Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Here I am, out for a drive, but as you've probably noticed, I'm not in a car.
00:09Captain, sounds really difficult this, isn't it?
00:13I've been let loose in one of the world's most powerful tugboats.
00:19No, no, I'm just weaving around!
00:21But this tug isn't big enough for this series.
00:26While it's towing, however, the Mary Maersk is one of the biggest ships in the world, transporting billions of dollars of goods over thousands of miles.
00:39You're probably sitting on, looking at or wearing something it's transported.
00:46What I want to know is how a ship can be built this big and why?
00:54Here I go.
00:56I'm Richard Hammond.
00:58Hello.
00:59And I'm on a mission to explore the really, really big.
01:03Awesome!
01:04Top ten list of insane things I've ever been involved in doing. This is number one.
01:09And yes, I know, everything seems big to me.
01:12Am I climbing into an engine? I feel like I've been shrunk.
01:15I'll uncover the incredible ways engineers have supersized our world.
01:21How am I supposed to be this close?
01:23I looked over my shoulder, I shouldn't have done that.
01:26Reveal that sometimes it's the tiny things that make the Titanic possible.
01:31Stealing their power!
01:33I could not do this for a job.
01:36And meet the heroes who design, build and live big.
01:44If I do it wrong, are we all blown to pieces?
01:47Maybe.
01:48The Marimersk is one of the biggest moving objects ever built.
02:02I've come on board to find out more about this titan of maritime engineering.
02:07And to discover how enormous ships like this affect all of our lives all over the world.
02:15This isn't just the story of a very, very big boat.
02:19It's the story of pretty much all the man-made stuff in the world.
02:23Pretty much everything we buy will be moved from where it was made to where it needs to be on one of these.
02:30This gigantic container ship travels a continuous 45,000 kilometer route between Asia and Europe.
02:39A task it was designed to do non-stop for the next 25 years.
02:44Currently it's heading towards Rotterdam, the biggest port in Europe.
02:52This ship is big, really big.
02:57Fully laden little carry over 18,000 metal containers like the one I'm under right now.
03:03And let's not mess about with feet and inches or meters.
03:07It's a quarter of a mile long.
03:10It's also, I can't help but noticing, empty.
03:14Where is everyone? We've got the right day.
03:17If this were an aircraft carrier, it would have a crew of, what, 6,000 people on board?
03:22This is longer than an aircraft carrier and, well, I can see nobody.
03:31It's weird.
03:33Is this the world's biggest game of hide and seek?
03:42I'm beginning to feel like I might be missing out.
03:44Is everybody all in one place?
03:49Hello?
03:55It's deserted.
04:05Hello? Hello?
04:06Hello? Hello? Hello?
04:07Hello? Hello?
04:08Do you work here?
04:09I do happen to work here.
04:10Good.
04:11Of course he works here.
04:12He's not stowaway, is he?
04:13I'm trying to get inside.
04:14Right.
04:15Well, there's a door there.
04:16So if you just enter there, I'll come and meet you in two seconds.
04:18That door? Yeah.
04:19Brilliant.
04:20There. I'm in.
04:23Oh, am I glad to see you.
04:24Yeah.
04:25It was...
04:26I thought stowed away on a plane ship or something.
04:28Yeah, yeah.
04:29Nice to meet you.
04:30Are you an officer, yes?
04:31I am, yeah.
04:32Yeah.
04:33You're quite young.
04:34That's quite a grown-up job, isn't it?
04:35It is, but...
04:36I mean, that's not far from the captain, is it?
04:38Third in command, I think.
04:39Anyway, you want to go to the captain?
04:41Yeah.
04:42I'd love to go to the captain.
04:43Thank you very much.
04:45Third in command.
04:46How many floors are there?
04:48There's actually ten.
04:49Gymnasium?
04:50Yep.
04:51Barbecue area?
04:52Mm-hmm.
04:53Cinema?
04:54Mm-hmm.
04:55Swimming pool?
04:56Mm-hmm.
04:57I'm on the right bow.
04:58You are.
04:59Right.
05:00Just to be clear, that music isn't playing in the lift.
05:04They've put that on in the edit.
05:05Stop it.
05:06No, that's worse.
05:09Is the captain friendly?
05:11The captain's a really good guy.
05:12Okay.
05:13Do I have to, like...
05:14You have to salute him.
05:15Do I?
05:16No.
05:17Don't be taking the mic, because I'll just believe stuff like that.
05:22John Moller Jensen is solely responsible for this $190 million boat.
