Original subtitles

A new breed of super machine is evolving.

Bigger.

Faster.

Smarter.

Built to tackle near impossible feats. Among them, one of the world's biggest

super ships.

We broke a line. The wreck is blowing off the ship.

It's one of a growing fleet, transporting billions of dollars of

cargo around the planet.

Things are going wrong.

Someone could die.

This one is hauling a 40 -story, 13 ,000 -ton oil rig halfway across the

world. From Singapore to Mexico.

Every island counts.

We'll blow this $50 million beast apart to discover technological secrets

that overcome the impossible.

As it crosses some of the world's roughest oceans.

It needs the strength to withstand the force of a 50 -foot wave, the power of

120 family cars, and a series of interconnected control systems that

mighty vessel to transport a 500 -foot tall cargo 16 ,000 miles in just 42

days. We'll reveal how this extraordinary super ship evolved to rise

all other machines.

The Gulf of Mexico, the U .S.'s richest source of oil.

Oil rigs like these pump 3 million barrels of black gold a day for more

,000 feet below the surface.

But these metal giants are a long way from their birthplace.

Many were built on the other side of the world, in shipyards like this one in

Keppel, Singapore.

Over 10 ,000 workers churn out more than 20 offshore oil rigs here every year.

It's the rig construction capital of the world.

This jack -up rig, called Lowrith, is the latest to roll off the production

line.

It was built for Mexican oil company Oro Negro.

The company may be a startup, but Manuel has grand plans.

Wow, look at the size of the rig.

We paid $220 million for this rig.

This rig is very important in our plans.

I really want to see what I pay for it.

With construction complete, Manuel needs the rig transported more than 16 ,000

miles.

Across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

To reach oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, where it can start drilling.

We're late.

Cost us a lot of money.

Every day, every hour counts.

Delivering this 13 ,000 -ton steel Goliath calls for a new breed of

The Treasure Super Ship.

An extraordinary vessel that can haul huge loads on top of its enormous deck.

700 feet long and 11 stories tall, this is no

ordinary ship.

Constructed from more than a million parts, she's one of the most complex

ever built.

Her engine has the power of 80 Hummers and can run for three months without

stopping.

Dozens of steel ribs make her as rigid as an aircraft carrier.

43 steel tanks in her belly can swallow 24 million gallons of water.

All of these features work together to make the treasure a champion of super

heavy lifting.

First challenge, load the $220 million rig.

onto the deck of this megaship for its journey.

It'll be no simple task, even for seasoned loadmaster Andre Korver.

It's always a good thing to have a good look at the rig before you're going to

load it, just to prevent last -minute surprises.

See the punch marks here? That is the center line.

There's of course a huge risk of damage, but as well injury to people if things

go wrong.

Weighing 13 ,000 tons and soaring 40 stories tall, lifting this rig

onto the ship is impossible.

I've got to lift this rig with a crane because it's far too big, far too heavy

to lift it.

with any crane.

This super ship has a unique feature that helps Andre haul huge loads on

Hidden under the thick steel tin of the deck are

thousands of steel plates welded together to form special

compartments called ballast tanks.

The biggest tanks are 12 times the size of a Mack truck.

Tough to bust, they can hold 9 ,000 tons of water.

And incredibly, allow the ship to submerge just like a submarine.

The tank's design evolved from a wooden contraption.

Built in 1775, called the USS Turtle.

Deployed during the American War of Independence, she was the world's first

attack submarine.

Flooding a ballast tank at the bottom pushed the turtle and her captain

underwater.

The idea was to sneak up to a British ship and attach an explosive.

He'd pump out the water and resurface a safe distance away.

The turtle was a work of genius.

And supersized versions of its ballast tanks are what allows the treasure super

ship to load up.

Her tanks are 350 ,000 times bigger.

43 tanks fill with 24 million gallons of water, causing the deck of the

ship to submerge below the waterline.

Allowing big loads, like the rig, to simply sail on board.

Chief Officer Alexander is in charge of filling the ship's ballast tanks with

water.

Three o 'clock, start ballasting, and I'll be coming in tomorrow morning on

rig. Okay.

It's a slow and dangerous process.

Overfill the tanks, and the ship could sink.

to its doom.

