World's largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge (photo)

The Oasis of The Seas, the world's largest cruise ship clears a crucial obstacle, lowering its smokestacks, to squeeze under a bridge in the Baltic Sea, Denmark Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. The Oasis of the Seas, which rises about 20 stories high, passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on Saturday on its maiden voyage to Florida. Five times larger than the Titanic, the ship has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a small golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The world's largest cruise ship cleared a crucial obstacle Sunday, lowering its smokestacks to squeeze under a bridge in Denmark.



The Oasis of the Seas — which rises about 20 stories high — passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage to Florida.

 

Bridge operators said that even after lowering its telescopic smokestacks the giant ship had less than a 2-foot (half-meter) gap.

Hundreds of people gathered on beaches at both ends of the bridge, waiting for hours to watch the brightly lit behemoth sail by shortly after midnight (2300GMT; 7 p.m. EDT).

"It was fantastic to see it glide under the bridge. Boy, it was big," said Kurt Hal, 56.

via Largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge - Yahoo! News.

It's five times larger than the Titanic, has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. The world's largest cruise ship is finally finished and Friday it began gliding toward its home port in Florida.

The Oasis of the Seas will meet its first obstacle Saturday when exits the Baltic Sea and must squeeze under the Great Belt Bridge, which is just 1 foot taller than the ship — even after its telescopic smokestacks are lowered.

To be on the safe side, the ship — which rises about 20 stories high — will speed up so that it sinks deeper into the water when it passes below the span, said Lene Gebauer Thomsen, a spokeswoman for the operator of the Great Belt Bridge.

Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.  ...

"I would say this is the most environmentally friendly cruise ship to date," said Mikko Ilus, project engineer at the Turku yard. "It is much more efficient than other similar ships."

The Oasis of the Seas is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida. - ap

Yeah, I'm not sure how many Titanics would fit into your new ship is the best way to describe it...

 

[Computer voice: "Yellow Alert... Yellow Alert...."]

Greetings, this is the Captain ... we are about to try something with the ship... something new...  Bones calls it the argaiV maneuver. Scotty says it will work if I give him more time. We don't have more time. As a precautionary measure, please place your valuables in the waterproof  zip-lock bags provided ... and brace for possible impact.

And now, as it seems fitting, I will read a poem known as Invictus first published in 1875  by the British poet William Ernest Henley who had a diseased foot  amputated directly below the knee and wrote it from his hospital bed:

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Kirk out."

Footnote 1: Invictus is also a 2009 film directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

Footnote 2:  Looks nice and I'm glad to hear that it is "the most environmentally friendly cruise ship". The Oasis of the Sea was built in Turku, Finland.