400-Meter Supertanker, 100-Ton Propeller and a Ship Graveyard: The Full Life of an Ocean Giant

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:13]It's 1,250 ft long, 223 ft wide, and from keel to top deck, it stands 112 ft tall, like a 12-story building. This is a supertanker, the largest moving object ever built by human hands. It displaces 440,000 tons. [music] Its holds can carry 3 million barrels of oil, enough to fill up 2 million cars. It won't fit through the Panama Canal, can't pass through Suez fully loaded, and to dock one, ports have to build dedicated offshore terminals. One of these ships cost $130 million, takes 2 years to build, and today, you're going to see how a steel giant, capable of hauling an entire sea of oil across the ocean, comes to life.

[00:01:10]>> [music] >> Everything starts with a design.

[00:01:13]The engineering team works on blueprints for 18 months, around 50,000 separate parts, over 125 miles of welded seams.

[00:01:22]Hundreds of engineers calculate every ton of metal, every degree of hull curvature.

[00:01:28]A supertanker's hull isn't one solid structure. It's about 200 massive sections welded individually, then assembled into a single unit. Each section weighs between 300 and 600 tons.

[00:01:41]When the design's ready, it goes to steel mills. One tanker needs 45,000 tons of specialized marine-grade steel.

[00:01:48]That's six times more than the Eiffel Tower.

[00:01:52]Steel arrives as sheets between half an inch and an inch thick. Each sheet runs 40 ft long, 10 ft wide, weighing up to 10 tons. Just hauling the steel takes several thousand rail cars. The finished steel storage yard at the shipyard covers 20 football fields.

[00:02:08]Tinker steel is special. It's a shipbuilding alloy with reduced carbon content and manganese additives.

[00:02:14]>> [music] >> It withstands impact loads at low temperatures and won't crack during storms in northern seas, where water can hit 28° [music] Fahrenheit.

[00:02:31]>> [music] >> Next up, cutting.

[00:02:38]Steel sheets enter the gas and plasma cutting shop. Plasma torches slice through metal with precision down to 0.04 in. Arc temperature?

[00:02:48]36,000° Fahrenheit. That's three times hotter than the surface of the sun.

[00:02:53]A single sheet, 1 in thick, gets cut in 2 minutes. But there are tens of thousands of sheets. The shop runs 24/7, three shifts, no days off. [music] From these sheets come the future structural elements: frames, stringers, bulkheads, plating.

[00:03:10]Every part gets marked, numbered, and sent to the next stage.

[00:03:14]Then, bending.

[00:03:16]Massive rollers and presses give the steel sheets their required curves. Bow plating, rounded sides, stern contours.

[00:03:24]A 2,000-ton press bends steel like paper.

[00:03:27]Bend radius? Up to 12 in per 3 ft of length.

[00:03:31]>> [music] [music] >> Now comes the most critical phase, assembling the sections.

[00:03:49]Each section is built on a separate assembly pad inside the facility.

[00:03:53]Think of them as mini factories within this massive plant.

[00:03:57]Workers lay hull plates onto the jig matrix. Steel frames, the ship's ribs, get welded on.

[00:04:04]Spacing between frames, exactly 29.5 in.

[00:04:09]Not more, [music] not less.

[00:04:11]Off by half an inch and the hull could crack in a storm.

[00:04:15]Welding is automated and semi-automated.

[00:04:18]Up to 40 welders work on a single section simultaneously.

[00:04:22]Weld depth runs 0.3 to 0.4 in. Every seam Every seam gets checked. X-ray, ultrasound, and dye penetrant testing.

[00:04:32]One section takes 3 weeks to complete.

[00:04:35]During that time, they lay down 5 tons of weld metal. After assembly, an 800-ton gantry crane hoist the section and transfers it to the slipway.

[00:04:46]Before mounting on the slipway, each section undergoes geometric inspection.

[00:04:51]Laser systems measure it at thousands of points.

[00:04:54]If even one point deviates from the blueprint by more than an eighth of an inch, the section goes back for rework.

[00:05:01]Because if one section's crooked, the next 20 won't fit into place.

