Passenger ship

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Passenger ship

A passenger ship is a ship

Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include cargo vessels

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade....
which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Passenger ship'

Start a new discussion about 'Passenger ship'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

A passenger ship is a ship

Ship

Cargo ship

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a passenger ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule....
s were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds

Hold (ship)

A ship's hold, in older ships, was below the orlop deck, the lower part of the interior of a ship's hull , especially when considered as storage space, as for cargo....
and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a passenger ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule....
s and in virtually all cruise ship

Cruise ship

File:MSMajestyOfTheSeasEdit1.JPGA cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience....
s has this cargo capacity been eliminated.

While typically passenger ships are part of the merchant marine, passenger ships have also been used as troopship

Troopship

A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Operationally, troopships are normal ships, and unlike landing ships, cannot land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels, either tenders or barges....
s and often are commissioned as naval ship

Naval ship

A naval ship is a ship used for combat purposes, commonly by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose....
s when used as for that purpose.

Types

Passenger ships include ferries

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, used to carry passengers and their vehicles across a body of water. Ferries are also used to transport freight and even railroad cars....
, which are vessels for day or overnight short-sea trips moving passengers and vehicles (whether road or rail); ocean liners, which typically are passenger or passenger-cargo vessels transporting passengers and often cargo on longer line voyages; and cruise ships, which often transport passengers on round-trips, in which the trip itself and the attractions of the ship and ports visited are the principal draw.

An ocean liner is the traditional form of passenger ship. Once such liners operated on scheduled line voyages to all inhabited parts of the world. With the advent of airliners transporting passengers and specialized cargo vessels hauling freight, line voyages have almost died out. But with their decline came an increase in sea trips for pleasure, and in the latter part of the 20th century ocean liners gave way to cruise ships as the predominant form of large passenger ship, with the main area of activity changing from the North Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
.

Although some ships have characteristics of both types, the design priorities of the two forms are different: ocean liners value speed and traditional luxury while cruise ships value amenities (swimming pools, theaters, ball rooms, casinos, sports facilities, etc.) rather than speed. These priorities produce different designs. In addition, ocean liners typically were built to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
between Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
or travel even further to South America or Asia while cruise ships typically serve shorter routes with more stops along coastlines or among various islands.

For a long time cruise ships were smaller than the old ocean liners had been, but in the 1980s this changed when Knut Kloster, the director of Norwegian Caribbean Lines

Norwegian Cruise Line

File:Seattle Cruise Ship.jpgFile:Norwegian gem .jpgNorwegian Cruise Line is a company operating cruise ships, headquartered in Miami, Florida....
, bought one of the biggest surviving liners, the SS France

SS France (1961)

The SS France was a Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962....
, and transformed her into a huge cruise ship, which he renamed the SS Norway. Her success demonstrated that there was a market for large cruise ships. Successive classes of ever-larger ships were ordered, until the Cunard

Cunard Line

The Cunard Line is a United Kingdom shipping company that has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic since its beginning in 1840 to the present....
liner Queen Elizabeth

RMS Queen Elizabeth

Royal Mail Ship Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for the Cunard Line and was contracted to carry Royal Mail....
was finally dethroned from her 56-year reign as the largest passenger ship ever built (a dethronement that led to numerous further dethronements from the same position).

Both the RMS

Royal Mail Ship

Royal Mail Ship , usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract by Royal Mail....
(QE2) (1969) and her successor as Cunard's flagship (QM2), which entered service in 2004, are of hybrid construction. Like transatlantic

Transatlantic

The term transatlantic refers to something occurring all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Most often, this refers to the exchange of passengers, cargo, information, or communication between North America and Europe....
ocean liners, they are fast ships and strongly built to withstand the rigors of the North Atlantic in line voyage service, but both ships are also designed to operate as cruise ships, with the amenities expected in that trade. QM2 superseded the Explorer of the Seas
Explorer of the Seas

Motor Ship Explorer of the Seas is one of five Voyager class cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. It can handle over 3100 guests, including scientists making use of a built-in Earth's atmosphere and Oceanography laboratory operated by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science....
of the Royal Caribbean line as the largest passenger ship ever built, and in turn was surpassed by Royal Caribbean's cruise ship Freedom of the Seas. The latter ship, and her sisters, will in turn be superseded by ships of the Oasis Class scheduled for delivery starting in 2009.

