Grade levels: Adult

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. MV Peace in Africa is looking for diamonds. And Mighty Ships is aboard, capturing the drama as she tries to mine her goal of 240,000 carats a year. We see the diamonds hunted, piped to the ship above, and processed in a complex on-board plant, all in a high security environment that includes 200 surveillance cameras.

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. Akamalik is a floating, ultra-modern processing plant and a rugged shrimp boat, all in one sleek package. Fishermen haul in the catch from her gigantic eco-friendly trawling net and send it on conveyers to a pristine below decks processing plant that runs 24 hours a day. The shrimp is sorted, the by-catch removed for separate packaging, and all are boxed and frozen.

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 in over 12,000 containers – enough to fill a freight train 70 kilometres long! Powered by the world’s largest diesel engine turning the world’s biggest propeller, this massive ship seldom stops. Every year, this magnificent vessel circumnavigates the globe seven-and-a-half times. Don’t miss this high speed, high risk seafaring adventure as the crew navigates the pirate-infested Strait of Malacca and Horn of Africa, dodges cyclones in the Indian Ocean and performs two major engine repairs at sea. But can the Emma Maersk overcome these challenges and make it through the Suez Canal to her final port in time?

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. Her expert crew and stock handlers are renowned for getting their “passengers” from ranches in Western Australia to markets in Asia, North America and the Middle East quickly, safely and in as much comfort as possible. This is no small task as the seas she often sails – the Java Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea – are the home waters of some of the world’s most dangerous pirates. Becrux’s officers and crew need to be on constant guard, while her stock experts must be equally vigilant about the health of the animals they carry. While the rare combination of cowboys and sailors makes for ongoing competition as to whom is the toughest, a bridge full of Italian officers gives Becrux a style and an enviable cuisine all her own.

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. This ship boasts 13 decks the size of 11 football fields to accommodate her wheeled cargo – big or small – without leaving a single scratch or a dent. Not only is her capacity impressive, but every inch of Faust is designed to make her one of the most environmentally-friendly ships afloat. And with state-of-the-art technology throughout, she’s so fully automated she hardly needs a crew. But a winter crossing of the North Atlantic requires more than high-tech instrumentation to dodge rough waves and gale force winds directly in her path. Watch as this trip puts every one of her 22-member crew to the test.

Resolute and ships like her install and maintain the undersea cables that form the backbone of the international communications network. Resolute is one of the most efficient and technically advanced cable laying vessels ever built. In their first year of service, Resolute and her sister ships installed a remarkable 3500 kilometres of cable. The growing importance of telecommunications requires ever-increasing capacities for data transmission in all parts of the world.

The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Henry Larsen is a highly specialized ice-breaker. In addition to keeping shipping lanes open for commercial fishing vessels and other ships, she’s especially outfitted for search and rescue missions as well as oceanographic research in the High Arctic. This ship is a lifeline. It’s work really does make a difference between life and death, in terms of the ‘search and rescue’ work. But Henry Larsen is also a lifeline for the people of Fogo Island. If there was no icebreaker, there would be no ferry and the communities would be completely stranded.