The biggest container ships in the world

The largest container ship in the world entered the German port of Wilhelmshaven on Sunday July 2. The MV "OOCL Hong Kong" is 400 meters long and has 21,413 pitches for standard containers. It was built in the Samsung ship yard in South Korea. Before the stop in Germany, the ship, on its maiden voyage, has already stopped in Felixstowe, England and the Polish city of Gdansk.

The world's second largest container ship has made its way up the Elbe River to become the biggest-ever vessel to call at Hamburg harbor. With a length of 400 meters (1,320 ft) it would normally carry 20,170 containers - but that number had to be reduced because the river is not deep enough. Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K wants to employ it regularly on routes between Europe and East Asia.

MOL Triumph, alongside the world's largest container ship, Madrid Maersk, will soon be replaced by OOCL Hong Kong in terms of capacity because the new cargo giant can load 21.100 standard containers. A quarter century ago, the biggest cargo ships could load only slightly more than 4,000 containers, and were easily outstripped by supertankers which remain the biggest vessels ever built.

With a length of 458 meters, Norwegian oil tanker Jahre Viking was the largest ship ever built. She needed more than six kilometers (3.72 miles) to stop, and was unable to navigate the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the English Channel. Between 2004 and 2009, she was used as a floating storage for oil before being sold to Indian ship breakers and breached for scrapping in Gujarat.

The biggest cruise ship is the Harmony of the Seas, at a length of 362 meters. More than 6,300 passengers can enjoy their time on 16 decks, while being served by a crew of 2.100. Royal Caribbean Cruises paid more than one billion euros (($1.08 billion) for her, equipping it with 20 dining rooms, 23 swimming pools - including the longest water slide - and an open air garden with 12,000 plants.

Rivalry among ship owners seems fiercest in the super-yacht category, where Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs and US billionaires dig deep - not shy to splash out on costly extensions even during construction to outbid others in the race for luxury. Momentarily, the "toy" of a Saudi sheikh holds the title. His 180-meter yacht named Azzam is equipped with helideck, missile defense and submarine.

The world's biggest yacht under sails is called "Sailing Yacht A" and the creation of designer Philippe Starck. She is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnitchenko. The total sail area of 3,747 square metres is equal to the size of half a football pitch, She has eight decks with three swimming pools and an underwater observation pod in the keel.

The Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship of a new class of United States Navy supercarriers and was commissioned in April 2017.The US military has spent about $13 billion for the aircarft carrier which belongs to a fleet of currently 18 classical carriers. She is able to launch Navy jet fighters faster and more efficiently due to an electromagnetic catapult instead of a steam-driven one.

Three-meters-thick Arctic ice fields? No problem for Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. According to Russian media, it's the most powerful vessel of its kind and scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 2017. Then it will be deployed to the Arctic oil and gas fields to blaze the trail for Russian tankers. Russia wants to build several more of these ships in the years to come.

Thialf is the world's most powerful deepwater construction vessel. She is capable of a tandem lift of 14,200 tons and used for installing offshore constructions. For lifting operations it will normally be ballasted down to 26.6 m (87 ft). This way the pontoons, with a draught of 13.6 metres, are well submerged to reduce the effect of waves. It is strong but slow with a speed of only 11 km/h.

Floating oil rigs (see picture) or even whole ships can be moved by the Dockwise Vanguard. The heavy lift ship sinks into the water, towboats drag the load over the charging platform and then the ship lifts herself up again. The world biggest transportation ship is 275 meters long.

Canadian film director James Cameron dived with the Deepsea Challenger to the deepest point of the world's oceans known as Challenger Deep and located at 10.984 meters on the bed of the Pacific. The submarine was constructed in secrecy in Australia from 2005 to 2012. Passengers shouldn't panic in closed rooms because they sit in a high-strengh steel-ball only 106 centimeters in diameter.

Size is not everything! The ships of the future might be electrically-driven and without any crew. Norway will start the first experiment with a self-driving e-container ship next year. The Yara Birkland will ship fertilizer along the coast of Norway - first with a captain on the helm, and from 2019 remote-controlled. In 2020, the ship will travel autonomously, likely to become a "game changer."