Original subtitles

In this episode...

...the biggest oil tanker on the planet.

This is a massive ship.

...and the groundbreaking innovations from history...

It's an amazing piece of engineering.

It was something that really hadn't been done before.

...that make the impossible possible.

Captions by vitac... www.vitac.com

captions paid for by discovery communications

oceans cover 70% of the earth's surface.

They're our planet's life support system

and a lifeline for global commerce.

The seas are the highways for world trade.

And it's estimated that thousands of boats and ships

are operating on them at any given time.

Naval architect Nick Bradbeer is at a simulator

at Solent university, Southhampton

that allows him to recreate today's

heavily congested shipping lanes.

Global trade has driven a huge increase

in the amount of shipping in the world.

90% of goods moved around the world move by sea,

and most of them move across a relatively small number

of important shipping routes. Some of those routes pass

through quite narrow choke points,

and those areas might see 600 ships passing in a single day.

They get very busy.

The modern cargo ships that fill these shipping lanes

are sophisticated machines, but it's taken engineers years

of pioneering innovation to get here.

Around 1200 A.D., the first ocean crossing traders

were the Polynesians, crossing from island to island

in canoes. By the 1500s,

sir Walter Raleigh and sir Francis Drake used galleon ships

to sail around the globe exchanging goods.

But it wasn't until 400 years later

that Norwegian Roald Amundsen crossed the final frontier...

The arctic waters of the northwest passage.

Today, thousands of ships travel these same routes,

creating a massive traffic jam.

With more and more goods to move

along these busy maritime highways,

many experts believe the solution

isn't to build more ships, but to build bigger.

This is supertanker Europe,

the biggest oil tanker in the world.

It's capable of carrying almost half a megaton of cargo

through some of the harshest seas on the planet.

It's an incredible machine.

This is just an absolutely enormous ship.

The nerve center of this colossal machine

lies six floors above deck on the bridge.

From here, captain Nedjeljko Lobrovic navigates

the crude oil on board around the world.

With so much cargo to transport,

engineers had to build a ship on an unprecedented scale.

Supertanker Europe is 249 feet high

with a 1,247-foot long deck.

It's capable of holding seven times its own weight

in crude oil,

enough to fill 15,000 road tankers.

The monster ship is pushed through the water

by a 103-ton propeller

and steered by a rudder that weighs an incredible 251 tons.

Everything about this vessel is super sized.

Even the anchor chains that are stored in lockers

at the bow of the ship.

Their job is to pull up the anchors that weigh 24 tons each.

It may seem like a simple task,

but on a supertanker, this requires some epic engineering.

These anchors need to be strong enough

to hold the fully laden 551,000-ton ship in place.

Their chains alone weigh 340 tons.

It takes an elite crew

on board to operate this incredible machine.

And this ambitious supertanker needs a team of engineers

that aren't afraid to push the boundaries.

To design, build, and run a ship of this size

requires us to overcome

some seemingly impossible engineering challenges.

The first thing is, how do you build a ship this long

strong enough that it won't just snap in two at sea?

How do you prevent millions of liters of flammable cargo

from catching fire or exploding?

And finally, how do you build an engine powerful enough

to push a ship this big through the water?

Designing, building, and operating a ship of this size

is a seemingly impossible engineering challenge.

Now, the real challenge in designing a ship structure

is the middle.

When a ship moves through waves, they bend it up and down.

And we need to make sure the structure is strong enough

that the ship won't break its back,

especially in the middle.

That's where those bending loads are the greatest.

And that's where it's most likely to break.

Now, as the ship gets longer those bending loads

get bigger and bigger and harder and harder to design to resist.

For ship as big as this one,

building a structure that's strong enough

is a real challenge.

Supertanker Europe is wide enough and long enough

to carry over 2,000 cars on its deck.

So gigantic that unassisted, it takes over three miles

and up to 21 minutes to come to a stop.

For a ship this massive with such slow braking ability,

any type of impact could be devastating, and out at sea,

danger can come in many shapes and forms.

The key to supertanker's safety may lie deep within a piece

- of incredible marine history. - See if I can fit here.

So far, so good. Here we go. Ooh, I'm caught.

Here we go.

This is supertanker Europe,

the biggest oil tanker in the world,

capable of carrying over 100 million gallons

of crude oil on board.

Everything about this ship is a feat of super-sized engineering.