5 p .m.

The crew works fast to gear up for loading.

The ship is due to set sail in less than 24 hours.

Early morning, we need some cup of coffee.

I am in charge of this immersion operation.

Sinking the vessel under the water.

3 a .m. Alexander starts filling the tanks.

The ship starts sucking in seawater.

Through five holes at the bottom of the hull.

More than a thousand bathtubs worth of water a minute rush into the vessel.

Funneled through pipes three feet wide.

The biggest ballast tanks can take on 1 .8 million gallons of water.

pushing the vessel three stories deeper into the sea.

A single leak in the ballast system and the entire ship could flood.

Alexander appoints night watchman Evo to keep check on the submerging deck.

This is a very dangerous time in the operations because the ship is

and there are a lot of things that may go wrong.

The lives of the crew are in his hands.

It's 4 o 'clock in the morning. The rest of the crew, friends, are sleeping now.

I need to make it definitely safe.

Over the next four hours, the treasure must be 21 feet below water.

A single mistake now.

And this ship could sink to its fate.

As dawn approaches in Singapore, the treasure super ship continues

to submerge, ready to load the $220 million oil rig.

With her deck now 21 feet underwater, the ship's position is precarious.

The crew has their work cut out, hauling the rig on board fast so she can

resurface.

Okie dokie.

The orange guideposts show Andre where he needs to position the rig for

it to balance perfectly on the treasure's deck.

It's a bit of an adrenaline moment. I need to move the rig over the ship to

if I go clear of the guidepost over there.

All clear?

Okay.

Andre must pull each winch line at just the right speed or the rig could crash

into the ship.

This type of rope, if they come under tension and they break... They snap like

rubber band, and if you're just standing in the part of that, well, fatality.

You might get some extra tension on your right. Just let me know if it's really

getting too tight.

The tension rises as the rig nears the drop zone.

Okay, we're nearly in position now.

One of the winch lines snaps, sending the rig dripping dangerously out of

control.

We broke a line. The rig is blowing off the ship.

Starboard aft truck needs to put his nose against the rig and start pushing.

Working together, the crew struggles to port the oil rig into position.

Okay, easy, easy on the tow, please.

Okay.

Great job.

Thanks, everyone.

With the rig in place, the crew's next task is to raise the ship back above the

waterline.

We start de -ballasting on the ship, pumping the water out until the whole

is out of the water.

It's critical that the crew keeps the ship on an even keel as it lifts, or the

13 ,000 -ton rig could slide overboard.

Okay, just stand by, please. Stand by for deballasting.

This super ship has clever technology hidden inside that helps keep it level

it rises.

Five stories under the deck, she has four gigantic pumps that work in unison

pump water out of the ballast tanks.

At their heart, vast rotor blades.

180 pounds of high -strength steel.

Spin round at 1 ,200 times a minute.

Speeding up the water and spitting it back out into the ocean.

240 gallons per second.

Pushing the treasure up to the surface at 1 .2 inches a minute with the rig

sitting steady on its back.

Looks good. So we can start securing the rig to the deck.

Next challenge.

The ship.

faces a tough 16 ,000 -mile trek through some of the world's roughest oceans.

The ship's captain, Viktor Shevlyakov, prepares for the epic round -the -world

journey. I think everybody likes to be a captain.

It will be a baptism of fire.

This trip is my first trip as captain.

I am excited.

To keep on schedule, the crew must sail without stopping for

42 days.

Engine room captain speaking.

Please prepare the engines.

Engines have to work all the trip, 42 days, and never stop.

Behind these panels...

Sits the beating heart of this ship.

Buried deep in the stern, a two -stroke diesel engine the size of a house.

Built from 640 tons of steel.

It generates the power of 80 Hummers.

It can run for 30 ,000 miles on one tank of fuel without ever shutting down.

At the core of its design is an ancient invention.

From Southeast Asia, a prehistoric fire lighting device called a fire piston.

A wooden piston loaded with tinder in its tip.

Rammed down a tight -fitting cylinder.

Compressing the air in the cylinder heats it up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

And ignites the tinder to light a fire.

Without the need for a spark, the Treasure's engine supersizes the fire

In each of the six cylinders, the two -ton pistons compress a mixture of fuel

and air until it gets so hot that it explodes.