05:28It's 25 crew and the $400 million worth of cargo it's carrying.
05:34Like Lego, pastries and Maersk itself, he's Danish.
05:39John has spent over 40 years working the seas, and this is his final tour of duty before he retires.
05:46I guess he loves his job.
05:48It's hard to tell.
05:49He's not what you'd call chatty.
05:51Captain, and I should say I get quite nervous around people with high ranks, so I will just call you captain if that's okay.
05:58Fine with me.
06:00This is a really big ship.
06:01We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars of ship and cargo.
06:04Yeah.
06:05Logically, there's only one thing to ask.
06:09Can I have a go?
06:10Yeah.
06:11Really?
06:12Yeah.
06:13What can I do?
06:14Just push it.
06:15I'm scared now, I've asked.
06:16No.
06:17I mean, you're not scared of placing yourself in a race car and pressing that gas pedal, right?
06:22Oh, that doesn't always go well, does it?
06:23Yeah.
06:24Just push until you meet some resistance.
06:26This tiny action makes big things happen.
06:33The Barry Maersk has two massive 43,000 horsepower diesel engines, which, with just a small movement of the throttle, can push this huge ship up to a giddy 23 nautical miles an hour.
06:47Yeah, it's slow for a car, but quite nippy for something which weighs more than a quarter of a million tons and doesn't have a brake pedal.
06:56How quickly can we start?
06:58Somewhere between four and five miles.
07:00Four or five miles to really put the brakes on.
07:05Yeah.
07:06Yeah.
07:07You're very...
07:08You're relaxed about it.
07:09Fine.
07:10I can't help but notice there's no steering wheel.
07:12And we still have this.
07:14That's it?
07:15That's it, yeah.
07:16Yeah.
07:17The helm.
07:18Yeah, the helm.
07:19That is it?
07:20Yeah.
07:21Can I stand at it?
07:22Yeah, yeah.
07:23It's yours.
07:24Well, there it is.
07:25Bit of an anticlimax.
07:26All of this.
07:27Yeah.
07:28And you've got...
07:29That.
07:30Yeah.
07:31The captain has encouraged me to go and bother someone else.
07:34So, remember my new mate Joe?
07:36He's the first person I met and the second officer, which makes him, rather confusingly, the third in command.
07:43Anyway, I'm pretty sure he's qualified to give me a tour around.
07:47Lead on.
07:48I'll follow you.
07:49And it's immediately clear, this thing is more cargo than boat.
07:54The ship currently weighs over 250,000 tons, but only about 63,000 of them are actual ship.
08:03And I'm not just talking about the containers you can see.
08:07There are even more in the hold.
08:11The Murray Maersk carries its shipping containers stacked in columns, 23 across its width and 24 along its length.
08:19And because there's no deck, the containers can be piled up to 21 high.
08:24Right now, Joe is going to show me one empty section on board that'll be filled at the next stop in Rotterdam.
08:31Joe, I don't think much of your stairs.
08:39Oh, my God.
08:42That is a huge... That'll be filled with cargo eventually.
08:45In the next port, we're going to go fully loaded. That's the belly of the ship.
08:48Huge.
08:53Yeah, you're obviously used to steep stairs.
09:01Ah!
09:03So this is a hold.
09:05This is what the whole ship's about.
09:07In this cathedral-like space, we're actually more than 10 metres below sea level.
09:13This is an enormous building.
09:15And this is not the whole hold, is it? It's not all of it?
09:18No.
09:19And hang on, this isn't even full height, is it?
09:21Because I go up above...
09:22Double it.
09:23Oh, so double this in every direction.
09:26Basically, yeah.
09:27That direction, that direction, and that...
09:30And you've got one of 11 holes.
09:31Mm-hmm.
09:32It's...
09:33I honestly think my brain is struggling to get hold of how big it is.
09:37Fully loaded, this ship carries a whopping 18,000 containers.
09:42If they were placed end-to-end, they would reach all the way into space.
09:48It's kind of spooky.
09:50It is kind of spooky, and it can get spooky when you're sailing,
09:52because of the wind and the waves.
09:54You get these noises that are unexplained,
09:56and a lot of the crew are superstitious.
09:59Oh, that's proper maritime stuff.
10:02Yeah.
10:03So there's a sort of a sense of it being a bit haunted and a bit...
10:06Yeah, yeah.
10:07I totally get that.
10:09Ugh.
10:11I would not like to be left here on my own,
10:15with a torch with slightly fading batteries.
10:18By doing away with a deck and piling its containers high,
10:24the Marimersk is able to carry over 200,000 tons of cargo.