It's as tall as a 24-story building

and 223-feet wide,

double the size of the locks on the Panama canal.

At 1,247-feet long,

it's much larger than the Titanic.

But out on the open ocean, gale force winds can hit

43 miles per hour with waves over 33-feet high.

This is a brutal environment, even for a super tanker.

For chief officer Josip Ivanov,

one of the biggest threats

is the unpredictable force of nature.

To make sure this massive ship stays unbreakable

even in the roughest waters,

engineers looked to a pioneering innovation of the past.

Naval architect Nick posh

is at the Menominee river in Michigan,

home to one of the earliest examples

of a revolutionary design.

Wow. There it is.

This ship, the William H. Donner,

was built in 1914,

it was in service for about 100 years.

The William H. Donner is huge,

once carrying up to 22,000 tons.

And this ship once worked

in one of the toughest trading environments in the world.

Trading iron and coal across the Great Lakes

has been testing engineers for centuries.

Demand for ore and coal at the beginning of the 20th century

grew very rapidly,

so ships had to grow bigger in order to carry more cargo.

But some weren't strong enough for the task.

Some were literally breaking their backs.

In 1906, British naval architect sir Joseph Isherwood

created an ingenious way

to build massive, strong ships...

...known as the Isherwood system.

His invention was a unique internal framework

running from bow to stern

and leaving no weak spot in the middle.

This is an awesome piece of marine history.

You don't see very many intact ships this age anymore.

Nick is making his way to the deepest part

of this historic wreck to find out how

the William H. Donner has survived for so long.

I can really tell, this is a really old ship

with all the rivets you have on going on right here.

This is a very old method of ship building.

Watch your step.

So this looks like to be the old coal room.

Oh, geez. Don't step on that.

This is where they would basically feed the boilers

to propel the steam turbine to propel the ship.

What's in here?

There is an old anchor chain in here and actually an anchor.

So it really feels like you stumbled

into a treasure trove in here

because of all the history. I feel like an ant

in here is what... What I... what I feel like, so.

But the ingenious idea that paved the way for bigger,

safer ships lies even further below.

Wow, this is a really tiny hole.

Through this hole, looks like you'll be able to get

all the way to the bottom of the ship.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit in here,

but we'll give it a go.

Let's see. See if I can fit here.

So far, so good.

And here we go. Ooh, I'm caught.

Here we go. All right.

Here, Nick can finally see the secret

to how this ship has lasted for over a century.

So these big transverse frames form a giant belt

around the hull. They serve a structural purpose

in that it keeps the ship from collapsing in on itself.

The longitudinal frames you see here

keep the ship from bending longways or longitudinally.

Traditional ships were constructed with closely spaced

transverse frames from the keel up to the deck.

But over time, as ships got bigger and cargo got heavier,

this structure couldn't keep up.

But by using a combination of transverse frames

with more tightly spaced longitudinal frames,

the Isherwood's system was born

and with it, the ultimate strengthening solution.

It feels pretty cool being down here and seeing the way

they constructed these massive beasts.

Without the modern aid of computer design,

teams had to lay all these giant pieces

out in a large temple to build these sorts of ships.

And they had to calculate everything by hand.

And one miscalculation could literally break the ship's back.

Nick has made it to the cargo hold of the vessel

where he can check out the innovative system in action.

It's so massive because the Isherwood system

allows the vessel to be a lot lighter

because of less structure and allows to carry more cargo,

which is the reason for this huge cargo hold.

And on the side here, you can also see the indents

of where the longitudinally are,

as well as the transverse frames, widely spaced.

Isherwood's ambitious design paved the way

for the mighty cargo ships of the future.

The majority of the tankers are built using

the Isherwood system today,

including the T.I. Class supertankers.

I really admire Isherwood for coming up with this concept

because it is such an innovative design

and really changed the course of shipbuilding

throughout the years.

The massive supertanker Europe

uses the Isherwood's system on an unprecedented scale.

Chief officer Josip Ivanov

is heading to where the brute force of the ocean

hits first... the bow.

Hidden below are over 10,000 transverse

and longitudinal frames built on a monumental scale...

A testament to one man's incredible engineering vision

that made it all possible.

The supertanker remains one of the most impenetrable tankers

on the ocean today.

It has two hulls, one sitting inside the other

for double the strength,

making this the biggest double-hulled ship in the world.

But even with such an intricate build,

engineers still face one of the toughest challenges

in the history of nautical engineering...