[00:05:06]>> [music] [music] >> The slipway is a massive dry dock, 1,476 ft long, 295 ft wide, 49 ft deep.

[00:05:28]This is where the entire hull comes together.

[00:05:31]Assembly starts with the keel, the central longitudinal beam running the full length of the ship. It's the tanker's backbone. Everything depends on how precisely it's positioned.

[00:05:42]The keel is aligned using laser levels with accuracy down to 0.08 in >> [music] >> over 1,312 ft.

[00:05:52]Then the first bottom section gets mounted onto the keel. Cranes fly it in overhead. Four riggers guide the 500-ton mass into position with inch-perfect precision.

[00:06:03]Sections are joined by welding. Each seam runs dozens of feet. Welders work inside compartments, outside on scaffolding, overhead on suspended platforms. Sometimes 200 people simultaneously on a single hole.

[00:06:17]If you're fascinated by how humanity builds machines that challenge the ocean itself, subscribe to the channel. There are many more processes ahead that'll blow your mind with their scale.

[00:06:29]>> [music] [music] >> While the hole is being assembled, the engine room is installed simultaneously.

[00:06:43]This is the heart of the supertanker.

[00:06:46]The main engine is a diesel standing 46-ft tall, 89-ft long, weighing 2,300 tons. It's the largest reciprocating engine in the world. Each cylinder is 38 in in diameter. The piston stroke over 8 ft. 14 cylinders total. The engine produces 108,000 horsepower, enough to power a city of 50,000 people.

[00:07:12]It runs on heavy fuel oil and burns through 250 tons of fuel per day at full throttle.

[00:07:19]It's installed through the upper deck while it's still open. A crane lowers the engine into the engine room in sections. Then specialists [music] assemble it on site. Assembly and calibration of a single engine take 4 months.

[00:07:34]>> [music] [music] >> While assembly continues, installation of the cargo tanks begins.

[00:07:48]Inside the tanker's hole, up to 15 separate compartments. Each one can store up to 25,000 tons of oil.

[00:07:57]The tank walls get coated with special epoxy paint in three layers. Total surface area painted, over 6.5 million square feet.

[00:08:06]If you laid out that surface, you get an area the size of 100 football fields.

[00:08:11]The paint protects the steel from corrosion, salt, oil, and seawater. A mix that can eat through unprotected metal in a year.

[00:08:19]And a tanker needs to last 25 to 30 years.

[00:08:24]Between the tanks run pipelines. The main lines measure up to 35 inches in diameter.

[00:08:30]Total length of pipe inside the tanker, more than 25 miles. Through them, oil gets pumped in and out at rates up to 17,000 tons per hour.

[00:08:40]The tanker's cargo pumps, a separate engineering system.

[00:08:43]Each pump is driven by a steam turbine producing 2,500 kilowatts.

[00:08:48]There are usually three of these pumps.

[00:08:50]In a single day, they can completely unload a 1,300 foot tanker.

[00:08:56]Just 15 years ago, that would have taken three [music] days.

[00:09:04]>> [music] >> The hull is almost complete. Now they're installing the superstructure. The living quarters and captain's bridge at the aft section.

[00:09:17]The superstructure stands 92 feet tall, eight decks. This is where 25 to 30 crew members will live and work during three month voyages across the oceans.

[00:09:27]They paint the hull last. Exterior paint area, 700,000 square feet. Three coats of primer, two coats of top coat.

[00:09:36]Painting alone takes 2 months.

[00:09:38]Robotic sprayers work around the clock.

[00:09:42]The tanker's bottom gets a special anti-fouling paint. Without it, algae and mollusks will coat the hull in 6 months, and fuel consumption jumps by a third. This paint runs up to $20,000 per ton.

[00:09:55]Once the hull is painted, launch day arrives. They flood the dry dock. Water fills it in 6 to 8 hours, gradually lifting the 200,000 ton beast.

[00:10:05]>> [music] >> The tanker slowly floats up. Tugboats carefully guide it out of the dock.

