Huge ship propellers hide unprecedented power. You may think that the main engine of all life is love; the ship has nothing to do with this :)
bottom left: 85 tonne propeller manufactured by Stone Marine Propulsion Ltd; top and right: screws from MMG
Interesting fact: when Edward Lyon Berthon invented the propeller in 1834, it was rejected and perceived by the Admiralty as “a cute toy that could never, and never could, propel a ship.”
The largest ship propellers in the world
One of the largest ship propellers in the world was manufactured by Hyundai Heavy Industries for a vessel with a carrying capacity of 7,200 twenty-foot containers, owned by Hapag Lloyd. The height of a three-story building, 9.1 meters in diameter, the six-blade propeller weighs 101.5 tons. The following photo shows a 72 ton propeller installed on the Loannis Coloctronis tanker:
The largest ship propeller to date, weighing 131 tons, manufactured in the city of Waren on the Müritz River, is installed on the Emma Maersk - the largest container ship in the world, with a carrying capacity of up to 14,770 twenty-foot containers, a length of 397 m, a width of more than 56 m and a height of 68 m. with a powerful engine, the propeller allows the ocean giant to reach a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h).
These are the massive propellers and rudders of the Antarctic icebreaker Palmer, a research vessel operating in some of the harshest conditions on Earth:
Propellers installed on Eurodam - cruise ship:
These huge propellers belonged to the Titanic, one of the most famous ships in history. The liner had three propellers, each driven by a separate engine. The two outer propellers weighed 38 tons, and the central one weighed 17 tons:
The Titanic was one of the finest ships of its time, but Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is five times the size of the famous liner and is currently the largest passenger ship ever built. Naturally, a luxury ship must have propellers large enough to take it from the coast of Finland to its new home, Oasis of the Seas, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
Elation from Carnival Cruise Lines" was also built in Finland, and is currently based in San Diego, California. Next to the ship's propellers, the people responsible for their design and installation seem pathetic midgets:
And this propeller is assembled in dry dock in San Francisco:
The next propeller belongs to another cruise ship, the Norwegian Epic:
Another example of the gigantic propeller needed to propel huge cruise ships like the Celebrity Solstice:
Here are the propellers of the Queen Elizabeth 2, known as QE2. Owned by Cunard Line (a British company that operates transatlantic and ocean liner cruise routes), the ship was launched in 1969 and removed from service in 2008:
Queen Mary 2 replaced QE2 as Cunard's flagship in 2004. Here are some of the spare QM2 propellers located on the boat's foredeck:
This is the propeller of another famous ship in history. The German battleship Bismark was launched in February 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, and sunk by the British in May 1941 (image at left). The photo on the right shows a factory landscape and a propeller from an oil tanker during its construction in 1947:
Not as big, but no less interesting
The propeller of Japanese mini-submarines that attacked American aircraft carriers during the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941:
USS Fiske starboard propeller, 1946:
Technology is certainly improving, but large ships still require large propellers. This one is from the SS Great Britain, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the largest ship in the world (at the time of its launch in 1843). The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1845 in just 14 days, which was an absolute record at the time.
Shipyard workers examine one of the four brass propellers of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. Each of the propellers weighs about 66,000 pounds and is 22 feet in diameter:
Designed for a ship being built in South Korea, this giant propeller measures more than 30 feet in diameter and weighs 107 tons (left). On the right is the propeller of the ship Crystal Symphony in dry dock in Lisnava, Portugal:
One of the giant propellers of Soviet-era container ships:
Heavy Duty Screw Ready for Hard Work!