Measures of size

By convention and long usage, the size of civilian passenger ships is measured by gross tonnage

Tonnage

Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume or cargo volume of a ship....
, which is a measure of enclosed volume. Gross tonnage is not a measure of weight, although the two concepts are often confused. Weight is measured by displacement

Displacement (fluid)

In fluid mechanics, displacement occurs when an object is immersed in a fluid, pushing it out of the way and taking its place. The volume of the fluid displaced can then be measured, as in the illustration, and from this the volume of the immersed object can be deduced ....
, which is the conventional means of measuring naval vessels. Often a passenger ship is stated to "weigh" or "displace" a certain "tonnage", but the figure given nearly always refers to gross tons.

While a high displacement can indicate better sea keeping abilities, gross tonnage is promoted as the most important measure of size for passengers, as the ratio of gross tonnage per passenger – the Passenger/Space Ratio – gives a sense of the spaciousness of a ship, an important consideration in cruise liners where the onboard amenities are of high importance.

Gross tonnage normally is a much higher value than displacement. This was not always the case; as the functions, engineering and architecture of ships have changed, the gross tonnage figures of the largest passenger ships have risen substantially, while the displacements of such ships have not. RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic

The Royal Mail Ship Titanic was an Olympic class ocean liner superliner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
, with a gross tonnage of 46,329, but a displacement reported at over 52,000 tons, was heavier than contemporary 100,000 – 110,000 gross ton cruise ships which displace only around 50,000 tons. Similarly, the Cunard Line

Cunard Line

The Cunard Line is a United Kingdom shipping company that has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic since its beginning in 1840 to the present....
's and , of approximately 81,000 – 83,000 gross tons, but displacements of over 80,000 tons, do not differ significantly in displacement from their new 148,528 gross ton successor, , which has been estimated to displace approximately 76,000 tons, or from the even newer 154,407 gross ton MS Freedom of the Seas, which is also estimated to displace in the range of 75 – 80,000 tons. Indeed, not until the 2009 launch of the first of the Oasis Class ships, which is projected to displace about 100,000 tons, will there be a passenger ship which clearly surpasses the Cunard Queens of the 1930s in displacement.

However, by the conventional and historical measure of gross tonnage, there has been a recent dramatic increase in the size of the largest new ships. The Oasis class ships will measure 220,000 gross tons, over four times larger than Titanic and twice as large as the largest cruise ships of the late 1990s.