[00:10:12]>> [music] >> But, that's not the end. The next 4 months are spent at the dockside. They install navigation equipment, radar systems, satellite communications, anchor winches. Each winch is the size of a truck. A single anchor weighs 30 tons.

[00:10:36]Then comes sea trials. The tanker heads into open water. They push her to a max speed of 16 knots. They test the steering, the engine, fire suppression systems, emergency bilge pumping. Trials last 2 weeks.

[00:10:50]Only after every check does the ship transfer to her owner.

[00:10:54]The maiden voyage of a giant like this is always an event. From the Persian Gulf to Europe, around the Cape of Good Hope, 45 days at sea. In her holds, crude oil worth $300 million.

[00:11:07]Out in the ocean, she can handle waves 65 ft high. And on the horizon, the next voyage, the next ocean, the next decades of service.

[00:11:17]Humanity has learned to build ships the size of skyscrapers that carry across the planet what powers our entire civilization. And every one of these tankers is floating proof of what engineering can achieve.

[00:11:30]Subscribe to channel.

[00:11:32]>> [music] >> Picture a chunk of metal weighing 130 tons, the size of a three-story building, [music] spinning at 100 revolutions per minute.

[00:11:43]This is a supertanker's propeller, the most powerful driving force ever created by humans.

[00:11:50]Every second, this propeller pushes 200,000 tons of cargo forward. A single sweep of its blade generates the power of 50 cars.

[00:11:58]But, here's the most incredible part.

[00:12:00]This giant is cast as a single monolith.

[00:12:03]No welding, no bolts, one solid piece of bronze or steel.

[00:12:08]How did humanity learn to cast metal structures the size of a house?

[00:12:12]You'll discover why a propeller like this takes 2 weeks to cool, how it's machined for 3 weeks, and why the tiniest crack could send a ship to the bottom. Watch until the end. The finale reveals the scale of engineering madness that moves the oceans.

[00:12:26]This is the story of how titans of the seas are born.

[00:12:39]The history of the propeller began in the early 19th century. Before that, ships moved either under sail, by oars, or using paddle wheels. Paddle wheels were inefficient. Half the energy was wasted. In 1836, British farmer and inventor Francis Pettit Smith patented the screw propeller. The idea was simple. Rotating blades screw into the water like a corkscrew into a cork, pushing the ship forward. Early propellers were small, 4 to 5 ft in diameter, >> [music] >> made from wood or cast iron. But, as ships grew larger, so did the propellers. By the early 20th century, steel steamships over 300 ft long appeared. They required propellers 10 to 13 ft in diameter. And with the arrival of supertankers and container ships in the mid-20th century, propeller sizes reached incredible proportions. Modern ocean giants stretching 1,300 ft need propellers 26 to 33 ft in diameter.

[00:13:33]That's the height of a three-story building.

[00:13:51]The world's largest propeller was built for the Emma Maersk container ship, one of the biggest vessels on the planet.

[00:13:57]The propeller's diameter, 31 and 1/2 ft.

[00:14:00]Weight, 131 tons. That's two tanks combined or 17 elephants.

[00:14:07]The propeller has six blades, each the size of a car. Total blade surface area, about [music] 750 square feet, like a big apartment.

[00:14:15]The ship's engine produces 109,000 horsepower. All that power flows through a single propeller.

[00:14:22]At full speed, the blade tips slice through water at 125 mph.

[00:14:27]Water pressure on the blades, dozens of tons per square foot.

[00:14:31]Any crack, any casting [music] flaw, and centrifugal force rips the propeller apart. The ship's dead in the middle of the ocean.

[00:14:38]That's why manufacturing these propellers is the pinnacle of metallurgy and engineering. The slightest mistake is unacceptable.

[00:15:04]Where and how do they make these monsters? The largest propeller manufacturers are in Japan, South Korea, China, [music] Germany, and the Netherlands. The most famous include Japan's Nakashima, Germany's Mecklenburger Metallguss, and the Dutch Works Four. They have foundries the size of a football field and cranes that can lift 200 tons.

[00:15:24]The process starts with design.

[00:15:25]Engineers calculate blade shapes on supercomputers. Angle of attack, curvature, thickness, everything affects efficiency.

