Ships

While luxury travel firm Orient Express is best known for its train excursions, it's now branching out into cruises … in a big way. The company has just unveiled what will reportedly be the world's largest sailing ship, the Orient Express Silenseas.

Tasmanian builder of high-speed catamaran ferries Incat has announced that it's aiming to deliver the world's largest battery electric passenger ferry to Argentina-based operator Buquebus by 2025.

Many readers will already be familiar with so-called narco subs, used to smuggle narcotics from South America into Florida. Well, according to a new study, the design of such watercraft could actually have some practical applications.

The first of the Royal Navy's Type 26 City Class frigates, HMS Glasgow, has begun a very slow launch, which will see it shifted onto a special barge before being slowly lowered into the water in an operation that will take days.

As the shipping industry moves to decarbonize, huge sails could be making a comeback. The China Merchant Energy Shipping company (CMES) has taken delivery of a new supertanker, whose four large sails will cut down average fuel consumption by nearly 10%.

The construction of America's next-generation strategic nuclear missile submarine has formally begun as the keel was ceremonially laid for the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN 826) at Electric Boat's facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has demonstrated the ability of air-dropped bombs to sink ships with the effectiveness of a submarine-launched torpedo at a fraction of the cost by sinking a full-scale vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.

Norway-based marine group Ulstein has introduced Thor, its concept design for a 149-m (489-ft) replenishment, research and rescue (3R) ship powered by a thorium Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) that can be used to recharge battery-driven cruise ships at sea.

The wreck of one of the most famous exploration ships in history has been located. Using a robotic submersible, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust has found Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, which was crushed in the Antarctic pack ice in 1915.

Shipping giant Maersk is teaming up with Danish energy company Ørsted to show off an offshore charging buoy that supplies power to ships moored overnight, with the first demonstration to take place at an offshore wind farm towards the end of the year.

In what is being described as a world-first, a 222-meter (728-ft) vehicle-carrying ferry has autonomously navigated a 240-km (149-mile) stretch of Japan's Iyonda Sea. The vessel even performed the docking procedures on its own.

A major shipbuilding program for the Royal Navy is now underway, with the first steel being cut for HMS Venturer, the lead ship of the Type 31 Inspiration class frigates, which will replace the navy's aging Type 23 frigates.