Heerema’s Thialf lifting an oil platform topside structure into position onto its legs

Saipem 7000 also lifting a platform topsides into position

Its clever stuff how these enormous cranes can lift 14000 tonnes off a barge and then drop it into position, whilst both barge on which the topside is delivered and the crane vessel itself are both pitching and rolling on the sea

both these vessels dwarf the Asian Hercules and Challenger btw….

That FLNG is a bit large.
Looks like Samsung are better at boats than phones…

For when sailing your Gin palace is just too dull..

Lots of small stuff!

14000t? How about 48,000t? The All Seas Pioneering Spirit.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLO9uD5Ub_Y[/video]

It was originally named Pieter Schelte, after the founder of Heerma but they changed the name because he had a very dodgy war record.

Dockwise Vanguard is pretty impressive to.

And this biggest nori virus carrier “in .. the.. world”

Comes into Sotty regularly, for its sins. But it’s quite a sight seeing it round Brambles Bank at sunset.

Alang, in NW India, where they all go to die…

For when sailing your Gin palace is just too dull..

Imagine popping down the docks to take delivery and realising yours was the smallest on board.
Bit of a shriveller…

Awesome!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_lnokEq29E[/video]

over quarter of a mile long FFS!

Why do they launch them sideways these days?
Edit,having seen the one above I guess they are just too long.

davidtaylforth – Member

over quarter of a mile long FFS!

Had an interesting life that one – longest ship ever built and was sank in the Iran / Iraq war, but salvaged and re-fitted. Now lies in bits at Alang.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/27877/seawise-giant-you-cant-keep-good-ship-down

Not an ocean liner, but an impressive boat. I sat and watched it sit in the Atlantic on its way to Brasil waiting for the OK to sail, at a cost of £100,000 per day for doing nothing.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeGKYBOK50[/video]

I still like the “flip” ship:

Properly bonkers! 😆

BTW, a brilliant BBC series “ClydeBuilt: The ships that made the commonwealth” is on iplayer:

here

Some of these give me the heebejeebies!

The three queens outside the Cunard building last year

Had a surprisingly enjoyable week on this monster a couple of years ago

I used to be Chief Eng on this:-

50 Knts on a good day

I’d rather have have a little tug

Got an oil rig needing moved?

and not the biggest but awesome Sealaunch-1. A converted former oil rig and purpose built rocket carrier which form a mobile satellite launch platform

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXE9ar0S3Y[/video]

That FLNG is a bit large.
Looks like Samsung are better at boats than phones…

One would sincerely hope so…

Sea launch 1 in its previous guise as the Ocean Odyssey suffered a big blowout while drilling in the North Sea in 1988. Details here Ocean Odyssey blowout info including a couple of spectacularly scary photos.

I remember as a cadet sailing alongside the first of Maersk’s E class container ships on her maiden voyage. For comparison to the Hyundai discovery we were on Emma Maersk probably had the equivalent of our entire foredeck either side of her superstructure. It was massive and certainly left an impression as she slowly passed us in the med. Now surpassed by other,bigger ships but that first one was a game changer.

ULCCs like the Viking were just daft, an evolutionary dead end. VLCCs still dominate. Also, FPSO’s aren’t really ships in the traditional sense.

I’ll dig out some engine pics tomorrow.