When you need to transport large cargo from one place to another, sea freight is the most common choice. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world’s seas and oceans each day, and they handle the bulk of international trade.
Then there are the heavy-lift ships.
A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move excessively large loads that even cargo ships cannot carry, such as other ships, oil rigs or anything else that is too massive to be easily transported on a conventional ship.
This is the Blue Marlin, a semi-submerging vessel capable of lifting another ship out of the water and transporting it. Here, it goes underwater to prepare for loading.
It carried the USS Cole after the warship was damaged in a bombing attack.
Here it is seen carrying a dozen other transport ships.
It can also carry an oil rig.
Or a radar station like the Sea-Based X-Band Radar, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department Ballistic Missile Defense System. It is designed to operate in high winds and heavy seas.
The ship enters Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after completing a 15,000-mile journey from Corpus Christi, Texas, on January 9, 2006.
It can also transport drilling rigs. The gridwork of iron create a giant footprint to stabilize the weight. They jack up out of the water with those large legs.
And here are three of them.
The MV Mighty Servant 2 carried USS Samuel B. Roberts from Dubai to Newport, R.I., in 1988.
Amazing.
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