Crude oil is dangerous.

It's a flammable, volatile cargo.

This is potentially a floating bomb.

Supertanker Europe...

...the largest double-hulled vessel in the world.

Inside, 21 separate cargo tanks are loaded

with over 100 million gallons of crude oil.

But this cargo is highly flammable

and could destroy the ship in seconds.

The danger starts as soon as we start to load it onto the ship

through a system of pipes like these.

And then across to the cargo holds and down.

As we have millions of liters of thick oil being forced

at high pressure through these pipes, we get friction.

And that leads to a build up of electrostatic charge,

which can cause sparks.

Once the cargo reaches the cargo holds, it's sitting

in these enormous tanks, mostly full of flammable oil,

but also full of evolved flammable vapors.

This is potentially a floating bomb.

And so it's critically important

that we make it as safe as possible.

Deep below deck lies the heart of the oil distribution system

and the most dangerous place on this ship... the pump room.

Many ships have a pump room, but few are built on this scale.

Supertanker Europe's pump room houses not one,

but three massive pumps capable of discharging up

to 276 tons of crude oil per minute.

The oil is brought on board and discharged to the cargo tanks

before being offloaded at its final destination.

But one of the dangers that can strike at any time

during this process is a rise in temperature.

When oil heats up, it vaporizes.

The hydrocarbon gas that is created

can cause a critical rise in pressure,

enough to blow a massive hole in the ship.

The elite team that operates supertanker Europe

protects the oil cargo

by deflecting the burning rays of the sun.

270,000 square feet of surface area

are constantly maintained

with fresh layers of white reflective paint.

Pump man Ferdinand Guevara

manages any pressure fluctuations from the deck.

But the pressure caused by the gas and vapors

isn't the only issue.

To eliminate the threat of an explosion,

engineers must look to the innovators of the past.

Engineer Luke Bisby

is at the royal air force museum in the U.K.

To uncover an engineering secret

hidden inside one of the most iconic aircraft

ever designed for service during world war ii...

...the Avro Lincoln.

I can't believe how little space there is in here,

it's really tight, really claustrophobic.

First taking to the skies in 1944,

the Lincoln's long range made it perfect

for bombing raids over Germany and beyond.

But the plane and crew were also at risk of being hit

by anti-aircraft fire from the ground.

Bomber planes were built by both sides

for some of the war's most dangerous and deadly missions.

The bomb aimer would sit down here just below the cockpit,

charged with aiming and releasing thousands

of pounds of bombs.

And these were truly devastating machines,

so both sides did all they could to stop them

reaching their targets. If an engine caught fire,

most planes of this era had sensors and switches

which triggered fire extinguisher systems.

And these systems were quite effective

at fighting engine fires, but protecting

the huge fuel tanks was a much bigger challenge.

The Lincoln's engineers had to find a way

to ensure that if the plane was hit,

its fuel tanks wouldn't explode.

Liquid fuel is surprisingly stable,

so a full tank, if struck, is unlikely to catch fire.

The problem starts as the fuel is used up.

Any flammable vapor left in the tank is highly volatile.

So a part-empty tank struck above the fuel line

will explode.

Planes flying across Europe

would have partially drained their fuel tanks

by the time they encountered anti-aircraft fire,

limiting their chance of survival.

But in 1943, aircraft designer Roy Chadwick

incorporated an ingenious discovery

that changed the future of aviation

and could help solve a potentially explosive problem

on supertanker Europe.

This system was based on a very simple principle...

Fire needs oxygen. So if the oxygen is reduced,

there's less chance of a fire.

So what I'm going to do is put some fuel into this receptacle

and we can imagine this being the fuel tank of a bomber,

for instance.

And then if I take this fuel and I just shake it around,

and in doing so,

I generate flammable vapor inside my fuel tank.

Who, I certainly would not want to be on an aircraft

with that going on out on the wings.

Next, using an identical fuel-filled bottle,

Luke's able to show an engineering breakthrough

that reduced the level of oxygen.

So this time, I'm also going to add to my bottle an inert gas.

And in this case, I'm going to use nitrogen.

And so now you can see I've got my fuel tank and inside it,

I have my flammable vapor as well as now nitrogen.

Let's see what happens when I hold a match.

And you can see here now the nitrogen is doing its job

and I'm not getting any combustion whatsoever.

And I can even drop the match into this tank.