10:30But how can something that looks like it has the structural integrity
10:33of a giant bathtub be strong enough to survive the cyclones
10:37of the South China Seas?
10:39I've come to the ship's kitchen,
10:44whatever,
10:45to demonstrate something absolutely critical to ships like this,
10:48and I need this sandwich box.
10:50So, imagine this is a ship.
10:52That's its deck on top.
10:54It's pretty rigid.
10:56But for container ships like this, you can't have that deck,
10:58they need to put containers in there.
11:00So, here's one I prepared earlier,
11:02as this is now a food show.
11:03And as you can see, with no lid, it's all flexible.
11:06But when I say prepared earlier, I really did,
11:08because what I cut off was this bit.
11:10If we take the lid off our sandwich box,
11:12don't need that,
11:14with this bit on top, the rim if you like,
11:17it's a lot more solid,
11:18it's a lot less flexible than without.
11:22And this bit here, it's called a torsion box.
11:26A torsion box is a reinforced rim,
11:29just like the rim on a bucket,
11:31a cardboard cup, or a sandwich box.
11:34It's purpose is to stop the ship from flexing.
11:39And on the Mary Maersk, it's so big,
11:42it doubles up as corridors that run along the length of the hull.
11:46Now that's simple science, used in a big way.
11:52Next, I feel even smaller than usual.
11:56I honestly feel like I've been shrunk.
11:59But I do get to play with the big boys.
12:02I did not expect to be doing this today.
12:04You're looking at one of the biggest moving objects ever made.
12:18The Mary Maersk is a triple E-class cargo ship.
12:22Those E's stand for economy of scale, environmentally improved,
12:26and energy efficient, which is actually four E's.
12:30So if we're not counting, I'll give them another one.
12:33Enormous.
12:35Nobody builds something this big, this complex, this expensive,
12:40for bragging rights.
12:41That's what it's all about.
12:43I'm 200 feet above the water,
12:45and all I can see of the ship are containers.
12:48Put them all on a train at once,
12:50and it would stretch a staggering 70 miles long.
12:53Massive container ships like the Mary Maersk carry 90% of all global trade.
13:00That means almost everything we buy has been on a ship like this.
13:08So is this as big as a container ship we'll ever get?
13:11To find out, I'm going to build one of my own.
13:14And as this is a Danish ship, I've lured in some of the crew to help me
13:19with the promise of Denmark's finest export.
13:24Cool, crisp Lego.
13:29We don't need that. We don't need that.
13:31I suggest we do have the instructions.
13:33Shall we start opening bags and see what we've got?
13:35My model ship came with a useful accessory.
13:41The man who built the actual ship.
13:44Naval architect, Christian Agedrup.
13:51You better be good at this, by the way.
13:54Given that you build them for real.
13:56Right, I'll call out for the bits.
13:58You can pass them and you can assemble it.
14:00You be the designer, call out for the bits.
14:02I'll take the drawings.
14:03You be the suppliers, you give me the bits, and I'll be the builder.
14:06So you're the shipyard.
14:09Well, the way I designed this, then you need to have a rectangular...
14:12So please follow the drawing.
14:13I don't think it's supposed to look like that.
14:15Trust the drawing.
14:16OK, you rushed me through it because I couldn't...
14:19Well, we'll have to go back if we go back.
14:22No, that's supposed to be like that.
14:25I think that went well.
14:26And the actual crew have rightly so gone off to do their jobs on the real thing,
14:30but we have now finished our model.
14:32This ship came along and it was a game changer.
14:35Is this as far as we're going to go?
14:37Are we now as big as ships can be?
14:39Because increases on this are sort of incremental, aren't they?
14:42People put another few feet on the end.
14:44We've got a bigger one for about a week, and then somebody else does.
14:47And when are we next going to see the next change on this level,
14:50when suddenly it's this big?
14:52You could add in the length or in the beam, add one more row, add one more bay.
14:58But the biggest problem is the external boundaries.
15:01This ship would have to enter ports and go through canals.
15:04And if they are not big enough, it will be difficult to maneuver this ship in and out of the port.
15:09So until the world gets bigger, there's not much point in making container ships like this much bigger anyway,
15:15because you can't use it.
15:16For now at least, it seems this is about as big as ships can get.
15:25Which is pretty big.
15:27And it comes with the even bigger challenge of how to make it move.
15:33Which is the perfect excuse to head to the area I've wanted to see since I came on board.
15:38Ten floors down, the best bit of any ship, no argument.