To make the engine even more efficient, the hot exhaust gases flow to the floor

above, where they spin a turbocharger.

which pushes even more air into the engine.

This allows the treasure to thrust through the oceans without the need for

stops.

Control of the pit, engine ready.

Captain speaking.

Can we hand over a control from the engine room?

After six hours preparation, Victor fires up the engine.

A chain of systems feeds its power to drive the ship's propeller.

The compressed air in the cylinder heats up to 2 ,700 degrees.

While the turbocharger spins at over 20 ,000 RPM.

The pistons produce 19 ,000 horsepower.

transferring it directly to the crankshaft.

This 140 -ton steel monster runs for 50 feet through the ship.

It rotates the vessel's 26 -foot propeller.

Victor summons the full force of the treasure's engine.

His first challenge is to power her out through the harbor's narrow exit.

Over 200 of the world's biggest ships battle for space in this crowded

channel. Our Singapore channel is one of the busiest places in the world, and we

have to pay extremely sharp attention to avoid any possibility of collision with

another one.

With tens of thousands of tons of metal on the moon, a collision would be

catastrophic.

And this is just the beginning of their 16 ,000 -mile journey across some of the

world's most hazardous oceans.

The Treasure Supership is heading out of Singapore Harbor with a 500 -foot -tall

oil rig perching on its deck.

This $220 million rig must reach the Gulf of Mexico in 42 days' time.

That's when it's scheduled to be hooked up, ready to pump over a million dollars

a day of black gold to feed the energy needs of Mexico and the U .S.

First obstacle, guide the 700 -foot -long ship through the Singapore

Straits.

This crowded waterway will test the nerves of first -time captain Victor

Shevlyakov. As you can see around at least 20 vessels in the vicinity.

I don't want to hear anything.

The Singapore Straits is a narrow passage of islands and channels just 1

miles wide.

70 ,000 ships a year.

Carrying a quarter of the world's cargo, Jostle positioned to squeeze through

the strait.

Even the treasure's advanced radar can't guarantee safe passage through this

bottleneck.

Every two minutes, one of the world's biggest ships, bearing thousands of tons

of cargo, squeezes through this narrow channel.

Staff in the harbor's control room have their work cut out, averting collisions.

It's down to operator Amin to guide the treasure through the traffic.

Victor knows he must avoid the tanker up ahead.

But the 500 -foot oil rig completely blocks his view.

We have a big cargo, and we cannot see all targets straight ahead of us.

We have one more lookout on the forward bridge.

We call it C Bridge.

We have continuous 24 -hour watch.

C Bridge, can you see the target at five cables?

Yes, I see the target.

Course 360.

Keep an eye on this target.

Skirting past the tanker, the ship makes it out into open ocean.

Traffic from the west is clear.

You can now switch over to channel 73 and have a safe watch and have a nice

The weather is calm now, but ahead lies a perilous 16 ,000 -mile journey.

We are going into an ocean, and after that, Atlantic Ocean to Mexico.

Victor's route passes through some of the world's roughest seas.

The 13 ,000 -ton rig may be welded to the ship's deck, but in a big storm,

Nothing is certain.

The vessel sometimes loses the cargo during the storm weather.

Yeah, sometimes this happens.

If the rigged ship, it could throw the vessel off balance.

Victor's relying on pioneering technology hidden inside this super ship

him to the slightest movement.

Concealed beneath its steel skin.

are the treasure's balance organs that can feel her every move.

They are tiny motion sensors.

At their heart, microscopic metal cones with interlocking teeth.

When the ship makes a sudden movement, the teeth push together and release a

signal.

The design of this extraordinary invention.

is based on the world's first earthquake detector, made in 132 A .D. in ancient

China.

A six -foot bronze pendulum, suspended inside a bronze urn, adorned

with eight dragon heads and surrounded by eight bronze toes.

Even imperceptible earthquake waves would move the pendulum.

releasing bronze balls from the dragon's jaw,

sounding an alarm and pointing to the location of

the quake.

The treasure swapped the Chinese pendulum for microscopic sensors

that detect even tiny movements of ship and cargo.

They beam the data through 550 feet of high -speed cable.

