Mighty Ships

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 Avataq is a lifeline to Canada's near-Arctic communities, carrying everything from food and furniture to mining equipment and explosives to Quebec's inaccessible northern regions.

Ibn Battuta is one of the strongest dredgers of her type. With a powerful spinning cutter head and a pair of heavy-duty cylinders called "spuds," She is capable of breaking up the hardest sub-sea soil. The spuds brace the ship in position while the cutter head's teeth grind away at the sea floor to deepen the Son Duong Port in Vietnam's poorest province.

Other cable laying vessels require a second vessel to transport one end of their cables to shore. Stemat Spirit approaches the shore during high tide, then settles on the sand as the tide recedes. When the tide returns she floats up and sails out to sea, laying her cable as she goes.

Over seven seasons, Mighty Ships has featured 42 of the biggest, most technologically advanced on the planet. This special edition will feature the best of the best: from the world's largest cruise ships to the most powerful warships, from the strongest working ships to smaller, super-specialized vessels.