15:43It's the engine room.
15:49This is the equivalent of being in a lift in the engine bay of your car.
15:55It is. The engine lives out there.
15:58But we're in a lift to go down it.
16:01Oh!
16:05Oh, my God!
16:08This isn't just an engine room. This is a cathedral.
16:13And at the heart of it, this.
16:18It covers three storeys of engine.
16:21That, that's the top. That's your cylinder head, cylinders.
16:25Down there is the crankcase and the crank shaft.
16:28It's all one thing.
16:30All of that from there down to the bottom.
16:33And there's another one over there.
16:35Each 43,000 horsepower diesel engine has its own team of engineers to keep it running smoothly 24-7.
16:45And they can even make their own parts.
16:51Chief Engineer Oleksandry Yushchenko is confident he can fix most problems with running repairs.
16:59Hundreds of miles from the nearest port.
17:01So, a piston cracks. Can you repair that?
17:05Yeah, we can exchange.
17:06Really?
17:07Yeah.
17:08Conrod brakes.
17:10Conrods?
17:11Yeah, fine also can do.
17:12Really?
17:14Cylinder liner cracks.
17:16We have spare ones.
17:18Crankshaft bearing goes.
17:20Also we have spare. Also can do.
17:22Okay, the Crankshaft itself goes.
17:24Then we're done. We need dry dogs.
17:27That's it.
17:28You've got the best toys in the whole world of apps.
17:31I'm so jealous.
17:33Can I carry on having a look around?
17:35Yes, please. You're welcome.
17:38I've never felt so small next to an engine, which is no surprise because you won't find anything much bigger outside of a power station.
17:47These engines may be gigantic, but what's really, really clever is that they're also very, very simple.
17:54Eight cylinders.
17:56It's so big.
17:58And slow moving.
17:59You can actually work out the RPM.
18:02Hang on.
18:03One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one, four.
18:09I make that about 25 RPM, something like that.
18:18And here's the incredible thing about this.
18:21And it'll blow your mind because it blew mine.
18:24This gigantic, gargantuan engine is a two-stroke.
18:30So its nearest relation in my mind is the engine in my first motorcycle and your gargant strimmer.
18:41Although it's a bit bigger, obviously.
18:45Look, here's a piston I stripped off my motorbike for comparison.
18:48So this is a spare piston off the engine.
18:53Lose all of this stuff off the top that's for carrying it.
18:56And there are eight of these doing that inside that gigantic engine.
19:01Turning the crankshaft and letting the engine do its work.
19:05And when you work on this engine, you don't just get your hands dirty.
19:10It's more of a whole body experience.
19:11There is a man in the crankcase splashing about in the sun.
19:17It's absolutely doing my noggin.
19:20Now it's my turn to feel like Ant-Man.
19:24We're going to check on the pistons by climbing inside the air intake.
19:28After you.
19:29If I were to do this in my car, I'd need to shrink myself 20 times.
19:40I'm climbing inside an engine.
19:44Oh.
19:46Well, I mean, it's cramped, but considering we're in an engine, it's surprisingly roomy.
19:51So this is the piston coming past.
19:54This is our three pistol rings, you see.
19:58Layer is boot.
20:00This that we're looking at is just a small part of the engines I'm used to, and we're crawling around in it.
20:05I honestly feel like I've been shrunk.
20:09It's like stepping out of a science fiction movie.
20:12That just took my breath away.
20:15I never thought I'd walk around in an engine.
20:17And the next time I look at an engine in a car or a motorbike, I'm not actually going to think big.
20:23I'm going to look at it and think small, because I'm going to see myself wandering around inside it.
20:28That was mind-blowing.
20:30And the brain-boggling scale goes on.
20:33The engine in an average car runs for about 10,000 miles a year.
20:38These engines do that in a month, which means they need servicing continuously.
20:43So if you're an engineer on this ship, you're changing a lot of oil filters.
20:49This is an oil filter like the one that sticks out the side of your car engine.
20:52It's just bigger.
20:53You just grab it, and it's...
20:56It's quite heavy!
20:58Oh, hurry up! It's incredibly heavy!
21:00I'm only small. I'm not very strong. My arm won't go up.
21:03Ah! Where's the accident book?
21:06So this is just to clean the oil.
21:10It's just to clean the oil.
21:12One tiny bit of a gigantic oil filter.
21:14Yes. Like this.
21:16Just like that.
21:18I haven't broken it all the way until it falls down.
21:20Is this by any chance one of the less interesting jobs?
