Germany's biggest port, located in Hamburg, shipped 137.8 million tons of cargo in 2015. And it handled 8.8 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) standard containers. This makes Hamburg the third-largest container port in Europe and the 19th biggest worldwide.

Antwerp is home to Belgium's largest port, with TEU container volumes amounting to about 9.6 million. Measured in terms of cargo volume, it is Europe's second biggest and stands 15th in global rankings. Antwerp is the world's largest transshipment center for package freight. Furthermore, the port of Antwerp houses the second-largest chemical industrial complex in the world after that in Houston.

The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe and ranked 12th in the world. The entire port area has a length of 42 kilometers. The number of containers handled at the port rose 1.2 percent in 2016 to 12.4 million TEU. An increasing amount of freight was shipped to East Asia and North America.

The port of Los Angeles is located on San Pedro Bay, about 30 kilometers south of the city center. Located adjacent to it is the port of Long Beach - blurring the geographic boundaries between the two. Together, the two ports occupied 10th spot worldwide in 2015, handling some 15.3 million standard containers.

The Jebel Ali Port in Dubai is the biggest and busiest international port in the Middle East. It was built in the late 1970s and in 2015 it shipped nearly 15.6 million standard containers, placing the port in the ninth place worldwide.

The port of Guangzhou, ranked 7th in the world, is one of the six Chinese ports that are among the top ten ports worldwide in terms of container volume. Over 17.5 million standard containers were handled by the Guangzhou port in 2015.

Busan is, after the capital Seoul, the second largest metropolis in South Korea, and it is the East Asian country's most important hub for international trade. In 2015, 19.4 million standard containers were loaded and unloaded in this port surrounded by a scenic mountain chain. Busan houses the sixth biggest port in the world.

Hong Kong's harbor has benefited from the territory's strategic location facing the South China Sea. With a capacity to handle over 20 million standard containers, Hong Kong's port ranks the fifth largest in the world.

Singapore's port handles nearly 31 million standard containers annually and therefore secures the second spot in global rankings. The city-state always strives to maintain top notch facilities at its port, jealously guarding its reputation as the most important transshipment point between Europe and Southeast Asia.

Shanghai's port, by a wide margin, has occupied the top slot worldwide since 2010. The port handled around 36.5 million standard containers in 2015, over three times as many as in Hamburg.

The largest container ship in the world entered the German port of Wilhelmshaven on Sunday July 2. The MV "OOCL Hong Kong" is 400 meters long and has 21,413 pitches for standard containers. It was built in the Samsung ship yard in South Korea. Before the stop in Germany, the ship, on its maiden voyage, has already stopped in Felixstowe, England and the Polish city of Gdansk.

The world's second largest container ship has made its way up the Elbe River to become the biggest-ever vessel to call at Hamburg harbor. With a length of 400 meters (1,320 ft) it would normally carry 20,170 containers - but that number had to be reduced because the river is not deep enough. Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K wants to employ it regularly on routes between Europe and East Asia.

MOL Triumph, alongside the world's largest container ship, Madrid Maersk, will soon be replaced by OOCL Hong Kong in terms of capacity because the new cargo giant can load 21.100 standard containers. A quarter century ago, the biggest cargo ships could load only slightly more than 4,000 containers, and were easily outstripped by supertankers which remain the biggest vessels ever built.

With a length of 458 meters, Norwegian oil tanker Jahre Viking was the largest ship ever built. She needed more than six kilometers (3.72 miles) to stop, and was unable to navigate the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the English Channel. Between 2004 and 2009, she was used as a floating storage for oil before being sold to Indian ship breakers and breached for scrapping in Gujarat.

The biggest cruise ship is the Harmony of the Seas, at a length of 362 meters. More than 6,300 passengers can enjoy their time on 16 decks, while being served by a crew of 2.100. Royal Caribbean Cruises paid more than one billion euros (($1.08 billion) for her, equipping it with 20 dining rooms, 23 swimming pools - including the longest water slide - and an open air garden with 12,000 plants.

Rivalry among ship owners seems fiercest in the super-yacht category, where Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs and US billionaires dig deep - not shy to splash out on costly extensions even during construction to outbid others in the race for luxury. Momentarily, the "toy" of a Saudi sheikh holds the title. His 180-meter yacht named Azzam is equipped with helideck, missile defense and submarine.

The world's biggest yacht under sails is called "Sailing Yacht A" and the creation of designer Philippe Starck. She is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnitchenko. The total sail area of 3,747 square metres is equal to the size of half a football pitch, She has eight decks with three swimming pools and an underwater observation pod in the keel.

The Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship of a new class of United States Navy supercarriers and was commissioned in April 2017.The US military has spent about $13 billion for the aircarft carrier which belongs to a fleet of currently 18 classical carriers. She is able to launch Navy jet fighters faster and more efficiently due to an electromagnetic catapult instead of a steam-driven one.

Three-meters-thick Arctic ice fields? No problem for Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. According to Russian media, it's the most powerful vessel of its kind and scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 2017. Then it will be deployed to the Arctic oil and gas fields to blaze the trail for Russian tankers. Russia wants to build several more of these ships in the years to come.

Thialf is the world's most powerful deepwater construction vessel. She is capable of a tandem lift of 14,200 tons and used for installing offshore constructions. For lifting operations it will normally be ballasted down to 26.6 m (87 ft). This way the pontoons, with a draught of 13.6 metres, are well submerged to reduce the effect of waves. It is strong but slow with a speed of only 11 km/h.

Floating oil rigs (see picture) or even whole ships can be moved by the Dockwise Vanguard. The heavy lift ship sinks into the water, towboats drag the load over the charging platform and then the ship lifts herself up again. The world biggest transportation ship is 275 meters long.

Canadian film director James Cameron dived with the Deepsea Challenger to the deepest point of the world's oceans known as Challenger Deep and located at 10.984 meters on the bed of the Pacific. The submarine was constructed in secrecy in Australia from 2005 to 2012. Passengers shouldn't panic in closed rooms because they sit in a high-strengh steel-ball only 106 centimeters in diameter.

Size is not everything! The ships of the future might be electrically-driven and without any crew. Norway will start the first experiment with a self-driving e-container ship next year. The Yara Birkland will ship fertilizer along the coast of Norway - first with a captain on the helm, and from 2019 remote-controlled. In 2020, the ship will travel autonomously, likely to become a "game changer."