And feed it into Octopus, the ship's computer.

Making Treasure almost self -aware of its surroundings and stability.

Octopus helped me to predict the behavior of the vessel.

So it's very helpful assistance for me to do my job.

Up ahead lies the Treasure's toughest test yet.

One of the world's biggest ship graveyards.

The Treasure super ship is a third of the way into her 16 ,000 mile voyage.

transporting this 40 -story tall oil rig to the Gulf of Mexico.

She's made it across the Indian Ocean, but ahead lies the toughest part of the

journey for crew and ship.

Now in South Hemisphere, it's winter, and next to South Africa, we expect

probably bad weather.

The Cape of Good Hope, off the coast of South Africa, is one of the deadliest

stretches of water in the world.

More than 500 ships have met their fate here, wrecking on the rocks that lie off

the shore.

Captain Victor is set to pass right over this graveyard.

And the storm is closing in.

9 ,000 miles away in Mexico, oil man Manuel is tracking their progress.

He's worried about their precious cargo.

It's very

dangerous.

In the worst case, we even...

Lose the gun.

With a storm approaching, Captain Victor prepares his crew for any eventuality.

Lifeboat drills are imperative.

Now I'm captain. I feel responsibility.

I have to know and understand everything.

It doesn't matter if it's engine or deck department.

All under my responsibility.

Both Manuel and Victor were right to be concerned.

On cue, a weather warning.

The urgent message received about the weather.

The weather was waves around six meters high.

As the treasure plows towards the 20 -foot waves, the rig on her back sits

10 feet above the waterline.

Waves like this would rock most ships, but this is no ordinary ship.

To stop the treasure buckling under the weight of her cargo, her builders have

given her extra strength.

They fitted her belly with a clever invention that dates back to ancient

When a pharaoh needed to ship two 350 -ton obelisks along the Nile, boat

builders realized that the simple reed rafts of the time would sink with the

weight of stone.

So they designed a ship with a strong wooden skeleton inside.

The skeleton made the vessel light, but exceptionally strong and buoyant.

It was the world's first... Heavy haul ship.

The treasure takes the idea of the ship's skeleton to the extreme.

Into her belly, the engineers squeeze 57 steel ribs.

Each rib weighs as much as a truck.

Together with her ballast tank and a reinforced deck, they give the

vessel colossal strength to stand up to the force of the ocean.

The South African Cape is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

Deadly currents, fierce storms, and huge waves make it one of the most

treacherous stretches of water in the world.

Fifteen -foot waves pummel the ship's deck for ten long hours.

The sheer force of water flexes the hull.

The rig takes a pounding.

The clouds finally break.

It was delayed 24 hours because of this storm.

The weather has put them behind schedule.

And up ahead lies their toughest challenge yet.

Offload the 13 ,000 -ton oil rig at night.

One slip could spell disaster.

After a 16 ,000 -mile journey through hell and high water, the Treasure

Supership finally reaches the Gulf of Mexico.

Now the crew faces the most challenging part of their mission,

offload the 13 ,000 -ton oil rig.

This crucial operation rests on the shoulders of Zygmunt Korzyniewski.

We're preparing the crane now.

You will pick up a line with the crane? Yeah. Because I can't tell you I like a

dress, but I like my job. And if you are not nervous in a critical situation,

there's something wrong with you.

The crew must now submerge the ship all over again.

This time, it's more difficult.

They have an oil rig the size of a high -rise balancing precariously on the

ship's deck.

Once the rig is afloat, there is no point of return.

There is no way back.

If things will go wrong, someone could die.

Below deck, the crew prepares to flood the ballast tanks.

We are now in the middle of the ship, and we have to check a lot of things.

Check if there is no oil leakage or water leakage.

So, we have no problem.

It's critical they flood the tanks in the right order.

If one end of the ship sinks faster than the other, it will list, toppling the

rig and capsizing the vessel.

It's happened to other ships before, and fear of such a disaster makes every

offload tense for the team.

If it's too much water coming in the tank, maybe something happened with the

stability of the ship.

The key to keeping this ship stable as it submerges lies deep in her stern.

Inside the ship's control room, a panel sends a signal

down to the engine.

Here, hydraulic pumps kick in and push a wave of pressure through the ship's

hydraulic arteries.