21:23Not bored as an engineer.
21:25For me, I think any job is fun.
21:27What's a fourth engineer, then?
21:28A fourth engineer is the least experienced engineer on board.
21:32Oh, you get the bad jobs, and then you give them to me.
21:35Yeah, kind of.
21:37That's what's happened.
21:39This is therapeutic.
21:42Just like the Mary Maersk's engines, the ship's crew operates like a well-oiled machine.
21:48And every single person on board has a vital second job.
21:53Keeping the ship safe.
21:54Over the last decade, as ships have become bigger and cargoes more dangerous, fire has become the third most common cause of total ship loss.
22:06So a drill is run every month.
22:08This is pretty much the whole crew.
22:13This is basically the whole crew, yeah.
22:15It's just amazing, isn't it?
22:17Okay, guys. So, we've got a fire that is reported on bay 3-0.
22:23First firefighting team is going to be Vishnu, Joe, and Richard.
22:29Fire team one can start proceeding to 8X.
22:32We're firefighting team.
22:33We're firefighting team.
22:34Don't worry about the fire. It's already out.
22:35It's not, really.
22:36I shouldn't mess about. This is kind of serious.
22:41In the middle of the sea, if something goes wrong, you cannot call for help.
22:45No. We are the fire brigade.
22:47Yeah.
22:48And you've got to be your own everything.
22:49You're going to be in charge of the hull using this arms.
22:56I did not expect to be doing this today, but I can.
22:59Well, right.
23:00You're pretty ready.
23:01Yes.
23:02Can you gain pressure?
23:06Change the nozzle.
23:08Okay, we'll go forward.
23:09On a ship this big, the crew has to be diligent and versatile.
23:14So, no matter what the emergency, they've got it covered.
23:18Oh, man.
23:20How was that?
23:23Well, it's quite uncomfortable, if I'm honest.
23:26Next, I feel the force of the ship's giant propellers.
23:3070 tons.
23:3310 meters across.
23:35And get to grips with a rather tricky tool.
23:38Oh, this is the world's biggest tickling stick.
23:40I'm on board one of the world's biggest ships, the triple E-class Mary Maersk.
23:59Joe, I'm completely lost.
24:01And second officer Joe has got a job for me.
24:04We're here to check that all of the containers are in the positions that they're supposed to be in.
24:09It's correctly labelled, and it's all seated properly.
24:12See up there, you've actually got, like, a huge, huge tank container.
24:16Hentyl...
24:19Hentyl...
24:20Hentylmethylheptane.
24:21Yes.
24:23It's quite a nice raspberry flavour.
24:24Is it?
24:25Okay.
24:26Yeah, you need a lot of it.
24:27Right.
24:28With a slice of lemon in it.
24:29The ship's drying.
24:31These containers might also include explosives, gases, radioactive material, poison,
24:37and even infectious substances.
24:40It's a dazzling buffet of gruesome ways to die.
24:44So, if you could read me the container numbers while I'd just check.
24:46Yes, I can.
24:47Well, we've got over here...
24:48Standby.
24:49...flammable liquid.
24:50Causes your thumb to drop off.
24:51Eight...
24:52Melts bricks.
24:53It's corrosive liquids.
24:54That's done right.
24:55Yes, that's there.
24:56Yes, we've got another one there.
24:57Kills your goldfish.
24:59And lights a candle.
25:00Are they all in the right place?
25:02It looks like it.
25:03Okay.
25:04That's a relief.
25:07But you might be wondering how these sometimes lethal and often very heavy containers are pushed across the water.
25:14All 18,000 of them at a time.
25:18Well, this is the first supersized container ship to use side-by-side engines powering two bronze propellers that cost one million dollars each.
25:28Here, at the back of this simply gigantic engine, the crankshaft is bolted to this enormous flywheel.
25:38Which is now number one on my top ten list of places not to get your tight core.
25:43And that, in turn, is bolted directly to this.
25:49The propeller shaft.
25:51There's no gearing.
25:53There's nothing between it and the engine.
25:55They're just bolted to one another.
25:57And now I'm tingling all over.
25:59I'm not joking as we go along the propeller shaft.
26:03Moving towards the very end of the ship.
26:07Come on in, see if you can get in.
26:09Oh!
26:10Oh, that is...
26:11That is genuinely eerie because just the other side of this steel here, at the end of that propeller shaft is the propeller.
26:2770 tons, 10 meters across, turning with unimaginable force.
26:40And there's only one place in the world that can manufacture propellers this size.
26:45This is the town of Warren in northern Germany.
