Mighty Ships

Tyco Resolute has one job: to keep the world wired. She installs and maintains the undersea cables that form the backbone of the Internet, and right now she needs to connect a nation in need of a 21st-century upgrade. Hop aboard as she lays fiber optic cables off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a mission that's anything but simple. Malfunctioning cables and equipment, pounding surf, and low tides have put Tyco Resolute way behind schedule. If she doesn't pick up the pace, the entire mission will be in jeopardy.

The Paul R. Tregurtha is equipped to deal with the harsh weather conditions of North America's inland seas, but her first mission of the shipping season will push the vessel, and her crew, to their limits. Hop aboard the "Queen of the Lakes" as she attempts to deliver a much-needed 55,000-ton coal supply to a generating plant in Michigan. To get there, she must break through a barricade of ice and pass a shallow passage with just two feet of water beneath her keel. If the captain and crew aren't careful, they could find themselves stopped dead cold.

Climb aboad the CGCS Henry Larsen as she does an ice patrol around the sub-zero waters of the Notre Dame Bay area of Newfoundland and Labrodore. Built for the cold, she is capable of the year-round operations in the high Arctic.

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.

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.

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.

If there's a muscleman among ships, then its name is MV Fairplayer. A tour of the Jumbo Fairplayer, the biggest and strongest in a new class of heavy-lift mega ships.

HDMS Absalon, one of the most modern warships in the world, has set sail to stop modern-day pirates off the coast of Somalia.

She's the biggest, meanest, most lethal weapon in the arsenal of a global power. The USS Nimitz, like the whole US Navy, has to be ready for any mission, anywhere in the world. That's why she undergoes a rigorous - and often dangerous - evaluation before every deployment.

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.

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 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.

Solitaire is the only ship in the world capable of laying huge 30 inch diameter pipes on the ocean floor. Her crew of 420 work 24/7 and can lay down 9km of pipeline a day. Led by a vessel management team, the crew is made up of mariners and welders from all over the world.

The largest and most revolutionary cruise ship on Earth makes her maiden voyage.

An unprecedented look at nuclear-powered submarine USS Kentucky.

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

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.

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.

Research Icebreaker Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen is a research icebreaker who job is to battle Arctic extremes to understand how gobal warming will radically change life in the high Arctic; the crew and scientists face extreme pressure on this dangerous mission.

USCGC Bertholf was built for U.S. Homeland Security to patrol the high seas, looking for drugs, weapons, human trafficking, piracy and traditional search-and-rescue missions; join her on patrol in the dangerous waters off Colombia.

Super Ferry Stena Britannica is a car carrier, passenger ferry, cargo transport and cruise ship all rolled into one; watch her as she enters active service on the busiest ferry route in the world, between Holland and England.

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.

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.

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.

The U.S. Navy's newest ship, a guided missile destroyer, goes through testing with its crew in preparation for deployment.

Umiak I is the world's most powerful ice-breaking carrier, hauling mining equipment from Quebec City to Labrador and returning with nickel concentrate.

The FPSO Maersk Peregrino is the world's biggest oil production ship and is permanently hooked up at the Peregrino oil field.

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

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.

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

Purpose-built to install the world's most powerful wind turbines. Imagine a ship that can raise herself up 15 metres (5 storeys) out of the water to create a stable construction platform in the middle of the sea. Now add a 600-ton crane ready to reach high into the sky. That's Neptune: brand-new, ready and willing to install the world's heaviest and most powerful wind turbines on Belgium's first offshore wind farm.

She's an all-in-one mega fishing trawler and factory. Northern Eagle can catch and package fish at the same time. She creates more profit because she doesn't waste time (and fuel) bringing her catch back to shore to be processed. In fact, once she's out to sea, Northern Eagle doesn't return to port until her hold is full of 1500 tonnes of frozen, packaged product ready for market.

With 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the wreckage of the Twin Towers forming her bow stem, USS New York is tribute to those who perished on September 11, 2001. From the images of the World Trade Center, to the banner listing the fallen, to the Broadway street sign donated by NYC's mayor, this ship is a powerful symbol. But she's more than that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

A large storm hits the drilling rig out on the North Sea.

HDMS Peter Willemoes is a Royal Danish warship built for 21st century combat, equipped with sophisticated detection systems and powerful weapons. But before her crew can take her out to sea, they've got to prove they have what it takes to fight off enemy threats. Enter restricted waters and witness the series of intense battle simulation exercises her sailors must pass in order to join the multinational NATO Response Force. The stakes are high, but fortunately, they have one of the world's most advanced frigates on their side

She is built to haul more cargo faster, using less fuel than any other Laker. On this voyage she transports grain across the world's largest inland waterway.

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.

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.

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.

The world’s most adventurous cruise ship fights through the ice-choked fjords of Greenland to visit a spectacular collection of wildlife and icebergs.

One of the world’s most advanced drill ships builds an oil well more than 2000 metres below the waterline in the Gulf of Mexico.

Northern Leader is Alaska’s biggest and toughest longliner. Catching fish with hooks, not nets, she sends out 80 kilometres of fishing line containing 76,000 hooks. In the heart of the Bering Sea, her crew battles a hurricane with 13 metre-high waves and winds of more than 110 kilometres per hour. All the while, this 56-metre ship keeps fishing – bringing home a massive catch of Pacific Cod – until one deckhand working is washed out by a powerful wave.

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.

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.

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!

With specialized cranes and underwater robots, Edda Freya repairs and replaces critical pipelines running to an oil and gas platform.

Off the coast of Malaysia, Sapura 3500 lays a pipeline and builds an offshore gas platform in just three weeks.

Powership Yasin Bey is built to sail anywhere and deliver badly-needed electricity. The ship’s first-ever voyage starts with Yasin Bey limping back to the shipyard - tilting to the side so much that it feels as if the ship will keel over.

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

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.

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