List of largest passenger ships of their time

Year	Name		Company	Countries of ownership and registration	Country of construction
1819	SS Savannah SS Savannah The SS Savannah was the first ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean using steam engines for at least part of the voyage. Her machinery was built at the Speedwell Ironworks in New Jersey....	320 BRT	Savannah Steamship Company	United States United States The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...	United States
1831	SS Royal William SS Royal William SS *Royal William* was a Canadian steamship that is sometimes credited with achieving the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to be made almost entirely under steam power, using sails only during periods of boiler maintenance, though the British-built Dutch-owned Steamboat#Ocean-going steamships crossed in 1827....	540 BRT	St. John & Halifax Steam Navigation Company	Canada Canada Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean.... (British North America British North America British North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of United States .... )	Canada
1838	SS Great Western SS Great Western The Great Western of 1838, was the initial unit of the Great Western Steamship Company and the first purpose-built Atlantic steamship. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Great Western proved satisfactory in service and was the model for all successful Atlantic wood paddlers....	1,340 BRT	Great Western Steamship Company	United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....	United Kingdom
1839	SS British Queen SS British Queen The steamship SS British Queen was a side-paddle steamship owned by the British and American Steam Navigation Company, and purposely built for the Atlantic Ocean crossing....	1,862 BRT	British & American Steam Navigation Company	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1840	SS President	2,366 BRT	British & American Steam Navigation Company	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1845	SS Great Britain SS Great Britain SS Great Britain was an advanced Atlantic liner designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company's Bristol-New York service....	3,270 BRT	Great Western Steamship Company	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1853	SS Himalaya HMS Himalaya HMS Himalaya was ordered by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company as SS Himalaya. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1854 and served with them until 1920....	3,438 BRT	P & O Steam Navigation Company Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1853	SS Atrato	3,466 BRT	Royal Mail Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1857	SS Adriatic	4,145 BRT		United States	United States
1858	SS Great Eastern SS Great Eastern The Steamship Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refueling....	18,915 BRT	Eastern Steam Navigation Company	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1867	RMS (or SS) Republic Great Republic Launched on October 4, 1853 the *Great Republic* is noteworthy as the Largest wooden ships clipper ship ever constructed. The biggest "down easter" was planned to be launched on September 4, 1853 - builder Donald McKay's birthday, but the launch had to be postponed to October 4 due to problems with the timber supplies which ran out and beca... (after loss of Great Eastern)	4,352 BRT	Pacific Mail Steamship Company Inc.	United Kingdom (previously Canada and United States)	United States
1871	RMS Egypt	4,670 BRT	National Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1873	RMS City of Chester	4,770 BRT	Inman Line Inman Line The Inman Line which operated from 1850 until its 1893 absorption into American Line, was one of the three largest 19th century British passenger shipping companies on the North Atlantic, along with the Cunard Line and White Star Line.... Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1874	RMS Britannic	5,008 BRT	White Star Line White Star Line The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, most famous for its ill-fated luxury flagship, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of her sister ship, HMHS Britannic.... Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1875	SS City of Berlin SS City of Berlin The completion of the Blue Riband winner, the City of Berlin in 1875 gave the Inman Line five express liners needed for its year-round weekly Liverpool - New York mail service....	5,526 BRT	Inman Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1881	SS Servia SS Servia SS Servia was a 2-funnel ocean liner built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, for the Cunard Line. She had four decks and a promenade deck....	7,391 BRT	Cunard Line Cunard Line The Cunard Line is a United Kingdom shipping company that has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic since its beginning in 1840 to the present....	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1881	SS City of Rome	8,415 BRT	Inman Line	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1888	SS City of New York SS City of New York SS City of New York, also known as SS New York, was an ocean liner originally operated by the Inman Line and later operated by the American Line and the US Navy ....	10,499 BRT	Inman Line	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1893	RMS Campania RMS Campania The Royal Mail Ship Campania was a United Kingdom ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 8 September 1891....	12,950 BRT	Cunard Line	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1893	RMS Lucania RMS Lucania The Royal Mail Ship Lucania was a United Kingdom ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 2 February 1893....	12,952 BRT	Cunard Line	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1897	SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, , named after the first emperor of the new German Empire, Wilhelm I of Germany, was a Germany ocean liner of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line....	14,349 BRT	Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd File:NDL company emblem - Bremen - 1913.jpgThe Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Cr?semann in Bremen on 20 February 1857....	Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....	Germany (location now part of Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north.... )
1899	RMS Oceanic RMS Oceanic (1899) RMS Oceanic was a transatlantic ocean liner, built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage in 1899 and until 1901, was the largest ship in the world....	17,274 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1901	RMS Celtic RMS Celtic (1901) RMS Celtic was an ocean liner belonging to the White Star Line. The first ship larger than the in gross tonnage, she was the first of a quartet of ships over 20,000 tons, dubbed Big Four ....	21,035 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1905	SS Amerika	22,225 BRT	Hapag Hapag Hapag may mean:* Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft , a former German shipping company, see Hamburg America Line or Hapag-Lloyd...	Germany	United Kingdom
1905	RMS Baltic	23,876 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1906	SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria	24,581 BRT	Hapag	Germany	Germany (location now part of Poland)
1907	RMS Lusitania RMS Lusitania RMS Lusitania was a Lusitania-Class Great Britain luxury ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915....	31,550 BRT	Cunard Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1907	RMS Mauretania RMS Mauretania (1906) Royal Mail Ship Mauretania , sister ship of the , was a Lusitania-class ocean liner built by Swan Hunter at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906....	31,938 BRT	Cunard Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1911	RMS Olympic RMS Olympic Royal Mail Ship Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liner ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic....	45,234 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1912	RMS Titanic RMS Titanic The Royal Mail Ship Titanic was an Olympic class ocean liner superliner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....	46,329 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1912	RMS Olympic RMS Olympic Royal Mail Ship Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liner ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic.... (after loss of Titanic and refit)	46,439 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1913	SS Imperator SS Imperator SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line launched in 1912. She was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included and built by the line for transatlantic passenger service....	52,117 BRT	Hapag	Germany	Germany
