Mighty Ships

A tour of the Queen Mary II, the largest and most expensive ocean liner ever built, which has engines powerful enough to provide light for an entire city

Step aboard the Emma Maersk for a glimpse at the adventures of the crew on a two-week, 13,000-kilometre crossing from Malaysia to Spain. At 20 storeys tall, this ship is capable of carrying millions of dollars worth of cargo.

Unlike most cruise ships, the Becrux is a mighty ship made for four-legged passengers. With a capacity of nearly 20,000 cattle or 60,000 sheep, the Becrux is the largest custom-built livestock carrier in the world.

With the ability to ferry 8,000 luxury cars, heavy trucks and tractors from one continent to another, the Faust is the biggest and the newest ocean faring vehicle carrier on the planet.

In the midst of a giant offshore wind farm, a fantastical ship comes to a stop, jacks up on six enormous legs, and plants itself on the ocean floor.

Just off the coast of South Africa, a futuristic remote crawler creeps along the ocean floor. Its high tech nozzle is sucking up seabed gravel that's full of diamonds, and hoovering them up to the mother ship on the surface - MV Peace in Africa - the world's biggest underwater mining vessel.

In a country whose economy is almost 100% based on fishing, Akamalik, the high-tech star of Royal Greenland's trawler fleet, plays a critical role.

G.O. SARS is a new generation of marine research vessel. Her vibration-and noise-damped diesel generators and propellers driven by direct current motors, emits 99% less noise than any other conventional ship. They offer scientists unprecedented access to the life in the world's oceans.

Africa Mercy is the world's largest NGO hospital ship. She travels port to port in the world's poorest regions providing medical care to people who may have never met a doctor or visited a hospital. 150m long and equipped with six state-of-the-art operating theatres, Africa Mercy can deliver medical care as good as any big city hospital in North America.

The Cristobal Colon dredges millions of cubic metres of sand from the seabed for a construction site in Germany.

Multipurpose Heavy Lifter MV Beluga Bremen is the world's first multi-purpose, heavy-lift cargo carrier that can hoist more than 1,400 tons; travel with her on her maiden voyage to transport two 820-tonne mining autoclaves to the Dominican Republic.

T-AKE Military Supply Ship USNS Robert E. Peary is a T-AKE 5 supply ship, built for 21st century warfare; join Peary on active deployment in the hot zone of the Gulf of Aden, replenishing a fleet of 20 warships.

Saturation Dive Support Ship DSV Skandi Arctic is the biggest and newest saturation dive support ship, the mother ship for aquanauts working hundreds of metres below the surface in some of the world's most dangerous jobs; see her in action on a gas pipeline repair in the North Sea.

The Norwegian Epic is a billion-dollar showboat with more than 20 bars and restaurants and pool decks that transform into nightclubs.

The Roll-On/Roll-Off (Ro-Ro) ship North Star is one of the only links between Alaska and the continental U.S. So far this winter, her captain, Richard Cadigan, has delivered everything from food to building supplies to pickup trucks from Seattle to Anchorage on time - within a short 72-hour window.

Le Boreal is as sleek and nimble as a yacht, with the luxurious appointments and service of a cruise ship. She's also tough - custom-crafted to take on the furious weather and towering waves of the Southern Ocean

She's brand-new and about to make history. The Dutch company Van Oord has just received its new fallpipe vessel called Stornes. She deploys a long hollow pipe that runs from the ship to the seafloor. Rocks are loaded into the pipe and "fall" down to the bottom, hence the term "fallpipe". The rocks are used to provide foundations and protection for pipelines that are then laid on the ocean floor. Stornes has been designed and built specifically for this purpose. Now, MIGHTY SHIPS follows Stornes on a project that has her working deeper than any other fallpipe vessel in history.

She's the "Swiss Army Knife" of the US Navy. Recovery of downed aircraft, towing of sunken vessels, or clearing of debris to reopen a harbor in the wake of a natural disaster... USNS Grasp has done it all. Her cranes enable deep-sea salvage of all sorts. But what makes her special is her ability to support a team of up to 14 Navy divers on dangerous mixed-gas descents to depths of more than 200 metres. She's one of only four vessels in the entire US fleet capable of doing so.

Consistently voted the world's top cruise ship by Condé Nast, Crystal Serenity is full of luxuries. She features contemporary suites, dining by the likes of Nobu, even penthouse suites with a full-service butler. And her guests keep coming back for more - half the passengers on any given sailing are repeat bookings. This cruise will take MIGHTY SHIPS into ports viewers have never seen before, including: the famous sites of Sydney harbour, the port of Melbourne, beautiful Bali and a large-scale furniture load in Semarang, Indonesia.

For the first time, our crews venture inside a shipyard to follow the construction of the world's newest mega-cruiser from keel-laying to sea trials.

The world's newest mega-cruiser has only 48 hours before she departs on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, readying for her debut. She was constructed faster than any other cruise ship, but the job's not quite done.

She is the largest sailing yacht in the world, a sleek, five-masted luxury sailing yacht that's large enough to pamper and yet small enough to tuck into tiny harbors and hidden coves where no one else can go.

The world’s most innovative cruise ship sails from New York to the Caribbean on her maiden voyage, facing off against technical glitches and challenging weather.

To transport one of the world's largest oil rigs around the world, Hawk has to sink before she swims. To load, she sinks down in the water, submerging her expansive deck.

This episode follows Happy Star during her second - challenging - voyage from Nansha, China, to Sept Isles, Canada and provides an insight into the ship and its crew.

With a specialized crane system and five propellers to counter heavy seas, North Sea Giant can perform powerful and precise lifts in seas as high as 4.5 metres – four times the capability of other such vessels. On this voyage, she’s out to lift and install the final massive module of the world’s first subsea gas compression station nearly 300 metres underwater. But when strong winds and currents threaten the delicate operation, her team of underwater robots must come to the rescue before the module crashes the entire project!

Tønsberg carries anything that can be rolled up her ramp: not just automobiles and bulldozers, but also heavy, awkward-sized cargo such as cranes, subway trains, or yachts. In some of the busiest ro-ro ports in Europe, Tønsberg’s crew rushes to overcome the obstacles that could delay her. Sailing across the Atlantic, two storms threaten to cross her path as the crew keeps a sharp eye on the lashings that hold the cargo in place.

Almost three football fields long, the USNS Comfort is second in size only to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. She is the largest hospital ship on the planet, with up to 1,200 crew, 12 operating rooms, 1,000 beds, and an impressive array of medical equipment. MIGHTY SHIPS joins the USNS Comfort midway through “Operation Continuing Promise” – a six-month mission to provide humanitarian aid to 11 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. Sailing to the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica, Comfort’s crew sets out to aid 10,000 patients in just nine days.

Noronna ferries passengers, vehicles and millions-dollar cargo to Iceland and the Faroe Islands

One of the world’s largest container ships races from port to port in China, Malaysia and Germany, transporting almost 20,000 crates of cargo.

MSC’s biggest cruise ship navigates tight Mediterranean harbors, offering a brand new water park, classic excursions and Cirque du Soleil at Sea