[00:15:33]The propeller needs to create maximum thrust with minimal cavitation, the formation of water bubbles that destroy metal. The tiniest miscalculation and the propeller becomes inefficient or wears out fast. After the calculations, they create a full-size wooden model of the propeller. Yes, wood, [music] 31 ft in diameter. Master craftsmen carve it for weeks using blueprints and templates. Precision down to a millimeter.

[00:15:56]This wooden model becomes the foundation for creating the casting mold.

[00:16:16]They coat the wooden pattern with a special compound and place it in a massive flask, a steel box the size of a room. Around the pattern, they pack in molding sand, sand mixed with binding agents. The mixture gets packed layer by layer. Each layer is compacted through vibration and pressure. The process takes several days. Once the flask is full, they split the mold into two halves and carefully remove the wooden pattern. What remains is a cavity shaped like the propeller, a negative. [music] They coat the interior surface of the mold with a refractory compound so the molten metal won't damage the sand.

[00:16:50]Then, they bolt both halves back together. The mold has to withstand the pressure of 130 tons of liquid metal.

[00:16:57]They install the gating system, channels that'll feed metal into the mold. It's calculated so the fill happens evenly without air pockets or cold joints.

[00:17:05]>> [music] >> The mold is ready. Now comes the really impressive part, melting the metal.

[00:17:28]>> In the foundry, there's a massive induction furnace, a steel crucible holding 40 cubic meters wrapped in electromagnetic coils. They load it with bronze or alloyed steel stock, bars, ingots, scrap, 140 tons of metal. That's with a buffer. Some will stay in the gates and risers. They flip the switch.

[00:17:48]Powerful electromagnets induce eddy currents in the metal. The metal starts heating from the inside. Temperature climbs to 1600° C. The metal melts, glows orange, >> [music] >> then white. The surface churns. The crew skims off slag, oxides and impurities floating to the top. They add alloying elements, manganese, nickel, aluminum for strength and corrosion resistance.

[00:18:12]They pull a sample of the melt, analyze the composition. When everything's ready, they start the pour. The furnace tilts with a special mechanism. Molten metal flows into a massive ladle suspended from an overhead crane. The ladle holds 140 tons. This is the most critical operation. The metal has to be uniform in composition and temperature.

[00:18:44]The crane moves the ladle toward the mold. The metal glows a blinding [music] white, so bright you can't look at it without dark glasses.

[00:18:53]The temperature around it climbs to 140°, even though the ladle's 30 ft away.

[00:18:59]Workers in silvery heat-resistant suits control the pour. They open the ladle gate.

[00:19:04]Molten metal flows into the gating system.

[00:19:07]First as a thin stream to preheat the channels.

[00:19:10]Then the flow gets stronger.

[00:19:12]The metal fills the mold from bottom to top, pushing air out through special ventilation channels.

[00:19:18]The pouring process takes about an hour.

[00:19:21]300,000 lbs of liquid metal transfer from ladle to mold.

[00:19:25]When the mold is full, they close the ladle gate.

[00:19:28]The metal surface in the mold forms a crust of oxides.

[00:19:31]They dust it with a special powder that creates a protective layer.

[00:19:35]Now the waiting begins.

[00:19:36]The metal has to cool and solidify.

[00:19:39]But at this size, that's not quick.

[00:19:41]260,000 lbs of bronze or steel cool slowly, very slowly.

[00:20:00]Two weeks, [music] 14 days, the mold sits untouched. Inside, crystallization slowly occurs. Molten metal transforms into solid.

[00:20:09]Temperature drops at a rate of a few degrees per hour.

[00:20:12]Cooling too fast leads to cracks from uneven shrinkage. Too slow, large metal grains form, [music] reducing strength.

[00:20:19]Engineers monitor the process with thermocouples, temperature sensors embedded in the mold.

[00:20:24]>> [music] >> After 2 weeks, they break open the mold.

[00:20:27]A crane lifts the flask, opens it up.

[00:20:29]The molding sand pours away, [music] revealing the casting.

