Ship Talk

I’ve always wondered this, and now I have the answer.

Dear Yahoo!:
Before the Titanic sank, it was the largest ship in the world. What is the largest today, and how does it compare to the Titanic?
Lee
Mount Vernon, Washington

Dear Lee:
These days, cargo vessels are the largest ships around, and the king of these crafts is the oil tanker Jahre Viking, which logs in at 1,503 feet long and 226 feet wide. It boasts a gross tonnage of 565,000 tons!

However, you mentioned the Titanic, so to compare apples to apples, the two largest passenger ships in the world are currently run by Royal Caribbean International Cruises. The Voyager of the Seas and the Explorer of the Seas are 1,020 feet long and 158 feet wide. Both have a gross tonnage of 140,000 tons and carry roughly 3,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members.

By comparison, the Titanic was 883 feet long, 93 feet wide, and weighed 45,000 tons. The Titanic could hold 3,500 passengers and crew members but carried life boats for just over 1,000. There were approximately 2,200 unfortunate souls aboard when the “unsinkable” ship encountered the iceberg.

Link

To compare that with some U.S. aircraft carrieers:

USS Enterprise
Length 1,123 feet
Breadth 257 feet

USS Ronald Reagan
Length 1,092 feet
Flight Deck Width 257 feet

To take it a step further, compare all those lengths to the height of the Empire State Building which is 1250 feet.

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