26:52On the surface, it doesn't scream birthplace of some of the world's biggest and most complicated propellers.
26:59But it is.
27:00This factory has been making propellers since 1948.
27:04They made the propeller for our ship.
27:06They don't do small.
27:08Today, I'm here to see the creation of a giant new propeller.
27:13And like the freshly minted ones here, it'll be bespoke for the ship it'll propel.
27:20That means it needs to be handcrafted with millimetric precision from a top secret bronze alloy cooked up in one of the world's biggest induction furnaces.
27:30The one being made today will be nine meters across, almost the size of those on the Mary Maersk, and cast as one piece in this gigantic concrete mould.
27:42So this is it?
27:43This is...
27:44That is the mould?
27:45That is the mould, yeah.
27:46That is...
27:47Oh, my word!
27:49The casting itself, it's a very exciting moment because you've worked for many weeks to build up this and to prepare everything.
27:56And then you have the small time frame.
27:59In one hour, the birth of a propeller would be here.
28:01Yeah.
28:02It does feel more like animation.
28:04Yeah.
28:05Bringing something to life.
28:06Yeah.
28:07There's people in the sets of clothing coming up here.
28:09I just wear not that shirt.
28:10Yeah.
28:11So, time is wrong.
28:12Does that protect you against heat?
28:13Yeah, you need.
28:14You need this.
28:15The metal only becomes fluid enough to pour into the cast when it reaches 1,200 degrees Celsius.
28:23As they pour the molten alloy from the furnace into the rather delightfully named ham, which sounds like something that belongs in the kitchen.
28:32I'm just aware of raw energy.
28:35A lot of it.
28:37If I fell in there, I would simply cease to exist.
28:40I don't want those splashes to get any closer to me.
28:43I'm just going to back up.
28:44Right.
28:45That is the metal coming out of the actual furnace here.
28:49Here it comes.
28:50Look at that.
28:51It's like a living thing.
28:52Call me weird, but I've always wanted to see something cast like this.
28:57It's just the kid in you.
28:58It's also really, really, really hot.
29:01Like, really hot.
29:03It takes 10 days for the propeller to cool, after which it's still far too rough to cut through water efficiently.
29:22It needs polishing, and this is where years of skill come into play.
29:29After all the automation, this really is hand finishing.
29:34As much as if he was running his hand along it to do it.
29:37The operator's movements are replicated by the remote arm.
29:41It's like an extension of his body.
29:44These propellers are finished to a tolerance of tens of millimetres.
29:49So this guy is an artist of incredible precision.
29:55Because in real life, that isn't just a beautiful thing, a piece of sculpture.
30:01It's got a very, very big job to do for the next few decades.
30:06Gerald makes it look easy, but he's got 20 years of experience behind him.
30:11Well, I've said I can have a go.
30:13So, um, here it goes.
30:15Not surprisingly on a piece of scrap, not on a million dollar propeller.
30:20So this...
30:21Oh, it's alive, right.
30:23It's not as intuitive as I was hoping.
30:25Right, it's now working.
30:27This is the world's biggest tickling stick, right.
30:31Right.
30:36It's really difficult.
30:38I'm guessing that the artist would be perfectly straight.
30:42Uh, right.
30:46Or, the pressure it applies is related to the pressure you apply with the machine.
30:52You don't just push it on and then just leave it there.
30:54You finesse it.
30:55Look at that hole!
30:56I'm going to leave that there and not apply for a job as a professional propeller grinder.
31:05After a professional polish, not by me, obviously, the 70-ton propeller is ready to leave the factory.
31:13The more I see of the effort and artistry that goes into crafting this beautiful sculptural thing,
31:21the sadder it is to think that, just like the one on our ship,
31:24it'll spend its whole life underwater, unseen,
31:28and that from the moment it starts working,
31:31it'll be under constant and vicious attack from a deadly force called cavitation.
31:38When a propeller turns in water, it generates millions of tiny bubbles on the surface of the propeller blade.
31:48The bubbles only last for a few milliseconds before they rapidly implode,
31:52sucking in water at phenomenal speed and sending it out as supersonic micro jets.
31:58They're tiny, but because there are millions of them,
32:01this constant bombardment creates enough force to damage the surface of the metal,
32:06eventually eroding the blade and destroying the propeller.
32:11Next, this gigantic ship tries to squeeze into Europe's busiest port.
32:16Anybody else has to get out of the way, so him, sorry mate, you've got to go here.
32:21And I take an express elevator to my own personal hell.
