The World’s Biggest Ship

The Triple-E’s enormous 400 metre hull will be made from 50,000 tons of steel, divided into 24 prefabricated ‘Megablocks’. Large enough to swallow 18,000 containers, and sturdy enough to survive a pummelling by 25-metre high storm surges; this steel goliath will be the largest ship on the ocean today. In the South Korean port of Okpo, meet the international team of engineers and designers, whose job it is to build and deliver the Triple E in just 38 weeks. But as work gets under way, problems with the weather and the yard’s subcontractors, lead to serious delays.

To create the world’s most efficient container ship, the Triple E’s designers have taken the radical step of fitting the ship with not one but two, enormous diesel engines – connected to a pair of giant propellers, each costing one million dollars. We follow the engineers as they build and install this state of the art propulsion system. At the foundry in Germany, where the propellers are being cast, the team use an ingenious chemical process to ensure that no hydrogen bubbles form inside the propellers – bubbles that could cause cracks. While in South Korea, the Triple E’s twin engines, each the size of a small house, are tested for the very first time, prior to installation.

Building the ships’ eight-story accommodation block and bridge is a surprisingly complex challenge. Unlike traditional container ships (where the bridge is in the rear of the vessel), the bridge on the Triple-E will be nearer the front of the ship. This will allow containers to be stacked higher behind it and still give the captain a clear view ahead. Engineers must also position the funnels towards the back of the ship – a safer distance from the bridge and accommodation tower. We follow engineers as they trial this design, by running smoke tests in one of the world’s largest wind tunnels. How will it affect the behaviour of exhaust from the funnels and could it increase the chance of smoke entering the engine rooms, or even the crew’s quarters?

Cargo ships lose approximately 2,500 containers every year. Many fall overboard or are crushed during storms and high-ocean swells. Large waves can cause a ship to pitch or roll dangerously damaging cargo and injuring crew. We follow the team, whose job it is, to make sure that every one of the Triple E’s 18,000 containers is up to the job – a task that involves subjecting containers to a series of punishing tests, including in Okpo carefully lowering a container down in every row, in every bay, in every cargo hold to test that all dimensions and tolerances are inside specification and in Denmark dropping one from a telescopic crane. And we follow a team of highly trained firefighters, as they practice for every sailor’s worst nightmare, a serious container fire.

With construction nearly complete, the team behind the world’s biggest ship, prepare for the last stage of construction – spraying the exterior of her 400 metre hull with approximately ten thousand litres of paint. Only when her hull has been sprayed from head to toe, will she be ready to leave dock for the last time. But before taking to the open seas, her team of engineers and designers must first test every piece of equipment on board. Inside the Triple E’s engine room, follow her machine team, as they prepare to switch on the ship’s colossal 40,000 horsepower engines for the very first time. But as the test gets underway, one of the engines begins to dangerously overheat. Can the engineers fix the faulty power plant in time?

After 32 weeks of construction, the first of Maersk Line’s new breed of container ships, the Triple E, finally leaves port to begin her maiden voyage – an epic 20,000 kilometre trek from Busan in South Korea, to Europe’s largest container terminal, Rotterdam. Follow the ship’s new captain and crew as they supervise her first load of containers, and then steer the giant mega ship through some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. But no sooner is one challenge complete, than another rears its head, as the crew battle with 100 kilometre an hour winds, and prepare for the threat of pirates operating off the Somali coast.