So here we are, safe and sound with our inert gas system

and I'm much, much happier on this bomber.

And that's because nitrogen, along with other gases

like carbon dioxide, is inert, thus displacing oxygen

and preventing the violent combustion.

And this was the key to protecting the planes.

In 1944, the first inert gas system

was installed in the Avro Lincoln.

So I'm now in the central portion of the aircraft

and the wings are extending either side on that side.

And on that side. And at this location,

there would have been a series of nitrogen tanks,

much like these oxygen tanks,

and they would have been plumbed into the fuel system.

The nitrogen was fed at high pressure through brass tubes

to filters and valves, out along the wings into the vent pipes,

feeding the six fuel tanks. And as the fuel was depleted,

the tanks were steadily filled with nitrogen

to ensure that the fuel vapor couldn't combust,

and the inert gas system became a life-saving solution

for many industries... From the skies to the seas.

To create supertanker Europe,

engineers took the inert gas system

and combined it with some

even more impressive engineering solutions.

Since 1944, the inert gas system

has prevented explosions

on countless aircraft and ships throughout the world.

But the engineers behind supertanker Europe have taken it

one step further.

This supertanker doesn't just use inert gas,

it carries all the machinery and equipment

onboard to manufacture and distribute it.

It keeps oxygen levels in the oil tanks

as low as 5%.

Chief engineer Zlatan Gyurov is heading to the ship's stern

where the inert gas system is housed.

This entirely self-sufficient

inert gas system spans three floors.

At the bottom is a 33-foot tall heating system.

The boiler generates the inert gas,

which is siphoned off to the floor above.

Inside each tower,

a shower of seawater cleans and cools the gas.

Next, it travels to three massive centrifugal fans

on the top floor that propel it to the cargo tanks

where it sits above the volatile oil,

preventing a buildup of explosive vapor.

The inert gas system

is one of the most important integrated systems

ever designed for an oil tanker

making a volatile liquid stable

and safe enough to load and transport across oceans.

But before supertanker Europe can actually transport anything,

engineers face another major challenge

when it comes to moving this massive ship through the water.

One of the huge challenges in building a super-sized ship

like this is providing enough engine power

to move it through the water, including through

some of the world's worst weather conditions.

This giant vessel is heavier than 100,000 elephants

and soars 249-feet high from below the ocean

to the top of the bridge.

Onboard a total of 13 floors

house the machinery and equipment

needed to operate this impressive but complex ship.

This colossal creation must be able to hit speeds

of 19 miles per hour,

even in the harshest environments.

Nick Bradbeer is in the simulator at Solent university

recreating the conditions often faced at sea.

One of the huge challenges in building a super-sized ship

like this is providing enough engine power

to move it through the water, including through

some of the world's worst weather conditions.

In the Atlantic ocean,

the average wave is 11-feet high,

but monstrous waves reaching 95-feet high

have also been recorded.

Now to push a ship through that kind of weather,

we need a lot of engine power.

The engine needs to be very reliable.

We can't afford for it to break down.

And when we're burning as much fuel

as we are on a ship this big,

we really need a very efficient engine, as well.

So we want power, reliability, and fuel efficiency.

Any one of these three is a significant challenge.

But to have all three together in the same engine,

now, that's tough.

Engineers need to build the perfect engine

that will be capable of moving

over 550,000 tons of ship and cargo.

But first, they'll have to take an up close look

at one of the most powerful breakthroughs in history.

These are trains that haven't been seen

on the railways in decades.

As it powers across the Atlantic ocean,

supertanker Europe will be exposed

to the often unpredictable elements,

and this mega vessel will need an engine strong enough

to push all 550,000 tons of it

through any situation it encounters.

The solution can be found in an important

but nearly forgotten piece of history.

Engineer Agnes D'Entremont

is visiting a remote train yard in Alberta, Canada,

where North America's post-world war ii economy

saw an increase in demand for bulk goods.

This is so cool. These are trains

that haven't been seen on the railways in decades.

Steam engines, which were the freight haulers of the time,

were just not reliable enough,

and they required a lot of maintenance and upkeep.

And so a new solution was needed for this new freight demand.

The solution can be found

in the general motors F3 diesel locomotive.

Wow. That thing's big.

This is the engine that transformed

North America's railways and could hold the key

to powering the mighty supertanker Europe.

This is an EMD567 two-stroke diesel engine.