32:25Oh! Oh my God! Oh!
32:28It's 2am, and I'm on board the Mary Maersk as it approaches Rotterdam,
32:45a port that's constantly expanding to take on ever-growing container ships
32:50and now handles the biggest on the planet.
32:54I've really got to be quiet right now.
32:56Up here on the bridge, it might have been all fun and games earlier today.
32:59This is very serious.
33:01Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ship and cargo in a very narrow space.
33:06And we've got to make it round this corner to our berth.
33:10And from here, it all looks very narrow.
33:15It's so tight, a dedicated harbour pilot has to be helicoptered onto the ship
33:20to take control and guide us in.
33:27Megaports like Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, are operational 24-7,
33:33and ships like the Mary Maersk have to stay in the 24-metre deep water channel
33:38to avoid running aground.
33:40It really isn't surprising that there's only a few ports in the world
33:43where we can fit.
33:44And even so, where we can, those three red lights mean we're constrained by draught.
33:49That means we've got to go where it's deep enough,
33:51so anybody else has to get out of the way.
33:53So him, sorry mate, we've got to go here.
33:57The tugs are doing their thing, 100-ton force front and back turning us.
34:06We could turn under our own power.
34:08It doesn't have the manoeuvrability of even a big cruise ship.
34:12And time is everything for this whole enterprise.
34:17As soon as we've docked, the port's newest cranes move in
34:21to start unloading and loading.
34:24Installed specially for the future breed of megaships,
34:27they can lift up to 50 metres high and reach across 24 containers.
34:33And as day breaks, the true size of this operation becomes apparent.
34:37Rotterdam deals with a staggering 469 million tons of goods a year.
34:43That's about 10 million individual containers.
34:47And to do that, they've done something radical.
34:50They've got rid of humans.
34:53It's almost completely automated,
34:56from the driverless transporters to the container stacking systems.
35:01The fleshy part of the equation is just a few people
35:04tucked away in the central control room,
35:06keeping an eye on the whole operation.
35:09I've dragged operations manager Hans de Bell out of mission control
35:14to tell me more about one of the most advanced,
35:17fully automated ports in the world.
35:22This is the land of the robots.
35:24Just talk me through it.
35:26It starts over there.
35:27What happens at that end?
35:28That side, the truck comes in.
35:30He activates the crane.
35:32There's nobody on the crane.
35:34Only the trucker activates the crane.
35:37So each container has its own place.
35:39Each container is identified on the truck,
35:41moved over there.
35:42And then where is it put?
35:44We put it in the stack.
35:45It's quite spooky to think.
35:47We are the only two squidgy human beings in all this.
35:50Is there anything for humans to do here at all?
35:52We have some guys.
35:54They put the plug in for the refill.
35:57So they plug in the refrigerated containers.
35:59That's the role for humanity.
36:01Yes.
36:02Right.
36:03They've made us all redundant.
36:04We have one.
36:05We have one man for a shift.
36:07Just one guy to plug him in.
36:09Yes.
36:10Great.
36:13This then is it.
36:14The human contribution to this fully automated system
36:17we're in the thick of.
36:18Plug, socket.
36:20Plug goes in socket.
36:22And then switch goes to on.
36:26That's it.
36:27Yes.
36:28That's it.
36:29That's people here.
36:31Yes.
36:32Everything else is done by robots.
36:33Hans, I can't help but notice you've become fully automated as well.
36:39Yes.
36:40I'm the only non-automated thing in this whole place.
36:43Yes.
36:44The giant gantry cranes that load the ship tower 120 metres above the port
36:51and shift 10,000 tonnes of cargo in an hour.
36:55And they're so big you need to take a lift to reach the top.
36:59I say you.
37:01I mean me.
37:02I'm going to the top.
37:04Which is annoying because I'm not very good with heights.
37:09Oh God.
37:11I didn't think this through, did I?
37:13If you've just joined us, hello and welcome to Richard Hammond craps himself.
37:22Oh God, we're here.
37:25Oh!
37:26It just doesn't open.
37:28It's stuck.
37:29I've never wanted to be stuck in a lift so much.
37:31Damn!
37:34I'll get the doors.
37:38Oh!
37:39They'll be fine.
37:40Oh my God!
37:44Oh!
37:50Oh!
37:52Oh!
37:54Oh!
37:55Okay.
37:56It's just some stairs.
37:58Just some stairs.
37:59Ah!
38:00It's falling down.
38:01Just some stairs.
38:03Just stairs.
38:04Yep.
38:05Yep.
38:06Looking up.