This activates the crucial invention that controls the water flowing into the

ship.

A butterfly valve.

A mission -critical part with origins in ancient Rome.

The Romans built huge aqueducts to feed their city with water.

The aqueducts channeled millions of gallons of water into the houses,

and baths of Rome every day.

But this massive flood of water had to be controlled.

So Roman engineers designed a simple device that could stop and start the

at the turn of a tap.

The butterfly valve.

The treasure.

uses this idea to carefully control its ballasting.

She has 120 butterfly valves dotted around the ship.

They fill the tanks in a precise order, from the stern to the bow,

to make sure the ship can go down without going under.

We start fill up ballast in tank.

It's very dangerous.

There's another innovation built into this ship that keeps it level as it

43 digital devices called ballast sensors.

They tell the ship's crew exactly how much water it's taking on.

Each tank has one.

A tiny pump forces air through a tube down into the tank.

By measuring how hard it needs to push, the sensor can calculate the weight of

water in the tank.

With 43 sensors working in perfect harmony, the filling of the tanks is

precisely controlled.

It takes four hours to submerge the ship.

We are ready to discharge Larus. Crew is standing by.

Shortly we will start connection of tugboat.

My car can start pumping as soon as she will start mooring.

As the tugs are hooked up, ready to tow the rig, the crew face their worst

nightmare.

Before wind was 9 knots, now it's picking up, up to 13 knots.

More power please, we are going to turn.

After a 16 ,000 -mile trip, the crew of the Treasure super ship is embarking on

the final stage of delivering the $220 million oil rig, Laurus, to the Gulf of

Mexico.

Loadmaster Zygmunt Korsanepskis must coordinate three tugboats and 40 crews

lug the rig off the ship.

Tugboats connected. We are ready, Phil.

I'm feeling that deck beneath my feet start moving.

The tugs are fighting strong winds, threatening to push the rig off course.

More power, please. We are going to... Strong wind. And we have a free leg,

which is 150 meters tall.

It means a huge sailing area, so... And we have a risk that both cargo and

vessel will be damaged.

A collision between the rig and the ship would be disastrous for Zygmunt and his

crew. John, more power, please.

Gentlemen, please stay away from the line.

The chugs pile on the throttle.

John, more power.

For the crew of this super ship, it's the moment of truth.

The rig looks free.

John, John, Zygmunt, she's yours.

We are clear.

I felt a lot of stress for a couple of minutes, but at the end, she went out

very fast.

From here, Tuggs will tow Lauras to a spot seven miles off the Mexican Gulf

Coast and install it ready for drilling.

Victor, well done. It was a pleasure.

You, also well done.

The crew pumps the ship's ballast tanks dry, and she rises from the wave.

Sigmund has one last task.

Call the boss.

Good afternoon, Manuel.

It's Sigmund.

Hello, Sigmund. How are you, my friend?

You already got safely discharged and delivered without any scratches.

Really happy that Lauros is here before schedule.

And we're ready now to start operations.

Hidden beneath the waters of the Mexican Gulf are an estimated 100 billion

barrels of oil.

In just a month's time, the Lauros oil rig will be deployed.

joining 4 ,000 other rigs and platforms, pumping over 3 million barrels of black

gold every day.

Working together, these gigantic installations account for 23 % of U .S.

production and generate a quarter of Mexico's national revenue.

It's the end of a long job for the super ship's crew.

Finally, finally we're going home, girlfriend.

He's waiting already four months for me.

For Victor, first mission accomplished.

It was a good trip, a good voyage.

I think I did my best for the company and for me.

When I came to Port, I told my father.

He was really happy. He was the happiest man in the world, I think, at this

moment.

crossing 15 ,000 miles of ocean, cutting through 20 -foot waves

to deliver a 13 ,000 -ton metal monster on time.

The treasure is an extraordinary feat of engineering.

It's all thanks to...

A 640 -ton engine that runs nonstop for 30 ,000 miles.

Microscopic motion sensors that monitor her every move.

Butterfly valves that control the flow of 24 million gallons of water.

Balance tank the size of an eight -story building.

And 57 bulkheads for colossal.

It's these technological secrets that have helped this super ship evolve to

above all other machines.