[00:20:32]Before their eyes, a giant propeller covered in black scale weighs 150 tons, 20 tons more than the finished product.

[00:20:41]Excess metal has solidified in the gates, risers, and allowances.

[00:20:45]The propeller moves to a special stand.

[00:20:47]Machining begins, transforming the rough casting into a perfect ship's propeller.

[00:20:52]And that's another 3 weeks of work.

[00:21:06]First, they cut off the sprues and risers, solidified metal feed channels.

[00:21:11]They use gas torches and heavy-duty band saws. The cut-off chunks weigh several tons each. They'll go back to the melt shop, too.

[00:21:18]Then, rough machining begins on turning and milling machines. These are giant machines. A bed 20 m long, a milling head weighing 10 tons. The propeller is clamped on a rotating table. Cutters remove the stock, excess metal left for machining. Chips fly off in spirals as thick as a finger. Tons of metal are removed per shift. They mill the hub, the central part of the propeller that fits onto the shaft. A hole about 3 to 5 [music] ft in diameter has to be perfectly round and concentric.

[00:21:46]Precision, tenths of a millimeter.

[00:21:48]>> [music] >> Then, they machine the blades. Each blade is milled to a complex profile, leading edge, trailing edge, face, back.

[00:21:55]The profile changes from root to tip.

[00:21:57]It's a three-dimensional doubly curved surface. The machine runs on computer control from a program based on design data.

[00:22:23]After roughing, comes finishing.

[00:22:25]Fine-toothed cutters pass over the blade surfaces, removing fractions of a millimeter. The surface becomes smooth.

[00:22:32]Then, polishing. [music] Abrasive wheels buff the blades to a shine. This is critically important.

[00:22:38]Surface roughness increases water resistance and promotes cavitation. A perfect surface cuts a ship's fuel consumption by percentage points. For a supertanker, that's millions of dollars in savings per year. After machining, the propeller is weighed and balanced.

[00:22:53]The center of mass must lie exactly on the rotation axis. Otherwise, vibrations will develop during operation, destroying bearings, and potentially damaging the ship's hull. Balancing is done by drilling small cavities in specific locations. The final operation, non-destructive testing. The propeller is x-rayed, checked with ultrasound, examined using magnetic particle inspection. They're looking for internal defects, voids, cracks, inclusions. If they find a critical defect, the propeller is scrapped. 287,000 lb of metal and a month of [music] work go to waste. The cost of such a propeller, 1 to 3 million dollars.

[00:23:40]And just like that, making the journey from a wooden model through the hellish heat of 1600 degrees and 140 tons of molten metal, through 2 weeks of cooling and 3 weeks of machining on giant lathes, a propeller is born. The heart of a supertanker, the pulse of an ocean giant. A solid piece of metal the size of a house weighing 130 tons, [music] capable of transmitting 100,000 horsepower. It's a triumph of engineering brilliance and metallurgical mastery.

[00:24:12]Every time you spot a container ship on the horizon or an oil tanker in port, know this. Beneath the water spins a titan born in fire and honed to perfection. [music] A monolith of bronze or steel, every square inch of which withstands tons of pressure.

[00:24:29]A propeller that drives forward half the world's trade. 90% of all cargo moves by sea.

[00:24:35]This is a story about giants created by humans, about how humanity learned to cast metal the size of a house and machine it with precision down to a millimeter.

[00:24:45]A propeller isn't just a chunk of metal.

[00:24:48]It's a symbol of man's dominion over the oceans, a symbol of the technology that connected continents. From wooden model to steel reality, a journey spanning 5 weeks and millions of dollars. A journey repeated hundreds of times a year in foundries across the world, so the planet's fleet keeps pushing forward.

[00:25:10]Every year over a thousand giant ships are sent for scrapping.

[00:25:14]Each weighing up to 50,000 tons, nearly the length of three football fields.

[00:25:19]It's like dismantling an entire floating city with hundreds of miles of cables, tons of toxic substances, and metal [music] worth millions of dollars.

[00:25:28]One mistake and an environmental disaster becomes inevitable.

