Some are luxuriously grand. A few are top-secret and deadly. And others even offer medical miracles. The newest – and mightiest – ships being built today offer infinite possibilities. Premiering Wednesday, June 2 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel, Season 3 of MIGHTY SHIPS offers exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the most extraordinary vessels from around the world – from high-tech ocean dredgers and pipelayers to marine research vessels and even a floating state-of-the-art hospital. This six-part Canadian series peers into engine rooms, bridges and bilges and meets captains, engineers and able seamen, as it reveals everything from the mechanics of modern sea-going to the human drama seafarers face. From the biggest luxury cruise ship ever built, to the stealth power of the world’s most advanced ballistic nuclear missile submarine, Season 3 of MIGHTY SHIPS offers a rare look at today’s most fascinating vessels and the people who work on them.
Highlights from the first episodes of MIGHTY SHIPS 3 include:
MIGHTY SHIPS: “Oasis of the Seas”
Wednesday, June 2 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
It took $1.4 billion to build the largest, most revolutionary cruise ship in the world – but will Oasis of the Seas live up to the hype? Heading into her much-anticipated maiden voyage in December 2009, the stakes were huge. MIGHTY SHIPS explored Royal Caribbean’s newest ship as she prepared to welcome more than 5,000 passengers. Oasis is so big that her homeport of Port Everglades, Florida, had been re-developed at a cost of millions to accommodate her groundbreaking size. At 220,000 gross tons, she’s almost twice the size of Titanic, and 27 metres longer than the super carrier USS Ronald Reagan. But size comes with a price and demands space-age technologies to help operate and navigate the shallow waters of the Caribbean. Even more challenging: how does a cruise ship load and unload 5000+ passengers at ports-of-call and stay on a schedule? MIGHTY SHIPS is onboard to tell the inside story of her maiden voyage.
MIGHTY SHIPS: “USS Kentucky”
Wednesday, June 9 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
It’s the most powerful weapon the world has never seen. USS Kentucky – a ballistic missile nuclear powered submarine – is part of the deadliest class of submarines in the US Navy. Virtually undetectable, this silent giant can launch a devastating surprise nuclear attack on any country in the world. She can operate at unimaginable depths and pressures, or up close to a coastline without anyone knowing she’s there. Ohio Class submarines serve the US Navy as indefensible undersea launch platforms for intercontinental nuclear missiles. Designed for stealth and precision delivery of nuclear warheads, their value as a key strategic deterrent is the purpose of every mission. Run silent, run deep and stand by to keep the peace if needed. Every 12 weeks, USS Kentucky departs its base in Bangor, Washington, for an extended deterrent patrol, disappearing for 70 days without surfacing. Where she goes is classified. A civilian TV crew has never embarked on an active patrol with an Ohio Class sub – until now. Join MIGHTY SHIPS and experience the unique life of a submariner and discover what it takes to operate the most dangerous weapon in the world.
MIGHTY SHIPS: “Cristobal Colon”
Wednesday, June 16 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
The world’s newest, biggest ocean dredger, Cristobal Colon is a true-blue mighty working ship. She’s 20% bigger than her closest competitor and can store 46,000 cubic meters of sand onboard. Brand new, untested, incredibly powerful and ultra high-tech, the industrial world watched closely as she tackled her first job – but is bigger really better? In January 2010 she sailed to Cuxhaven, Germany, to build a new super-port where the Elbe River meets the North Sea. Cristobal’s job is to dredge and deliver millions of cubic meters of sand from the sea floor to the construction site. Roads and breakwaters need to be built, docks and buildings erected, but none of it can start until Cristobal Colon creates the landmass itself. MIGHTY SHIPS is onsite to capture every muddy, dirty, messy move Cristobal and her crew makes as they transform a sleepy seaport into a super-port for the 21st century.
Also this season on MIGHTY SHIPS, explore life aboard “Africa Mercy,” the world’s largest state-of-the-art NGO hospital ship on a port-to-port mission to deliver urgently needed medical care (June 23); “Solitaire,” a 300-metre long oil and gas pipelayer laying nine kilometres of pipe per day in the precarious seabed off the coast of Norway (June 30); and “G.O. SARS,” an advanced marine research vessel exploring new life forms and extreme conditions north of the Arctic Circle (July 7).
MIGHTY SHIPS is produced by Exploration Production Inc. (EPI) in association with Discovery Channel Canada.