The Paul R. Tregurtha is equipped to deal with the harsh weather conditions of North America's inland seas, but her first mission of the shipping season will push the vessel, and her crew, to their limits. Hop aboard the "Queen of the Lakes" as she attempts to deliver a much-needed 55,000-ton coal supply to a generating plant in Michigan. To get there, she must break through a barricade of ice and pass a shallow passage with just two feet of water beneath her keel. If the captain and crew aren't careful, they could find themselves stopped dead cold.

She's the biggest, meanest, most lethal weapon in the arsenal of a global power. The USS Nimitz, like the whole US Navy, has to be ready for any mission, anywhere in the world. That's why she undergoes a rigorous - and often dangerous - evaluation before every deployment.

Solitaire is the only ship in the world capable of laying huge 30 inch diameter pipes on the ocean floor. Her crew of 420 work 24/7 and can lay down 9km of pipeline a day. Led by a vessel management team, the crew is made up of mariners and welders from all over the world.

She is built to haul more cargo faster, using less fuel than any other Laker. On this voyage she transports grain across the world's largest inland waterway.

Africa Mercy is the world's largest NGO hospital ship. She travels port to port in the world's poorest regions providing medical care to people who may have never met a doctor or visited a hospital. 150m long and equipped with six state-of-the-art operating theatres, Africa Mercy can deliver medical care as good as any big city hospital in North America.

An unprecedented look at nuclear-powered submarine USS Kentucky.

The Roll-On/Roll-Off (Ro-Ro) ship North Star is one of the only links between Alaska and the continental U.S. So far this winter, her captain, Richard Cadigan, has delivered everything from food to building supplies to pickup trucks from Seattle to Anchorage on time - within a short 72-hour window.

She is the largest sailing yacht in the world, a sleek, five-masted luxury sailing yacht that's large enough to pamper and yet small enough to tuck into tiny harbors and hidden coves where no one else can go.

Step aboard the Emma Maersk for a glimpse at the adventures of the crew on a two-week, 13,000-kilometre crossing from Malaysia to Spain. At 20 storeys tall, this ship is capable of carrying millions of dollars worth of cargo.

With the ability to ferry 8,000 luxury cars, heavy trucks and tractors from one continent to another, the Faust is the biggest and the newest ocean faring vehicle carrier on the planet.

If there's a muscleman among ships, then its name is MV Fairplayer. A tour of the Jumbo Fairplayer, the biggest and strongest in a new class of heavy-lift mega ships.

Powership Yasin Bey is built to sail anywhere and deliver badly-needed electricity. The ship’s first-ever voyage starts with Yasin Bey limping back to the shipyard - tilting to the side so much that it feels as if the ship will keel over.

Tyco Resolute has one job: to keep the world wired. She installs and maintains the undersea cables that form the backbone of the Internet, and right now she needs to connect a nation in need of a 21st-century upgrade. Hop aboard as she lays fiber optic cables off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a mission that's anything but simple. Malfunctioning cables and equipment, pounding surf, and low tides have put Tyco Resolute way behind schedule. If she doesn't pick up the pace, the entire mission will be in jeopardy.

The largest and most revolutionary cruise ship on Earth makes her maiden voyage.

G.O. SARS is a new generation of marine research vessel. Her vibration-and noise-damped diesel generators and propellers driven by direct current motors, emits 99% less noise than any other conventional ship. They offer scientists unprecedented access to the life in the world's oceans.

Ibn Battuta is one of the strongest dredgers of her type. With a powerful spinning cutter head and a pair of heavy-duty cylinders called "spuds," She is capable of breaking up the hardest sub-sea soil. The spuds brace the ship in position while the cutter head's teeth grind away at the sea floor to deepen the Son Duong Port in Vietnam's poorest province.

The world’s most innovative cruise ship sails from New York to the Caribbean on her maiden voyage, facing off against technical glitches and challenging weather.

Just off the coast of South Africa, a futuristic remote crawler creeps along the ocean floor. Its high tech nozzle is sucking up seabed gravel that's full of diamonds, and hoovering them up to the mother ship on the surface - MV Peace in Africa - the world's biggest underwater mining vessel.

In a country whose economy is almost 100% based on fishing, Akamalik, the high-tech star of Royal Greenland's trawler fleet, plays a critical role.

HDMS Peter Willemoes is a Royal Danish warship built for 21st century combat, equipped with sophisticated detection systems and powerful weapons. But before her crew can take her out to sea, they've got to prove they have what it takes to fight off enemy threats. Enter restricted waters and witness the series of intense battle simulation exercises her sailors must pass in order to join the multinational NATO Response Force. The stakes are high, but fortunately, they have one of the world's most advanced frigates on their side

This episode follows Happy Star during her second - challenging - voyage from Nansha, China, to Sept Isles, Canada and provides an insight into the ship and its crew.

One of the world’s largest container ships races from port to port in China, Malaysia and Germany, transporting almost 20,000 crates of cargo.

With specialized cranes and underwater robots, Edda Freya repairs and replaces critical pipelines running to an oil and gas platform.

The U.S. Navy's newest ship, a guided missile destroyer, goes through testing with its crew in preparation for deployment.

Unlike most cruise ships, the Becrux is a mighty ship made for four-legged passengers. With a capacity of nearly 20,000 cattle or 60,000 sheep, the Becrux is the largest custom-built livestock carrier in the world.