1914	SS Vaterland	54,282 BRT	Hapag	Germany	Germany
1914	SS Bismarck	56,551 BRT	Hapag	Germany	Germany
1922	RMS Majestic (ex Bismarck)	56,551 BRT	White Star Line Ltd.	United Kingdom	Germany
1935	SS Normandie SS Normandie Steam Ship Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique. When launched in 1932 she was the largest and fastest ship in the world, and she maintains the distinction of being the most powerful steam turbo-electric propelled passenger ship ever built....	79,280 BRT	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique Compagnie Générale Transatlantique The Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique , known overseas as the French Line, was a shipping company established in 1861 as an attempt to revive the French merchant marine, the poor state of which was painfully highlighted during the Crimean War of 1856.... S.A.	France France France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....	France
1940	RMS Queen Elizabeth RMS Queen Elizabeth Royal Mail Ship Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for the Cunard Line and was contracted to carry Royal Mail....	83,673 BRT	Cunard-White Star Ltd.	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
1971	SS Seawise University RMS Queen Elizabeth Royal Mail Ship Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for the Cunard Line and was contracted to carry Royal Mail.... (ex Queen Elizabeth)	83,673 BRT	Orient Overseas Container Line Orient Overseas Container Line Orient Overseas Container Line is a Hong Kong-based Containerization shipping and logistics service company. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orient Overseas Limited ....	Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....	United Kingdom
1972	SS France SS France (1961) The SS France was a Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962.... (after loss of Seawise University) (note: the 81,237 GT RMS Queen Mary RMS Queen Mary Royal Mail Ship Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line . Built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the first of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York, in answer to the mainland Eur... was still in existence, but on static display, as a museum ship Museum ship A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes.... )	66,343 BRT	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique Compagnie Générale Transatlantique The Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique , known overseas as the French Line, was a shipping company established in 1861 as an attempt to revive the French merchant marine, the poor state of which was painfully highlighted during the Crimean War of 1856....	France	France
1984	SS Norway SS France (1961) The SS France was a Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962.... (ex France)	70,202 BRT	Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line File:Seattle Cruise Ship.jpgFile:Norwegian gem .jpgNorwegian Cruise Line is a company operating cruise ships, headquartered in Miami, Florida....	Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula.... /United States (registry: Norway/ Bahamas)	France
1988	MS Sovereign of the Seas MS Sovereign of the Seas Motor Ship Sovereign of the Seas is one of three large cruise ships of the Sovereign class formerly operated by Royal Caribbean International....	73,192 BRT	Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International is a Miami, Florida -based cruise line brand owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., with 21 ships in service and two under construction....	Norway/United States (registry: Norway)	France
1990	SS Norway SS France (1961) The SS France was a Compagnie G?n?rale Transatlantique ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962.... (after reconstruction)	76,049 BRT	Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line File:Seattle Cruise Ship.jpgFile:Norwegian gem .jpgNorwegian Cruise Line is a company operating cruise ships, headquartered in Miami, Florida....	Norway/United States	France (reconstruction: Germany)
1996	MS Carnival Destiny Carnival Destiny *Carnival Destiny* is a cruise ship that is owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Lines. When she entered service in 1996, she was the largest passenger ship ever built as measured by gross tonnage, and the first passenger ship larger than the 1940-built ....	101,509 BRZ	Carnival Cruise Line Inc.	United States (registry: Bahamas)	Italy
1997	MS Grand Princess Grand Princess *Grand Princess* is a large cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. Built in 1998 by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Monfalcone , Italy, at a cost of approximately US$450 million, she was the largest and most expensive ship ever built at the time, a distinction now carried by Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas an...	108,865 BRZ	P & O Princess Cruises Ltd.	United Kingdom/United States (registry: Bermuda Bermuda Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1350 kilometres south of Halifax Regional Municipality, Canada.... )	Italy
1999	MS Voyager of the Seas Voyager of the Seas Motor Ship Voyager of the Seas, completed in 1999, is the first of five Voyager class cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. It can handle up to 3114 guests, and, along with its cousins in the Voyager class, is one of the largest passenger ships in the world; currently, only Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 and Royal Caribbean In...	137,276 BRT	Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International is a Miami, Florida -based cruise line brand owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., with 21 ships in service and two under construction....	Norway/United States (registry: Bahamas)	Finland
2000	MS Explorer of the Seas Explorer of the Seas Motor Ship Explorer of the Seas is one of five Voyager class cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. It can handle over 3100 guests, including scientists making use of a built-in Earth's atmosphere and Oceanography laboratory operated by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science....	137,308 BRT	Royal Caribbean International	Norway/United States (registry: Bahamas)	Finland
2004	RMS Queen Mary 2 RMS Queen Mary 2 The Royal Mail Ship *Queen Mary 2* is a Cunard Line ocean liner named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary, which was in turn named after Mary of Teck, the Queen Consort of George V of the United Kingdom....	148,528 BRT	Cunard Line Ltd.	United Kingdom/United States (registry: United Kingdom)	France
2006	MS Freedom of the Seas	154,407 GT	Royal Caribbean International	Norway/United States (registry: Bahamas)	Finland
2007	MS Liberty of the Seas Liberty of the Seas Motor Ship Liberty of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship of the Freedom class which entered regular service in May 2007.... and MS Freedom of the Seas	154,407 GT	Royal Caribbean International	Norway/United States (registry: Bahamas)	Finland
2008	MS Independence of the Seas Independence of the Seas Motor Ship Independence of the Seas is a Freedom class cruise ship operated by the Royal Caribbean cruise line that entered service in April 2008....	154,407 GT	Royal Caribbean International	Norway/United States (registry: Bahamas)	Finland

Passenger ship

Types

Measures of size

List of largest passenger ships of their time

See also