Top 11 Expensive Mega Ships in the World
From the most expensive cruise ship to the most high-tech military ship, we’re counting down the Top 10 Most Expensive Mega Ships In The World.
1. The Azzam (Biggest Private Yacht)
Starting our Top Ten most amazing Megaships is the Azzam. It’s the biggest private yacht on the face of the earth. At 180 meters or almost 600 feet long it is the biggest of what are called superyachts and scoots across the water at a top speed of 35 miles an hour.
2. The Oasis of the Seas (Largest Variety of Entertainment for Passengers)
If “entertain me” is your mantra, you need to sail this next eye-popping ship…the Oasis of the Seas. The Royal Caribbean cruiser is a floating center of entertainment and experiences worthy of most anyone’s bucket list. It was the world’s largest cruise ship when it was launched in 2009.
3. The Largest Military Ship (USS Gerald Ford)
Next, you expect military ships to be pretty big, but the USS Gerald Ford is off the charts. Commissioned in July of 2017 this nuclear powered aircraft carrier is a the first in a next generation of supercarriers that has no equal in size and capability. Its length spans just over 11-hundred feet and can accommodate 75 fighter jets and up to 5-thousand sailors as it cruises along the seas.
4. BONUS – The Strangest Ship Ever Built – The Novgorod
You’ll probably want to rub your eyes when you see this next one because you may not believe what you see. The strangest ship ever built actually looks more like a floating pizza.
The Novgorod was built by the Russians in the 1870s to patrol the Black Sea. It had a circular hull with a diameter of 101 feet. Two 12-inch guns were onboard that retracted into a protected cover.
5. The Ship With Longest and Most Expensive Construction (The USS Gerald Ford)
The ship that took the longest time and most money to build? That has to go back to the USS Gerald Ford. A highly controversial ship because of construction delays and resulting costs that mounted up.
This ship is a marvel in not just its technological abilities, but the time to build it ended up being a whopping 12 years. The cost? An unprecedented 13 billion…
6. The Highest Tech Ship (USS Zumwalt)
The next amazing megaship also serves in the military. The USS Zumwalt. This is not your father’s battleship. It dons a unique look that seems similar to a modern submarine than a battleship, but this is meant to stay on top of the water.
It is the most technologically advanced warship in the world possessing weapon systems with special high-tech targeting abilities that make them lethal at even extreme distances.
7. The Fastest Ship in the World (Francisco)
If you like speed on the water, well your ship has come in at number 5. While not a speed boat in the truest sense of the term, this baby can flat out move.
The Francisco is essentially a Concorde Jet on water. This catamaran can slice through the sea at close to 70 miles an hour because of its specially designed aluminum hull and a pair of jet engine turbines working on liquid natural gas.
8. The Most Luxurious Ship To Book As Passenger (RMS Queen Mary 2)
Next, we slow the speed down, but dial up the luxury. The cruise ship most likely to make you feel like you’re a movie star is the Queen Mary 2.
The floating icon of the seas has recently emerged from a 132-million-dollar renovation and it shows. With decidedly an Art Deco motif in some of its more popular rooms like the Princess Grill and the Queen Grill Suites, the ship’s owner, Cunard, clearly has gone all out to accommodate passengers.
9. The Marathoner Of All Ships (Reid Stowe, Anne)
Many of these megaships are huge because they have to be equipped for long trips…that’s what they do. But one sailed on a voyage longer and farther than any of them. This 70-foot schooner named “Anne” was taken for quite a ride by its owner Reid Stowe.
He took the helm on a marathon of a trip with the goal of staying at sea without touching land for 1-thousand days, but he ended up doing better than that.
10. The Biggest Cargo Ship (CSCL Globe)
Coming in at number two of the most impressive megaships is this lumbering giant. It’s the C-S-C-L Globe…a good name for it. Owned by the China Shipping Container Lines, the Globe can transport more than 19-thousand, 22-foot containers on its deck.
11. The Largest Ship…Period (Seawise Giant)
So what is the biggest ship? Period? Ever? At the top of the list of megaships has got to be the Seawise Giant. Launched in 1979, it’s generally considered the longest and the heaviest ship ever built. It stretched more than 15-hundred feet long and fully loaded, weighed more than 560-thousand tons…this truly was the Big Bertha of all ships.
It had quite a checkered past too. Caught in the crossfire of the Iran-Iraq War in 19-88, this supertanker was sunk off the coast of Iran.