In 1899, German engineer Hugo Guldner

designed the world's first two-stroke diesel engine.

And in the 1930s, general motors perfected the concept,

creating one of the most successful diesel engines

of the mid-20th century.

So this is a 16-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine.

There's 8 cylinders on this side,

8 on the other side in a V pattern.

Behind each one of these valves is where the cylinder sits.

A typical diesel engine takes four stages or strokes

to create power.

Fuel and air is sucked in,

pressure is applied,

an explosion pushes the piston down, generating power.

And finally, exhaust is blown out.

Only one in four strokes creates power.

A two-stroke engine cuts the number of stages in half.

As air and fuel are compressed and combusted simultaneously,

more of the mixture is drawn into the system.

On the return stroke, the exhaust is released

and the process starts again.

Power is generated every other stroke, twice the power.

So these cylinders are longer bore cylinders,

which means that the piston travels farther up

and down in the cylinder.

It produces a lower speed but higher torque,

which is perfect for freight applications.

Let's take a look at some of these cylinders.

We could see just... they're enormous.

This is amazing. I mean, this is almost a 70-year-old engine.

It's in beautiful shape and still operational. Wow.

This 1,500-horsepower,

800-revs per minute freight hauling diesel

locomotive could be found

on virtually all of the major railroads at the time.

It's gonna be really cool.

We're gonna get to see it running today.

Locomotive engineer Terry Wolfe is on hand.

You want to open them about two turns.

Okay.

Perfect. Right on.

Okay, that's good.

First, the test valves are cleared

and then the fuel pumps turned on.

Hit the bell.

Hit that start button and hold onto it until she fires.

Wow. That's loud.

The two-stroke engine was powerful,

but the turning point was in creating an engine

that was also economical to run.

To see just how impressive this engine is,

Agnes is taking a turn in the driver's seat.

This is amazing.

I'm about to drive a 1,500-horsepower engine

with 700 tons behind it.

Okay, now start bringing the throttle ahead.

There you go.

This is the first time I've ever driven a train.

It's way larger than things I normally drive.

It's an amazing piece of engineering.

It was something that really hadn't been done before.

A two-stroke diesel that was reliable and had enough power

to haul a lot of weight

and do it over and over again day in and day out.

This extraordinary two-stroke EMD567 engine

is part of a mechanical revolution

that inspired the great cargo carriers of the future.

So this is kind of a proof of concept

that this could work on a large scale hauling large things,

and really was the foundation for further development

at bigger scales on land and sea.

Not only did engineers incorporate this revolutionary

piece of machinery onto supertanker Europe...

...they took it to the extreme.

Supertanker Europe, the largest oil tanker on the planet.

Chief engineer Zlatan Gyurov is in the engine room

to inspect an engine of epic proportions.

It's one fantastic piece of engineering,

the 1,100-ton engine

is capable of pushing this 550,000-ton ship

through the water at speeds of up to 19 miles per hour.

The engine is directly attached to a prop shaft

that drives this 103-ton propeller.

But it's not just the power that makes this engine unique,

it's the design.

Despite its huge size for the power needed,

this one is compact.

It's a much simpler construction inside with fewer moving parts

and its high power to weight ratio

makes it ideal to fit and carry on board a ship,

despite already weighing as much as 700 family cars.

Supertanker Europe reinvented

how the world's shipping lanes look today

and changed the scale of what can be achieved

when trading by sea.

Being part of the team

that operates such an awe-inspiring ship

is a career-defining moment for its captain and crew.

At 249-feet high and 223-feet wide,

supertanker Europe is the largest double-hulled vessel

in the world,

capable of holding seven times its own weight in crude oil.

With its supercharged diesel engine

that turns a 103-ton propeller,

its pair of anchors each weighing 24 tons,

and its incredible 250-ton rudder,

supertanker Europe has changed

the face of ocean-going trade forever.

Efficiency has driven us

to make ships bigger and bigger and bigger.

But now we're running into the limits of how big

we can practically manufacture. So it's possible

that we will never see ships bigger than this made.

By looking to the great pioneers of the past

for inspiration...

...adapting their ideas, refining their designs,

and overcoming monumental challenges...

It's a sophisticated ship able to power

through the worst weather in all the world's oceans

while packed full of dangerous cargo.

It's a triumph of nautical engineering.

Engineers have constructed something amazing and succeeded

in making the impossible possible.

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