Shannon Cornell, age 12, of Huntsville, Ala., for her question:
WHAT IS THE WORLDS BIGGEST SHIP?
Man's first ship was most likely a log that he used to get from one side of the river to the other. His hands were undoubtedly the first paddles. It probably didn't take him too long to discover he could have a larger riding surface by tying several logs together. From this early start the ship most likely developed when a log was hollowed out to make it more maneuverable. Largest ocean liner now in operation is the 963 foot long R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth 2, the British ship that sails for the Cunard Line. On Jan. 16 of 1978 she started a 96 day Pacific ocean voyage that will take her to 32 ports on five continents. Two suites aboard, one called the Queen Anne and the other the Trafalgar, were priced at $155,850 for the cruise.
Measuring 1,019.5 feet in length is the Queen Mary, now on permanent display in Long Beach, Calif. The original Queen Elizabeth, gutted by a fire in 1972 in Hong Kong where she was a floating marine college renamed Seawise University, measured 1,031 feet in length. A French liner called the France was 1,035.2 feet long.
Largest and longest of all ships in operation today are the tankers. The Bellamya, built for Shell Oil Company_in 1977 in St. Nazaire, France, and sailing under the French flag, is 1,312.3 feet in length, is 206.6 feet wide at the beam, has a draft of 93.5 feet and weighs 550,000 tons. The Bellamya, powered by an engine with a horsepower of 64,800, can travel at 16.7 knots.
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. will deliver the first of three 600,000 ton nuclear powered tankers to Globtik Tankers U.S., Inc., in 1985. The tankers will each cost $318 million. They will be 1,303 feet long and will carry 25 million barrels of crude oil at 22 knots.
Longest aircraft carrier ever built was the U.S.S. Enterprise, which measured 1,123 feet long. Close behind is the carrier U.S.S. Nimitz, which is 1,092 feet long.
Largest cargo vessel in the world is the Swedish ore and oil carrier, the Svealand. It has a length of 1,109 feet and a beam of 179 feet.
Largest converted icebreaker is the American Manhattan, a 1,007 foot long ship. One owned by the Russians, called the Arkitika, is able to go through ice that is seven feet thick. A Norwegian shipbuilder hopes to top this with a semi¬submarine icebreaker that will be able to go through ice that is 12 feet thick. Largest whale factory ship is the Sovietskaya Ukraina, owned by the Russians. The ship is 714.6 feet in length and has a beam of 84.7 feet.
How about the largest ferry boat? Honors will have to go to the Norland, operating in the North Sea out of Hull, England, for A.G. Weser of Bremen, West Germany. It is 502 feet in length and has a service speed of more than 18 knots. It can carry 520 cars at one time.
Largest cable laying ship is owned by the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. It is the German built Long Lines and is 511.6 feet long. It is powered by twin turbine electric engines.