[00:25:33]But here's the thing. That's not even the most surprising part.

[00:25:36]Inside each of these massive vessels lies something that turns scrapping into a genuine treasure hunt.

[00:25:42]Workers risk their lives amid plasma cutters and toxic fumes to extract these [music] valuables.

[00:25:48]What exactly are they after? And why have some countries turned ship graveyards into a multi-billion dollar business, whose dark side everyone stays silent about?

[00:25:57]Stick around till the end.

[00:25:59]What you're about to discover will make you look at every ship in port with completely different eyes.

[00:26:05]This is the story of how steel giants die and new metal is born.

[00:26:22]>> [music] >> Why is ship recycling important?

[00:26:27]The vessels we typically picture as massive floating mega structures can stretch nearly a thousand feet long.

[00:26:33]Their weight sometimes reaches tens of thousands of tons, making them among the largest man-made objects created for ocean travel and cargo transport.

[00:26:42]But beyond their massive scale, these ships have an incredibly complex internal structure.

[00:26:47]Hundreds of miles of cables, pipelines, shafts, and various safety and comfort systems, plus countless different components and mechanisms serving different functions.

[00:26:58]This entire architecture isn't just metal, it's a complex organism that needs to be very carefully and properly dismantled when a ship reaches the end of its service life.

[00:27:08]It's absolutely critical to properly remove all hazardous substances accumulated during its operation.

[00:27:14]These can include bioactive materials, toxic paints, fuel residues, oils, chemicals.

[00:27:36]If handled improperly, these substances can contaminate the ocean, soil, and air, causing serious environmental problems.

[00:27:43]Without proper preparation, dismantling such a vessel can turn into a disaster for nature.

[00:27:49]However, recycling these ocean giants has a very bright positive side.

[00:27:53]The metal the ship is made from is excellent and valuable raw material that can be recycled and returned to production.

[00:28:01]This metal is used to build houses, cars, construction structures, and even create new ships.

[00:28:06]This reduces the need for smelting new steel, saves energy and resources, and also cuts down on waste.

[00:28:13]Recycling metal from ships becomes a critical link in the closed loop of the modern industrial economy.

[00:28:20]Disposing of such massive objects also frees up ports where old vessels sit, making room for new modern ships.

[00:28:41]The ship is brought to specialized ship graveyards, typically shorelines with shallow water or dedicated slipways.

[00:28:48]These locations aren't chosen randomly.

[00:28:51]Shallow shorelines allow easy beaching where the vessel can be safely moored and dismantling can begin.

[00:28:57]Often these are small bays or beaches where the massive ship is deliberately run aground so it doesn't obstruct maritime traffic or damage port infrastructure.

[00:29:06]Slipways on the other hand are large platforms or specialized structures where the ship is positioned for land-based dismantling.

[00:29:13]They're equipped with everything needed for convenient and safe operations.

[00:29:17]Crane equipment, metal cutting tools, waste removal systems.

[00:29:22]One of the specialist's primary task is ensuring environmental safety.

[00:29:26]After all, during its operational life, the ship accumulated many substances that could harm the environment if handled carelessly.

[00:29:47]We're not just talking about oil and fuel residue here. Toxic paints and chemicals, too.

[00:29:53]That's why the entire scrapping process kicks off with removing all that hazardous stuff.

[00:29:58]Fuel and oil get drained into special containers and hauled away for processing or disposal. Keeping them out of the water and soil.

[00:30:06]Same goes for electronics and furniture.

[00:30:09]Anything that could potentially harm the environment gets pulled out first.

[00:30:13]This stage demands speed and extreme caution so environmental regulations aren't violated.

[00:30:19]Once the ship's been cleared of all hazardous and everyday materials, the actual hull dismantling begins. And this, this is the toughest and most dangerous part.

[00:30:30]Using specialized plasma cutters and gas torches, massive steel structures get sliced into smaller pieces.

[00:30:36]It takes both handheld equipment and heavy machinery. Cranes, lifts, specialized manipulators.

[00:30:58]Plasma cutting allows for incredibly precise, fast, and efficient separation of metal that'll later be melted down and recycled.