38:07That's good.
38:08In a minute, I'm going to get to the top
38:10and I'm going to talk to you all about the crane and the dock and appear confident.
38:14Just know that inside, I will be screaming.
38:17Ten of these Quayside cranes had to be custom built, specifically to load and unload a new
38:25generation of supersized container ship.
38:27They've got a longer reach than any previous generation of Quayside crane to future-proof them, perhaps for even bigger ships to come.
38:36Ironically enough, the cranes were delivered themselves by ship.
38:40I can't let go of this rail.
38:44While I wait to be rescued, let me remind you that size isn't everything.
38:50You also need precision, which is why dedicated computer systems are used to work out where on the ship each container needs to go.
38:58The heaviest containers have to be placed down low, so the stacks don't collapse.
39:05And loads must be distributed as evenly as possible to ensure the ship doesn't tip.
39:11To keep on schedule, this ship is never empty.
39:14It's loaded and unloaded at the same time.
39:17And that's kind of complicated.
39:19Automation has taken many of the tasks out of the hands of the crew and trusted them to computers.
39:24And it's funny, isn't it? We humans can sail this ship.
39:28We can design and build it.
39:30But it takes a massive system of automation to turn this ship around in 48 hours,
39:36so it can leave Rotterdam on time and keep to its punishing schedule.
39:45Oh, yes!
39:47Ha-ha!
39:50Now I've been automated.
39:52OK, look at him.
39:56It's that little guy from Top Gear.
40:00Here's an interesting fact.
40:02All of this that the port is built on, all of it, is reclaimed land.
40:07Eight square miles of it.
40:09So, if you think about it, this ship's so big that to build a port big enough to accommodate,
40:15first they had to build an extension to Holland.
40:21That is big.
40:25I'm always on the lookout for the tiny things that make the gigantic possible.
40:30And I found a great example here.
40:32The ship has been in Rotterdam for less than 24 hours.
40:36And in that time, thousands of containers have been loaded and unloaded.
40:40But up close, I've realised that they're not just stacked on top of each other.
40:46They're actually locked together to form a solid superstructure,
40:50which stops the containers toppling overboard in strong seas.
40:54Now, Jesper is going to explain how this one small thing makes this entire big thing possible.
41:06This is a twist lock. How does it work?
41:07The way this one works is every container has this kind of hole in the corner.
41:13We put this at the bottom of the container.
41:15We lift the container on board the vessel, and it goes down into this hole.
41:18Right, so I'm the crane.
41:19Yes.
41:20I'm on the container.
41:21Oh, and because of the shape, it automatically twists as the weight sits on it.
41:25Yes.
41:26It does it itself.
41:27Yeah.
41:28And then, it's locked.
41:29But as extra precaution, we will make sure to pull this into place so it's locked tight now
41:35until we pull this out again, and it can be lifted off now by the crane.
41:40Because that will again repeat that twisting process, it just automatically twists itself off.
41:44Yes.
41:45With the force of the crane, it will twist automatically.
41:47And every single one of these containers has four of these on the bottom?
41:51Yeah.
41:52That's thousands.
41:54That's quite a lot.
41:55Yeah.
41:56And if you think of all the containers globally on ships like these,
41:59but also on trains and on trucks, this must be one of the most plentiful objects in the world.
42:03I could imagine so.
42:04It's these, then, that work to lock this whole thing together into one giant structure.
42:11And you must be sick of looking at these to check they're locked.
42:14No, but I dream about them sometimes.
42:16You can imagine.
42:20It's time for me to say goodbye to the Mary Maersk.
42:23Having played a minuscule part in keeping the global economy going, I feel smaller than ever.
42:29Looming.
42:30That's the only word I can think of.
42:31It's looming.
42:36I've crawled around in an actual engine.
42:38I honestly feel like I've been shrunk.
42:40Faced my worst fear.
42:42Oh, ho, ho, ho.
42:43They'll be fine.
42:44Oh, my God.
42:45And had a glimpse into the future.
42:49I'm the only non-automated thing in this whole place.
42:54Bye-bye.
42:56Bye-bye.
42:57So the Mary Maersk is leaving Rotterdam.
43:00My time at Sea with her is over.
43:04I feel quite sad.
43:06I feel very sad.
43:08Certainly, I'm left with a huge respect and a definite sense of bondness for what is a gigantic workplace, a gigantic business machine.
43:22It's all made possible thanks to an incredible crew, but also an astonishing feat of engineering.
43:30Big engineering.
43:31In a way now, Discovery Channel.