Cruise ships are one of the most luxurious ways to travel, and for many people, a dream vacation. But how do they get such massive ships in the water? It’s a surprisingly complex process.
One of the first steps in getting a cruise ship in the water is building it. Modern cruise ships are massive, with some of them weighing as much as 224,000 tons.
To accommodate these large ships, dry docks must be built. These are large warehouses with exposed sides that are built near bodies of water. In order to build a ship, the dry dock must be filled with enough water to submerge it.
Once the ship is built and ready to go, it will be moved into position next to the dry dock. This is done by using powerful tugboats that can move ships as large as cruise ships through the water.
The tugboats will then attach themselves to the ship and push or pull it until it is in position. Once in position, the next step is to fill up the dry dock.
This process involves using pumps and valves to fill up the dry dock with enough water so that it can submerge the ship. It typically takes several hours for this process to complete. Once this is done, engineers will then slowly lower gates at either end of the dry dock so that seawater can slowly enter and submerge the ship.
Once submerged, engineers will ensure that all systems on board are working properly and make any necessary adjustments before allowing passengers on board. Finally, tugboats will be used once more to pull or push the ship out of its dry dock and out into open waters where it can begin its voyage.
Conclusion:
Getting a cruise ship into open waters is an incredibly complicated process involving several steps including building a dry dock, moving it into position with tugboats, filling up the dry dock with enough water so that it can submerge the ship and finally ensuring all systems on board are working properly before allowing passengers onboard.