[00:31:06]The dismantling process itself happens sequentially, step by step, starting with the most difficult to reach or hazardous zones.

[00:31:14]Metal sheets, beams, decks, and internal bulkheads are carefully removed to avoid damaging structures that might still be needed for analysis or processing.

[00:31:24]The challenge is that these massive components are often unevenly positioned and may be under tension. And due to corrosion or hull deformation, sections can unexpectedly shift or collapse at any moment.

[00:31:36]Worker safety is also critically important. During plasma cutting, hot sparks and toxic fumes are generated, requiring workers to use special protective equipment, respirators, specialized clothing, and constant air quality monitoring.

[00:31:50]A small mistake or disregard for safety protocols can lead to serious injuries and accidents.

[00:32:10]That's why every step of the process is governed by strict safety protocols, and the entire facility is covered by fire suppression systems and medical support.

[00:32:20]Breaking down the hull and main steel structures of the ship is, without a doubt, an incredibly important and complex stage in scrapping a giant vessel.

[00:32:28]But once that massive chunk of work is done, the job isn't over.

[00:32:33]Up next, another huge phase that demands just as much attention and certain level of skill, because it involves dismantling and sorting tons of smaller, [music] yet equally valuable and complex materials.

[00:32:45]One of the most massive and challenging processes is dealing with cables. A ship contains hundreds of miles of cable networks that power and connect all its systems.

[00:32:54]These are heavy-duty steel cables with plastic insulation, rubber, and maybe even non-ferrous metals mixed in.

[00:33:15]Cables don't just sit around at the recycling yard.

[00:33:18]They're carefully extracted, processed, and sorted.

[00:33:22]Separating the metal core from the insulation materials makes it possible to send pure copper [music] or aluminum for remelting, while the insulation layer goes for processing as raw material for new polymers.

[00:33:35]Workers have really careful not to damage long cable sections, and they've got to follow safety protocols because of residual substances or rust.

[00:33:44]Another important category of materials is insulation materials that are glued to or fill the ship's walls, technical spaces, and pipelines.

[00:33:52]Insulation is often made from specialized materials, mineral wool, polyurethane foam, or basalt wool.

[00:33:59]These substances help control temperature inside systems and ensure safety when working with hot or cold components.

[00:34:06]After the insulation is extracted, it's sorted and sent to specialized facilities.

[00:34:26]Working with ventilation systems demands equal care.

[00:34:30]Ventilation ducts and units used for air conditioning and circulation throughout different parts of the vessel get dismantled and cleaned of dust, oil residue, and other substances.

[00:34:40]The metal components of these systems are typically high-quality material for remelting, while plastic or rubber often becomes raw material for new products.

[00:34:49]Special attention goes to water supply systems and sanitary installations.

[00:34:53]A ship carries complex shutoff mechanisms, piping, fittings, faucets, tanks, and other equipment.

[00:35:00]Pipe sections and equipment get carefully separated, cleaned of sediment, oil, and other contaminants before being sent for remelting or appropriate processing.

[00:35:09]These materials can contain toxic substances, so their disposal or recycling follows strict protocols.

[00:35:15]Equally critical is dismantling equipment from the engine room.

[00:35:34]That's where you'll find engines, generators, pumping systems, turbines, and other complex machinery. Stuff that's usually heavy as hell and packed with metals, including non-ferrous ones.

[00:35:45]This equipment mostly gets repaired and reused or broken down into parts, some of which are recycled.

[00:35:51]In certain cases, engines are even sold as used spare parts, dodging the scrap heap entirely.

[00:35:57]Furniture, appliances, lighting, and other interior items from the ship don't just get tossed, either. They're removed and sorted. Wooden, metal, or plastic components go through separate recycling or disposal processes.

[00:36:10]Sometimes, if furniture's in decent shape, it gets sold for reuse. And just like that, after going from floating city to thousands of tons of sorted raw materials, the giant ship gets a second life in new homes, cars, and even new vessels.

[00:36:24]This is the story of how the death of a steel giant becomes the beginning of a new life for millions of tons of metal.