Top 10 Biggest Ships Ever Built in History

Which ship is the largest ship of the world? The very first name which comes to our minds is the Titanic. Undoubtedly Titanic was one of the most famous ships which met with quite a memorable trouble on its first journey. There are many other giant ships of which most of us are not aware. Here we have brought a list of top 10 biggest ships ever built in history. Some of them are scrapped and some are in active service.

The world’s biggest ships are listed according to their overall length, deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage. The list includes the current record-holders, either as individual ships or ship classes, of each major ship type as well as some former record-holders and larger vessels that have been scrapped.

10. TI Class Supertanker

TI class supertanker Oceania is one of the most attractive ships ever built with massive capacity transferring crude oil. They are the four largest double-hulled supertankers in the world. They are also the largest ships in the world currently. The Maersk Triple E class container ships are longer, but the TI Class are still the biggest in terms of deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage.

The deadweight tonnage of TI Oceania is around 440,000 tones along with the speed capacity of speed between 16 to 18 knots. TI Oceaniais a master piece ship highly laden with technology to hurdle all the obstacles which might occur during the journeys. The length of TI Oceania is 380 m (1,247 ft).

9. Berge Emperor

The Berge Emperor was a large oil tanker built in the year 1975 in Japan by Mitsui and was one of the largest oil tankers of all time. It was launched on 30 August 1975. The ship weighed 211,360 tons and had a length of 381.82 meters. The ship was owned by Bergesen d.y. & Co. but in the year 1985 it was sold to Maastow BV. and the ship’s name was changed to “Emperor”. The ship was scrapped at Kaohsiung on the 30th of March 1986.

8. CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt

Named after Alexander von Humboldt, CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is an Explorer class container ship built for CMA CGM. It was the world’s largest containership until the delivery of the Maersk Triple E Class. The length of the massive big ship is 396 m (1,299 ft). The deadweight tonnage of CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is almost 187,624 tones.

7. Emma Maersk

In the list of top 10 biggest ships of the world, Emma Maerskis currently the second biggest ship which is still in service. It is the first container ship in the E-class of eight owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When she was launched in 2006, Emma Mærsk was the largest container ship ever built. As of 2010, she and her seven sister ships are among the longest container ships constructed. It’s a Container ship which carries different goods from country to country. It is able to carry around 11,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) or 14,770 TEU depending on definition. The length of the massive big ship is 397.71 m (1,305 ft).

6. Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller

Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller is the lead ship of Maersk’s Triple E class of container vessels. She has the largest cargo capacity in TEU of any ship yet constructed, and is the longest ship in service worldwide as of 2013. She was constructed for Maersk by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) of South Korea, and entered service in July 2013.

Along with her sister ships, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller is the world’s largest and most efficient operational container ship as of 2013, totalling 399 metres (1,309 ft) in length and with a cargo capacity of 18,270 TEU containers. She has a maximum speed of 23 knots.

5. Esso Atlantic

Esso Atlantic is one of the most popular name in the history of the big ships. This huge ship, 406.57 m (1,333.9 ft) long has an incredible deadweight capacity of 516,891 tons. Esso Atlantic has served the world with its consistent services level of straight 35 years. There’s no need to say that it used to be the best ship of its time. Esso Atlantic was an oil tanker basically and was disposed off as scrap on 2002 in Pakistan.

4. Batillus

Batillus was a supertanker, built in 1976 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire for the French branch of Shell Oil. The first vessel of homonymous Batillus class supertankers. Batillus, together with her sister ships Bellamya, Pierre Guillaumat and Prairial, was one of the biggest ships in the world, surpassed in size only by Seawise Giant built in 1976, and extended in 1981, although the four ships of the Batillus class had a larger gross tonnage.

With the deadweight capacity of almost 554,000 tones and the speed 16 to 17 knots and length of 414.22 m (1,359 feet), Batillus was the 4th biggest ship. She made her last journey on December 28, 1985, from Vestnes to Kaoshiung (Taiwan).

3. Pierre Guillaumat

It was the third biggest ship ever built in the history of world. Named after the French politician and founder of Elf Aquitaine oil industry, Pierre Guillaumat was a supertanker, built in 1977 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire for Compagnie Nationale de Navigation.

It served the world for only 6 years before it was disposed of as scrap because of the huge unprofitability and declining demands. Because of her gigantic proportions the usability of the Pierre Guillaumat was very limited. She couldn’t pass through either the Panama or Suez canals. Because of her draft, she could enter a minimal number of ports in the world, and was therefore moored on offshore rigs, and oil terminals like Antifer and after off-loading to reduce her draft, at Europoort. The deadweight tonnage of Pierre Guillaumat was almost 555,000 tones with near about 16 knots of speed. The length of Pierre Guillaumat was almost 414.22 m (1,360 feet).

2. Seawise Giant

Mont, previously known as Oppama, Knock Nevis, Jahre Viking, Happy Giant and Seawise Giant, was a ULCC supertanker. Mont became the longest and largest ship by deadweight tonnage after lengthening. Seawise Giant was also called the Queen of oceans and rivers. It was built in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries,Ltd. at their shipyard in Japan. During the Iran-Iraq War it was damaged by an air force attack. It was sank and was considered completely lost. However the wreckage was salvaged and repaired. After the repairs she was back in service as Happy Giant.

The vessel was sold to Indian ship breakers, and renamed Mont for her final journey in December 2009. After that, it was intentionally beached in India for demolition. Along with the title of being the biggest ship of the world at that time, it also holds the title of being the biggest Oil tanker type ship ever built.

1. Prelude FLNG

Prelude is the biggest ship of the world ever built till present. A hull longer than the Empire State Building is tall, was launched in South Korea in December 2013. Measuring 488 m (1,601 ft) long and 74 m (243 ft) wide, the hull belongs to Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, which is the largest floating facility ever built. More than 260,000 tonnes of steel is used in its construction. In operation, it would weigh more than 600,000 tonnes; more than five times the weight of the largest aircraft carrier.