There's a ship shipping ship that ships shipping ships and it's absolutely massive

You know you’ve made it as a ship when your day job is shipping… other shipping ships.

It sounds like a tongue twister, but these enormous vessels really do spend their lives shipping vessels across the world’s oceans.

They’re known as heavy lift boats, and they’re among the most impressive engineering feats ever built for maritime transport.

One of the biggest of them all is so huge that it can carry cruise ships, oil platforms, and even other giant vessels weighing more than 100,000 tons.

The ship shipping ship that ships shipping ships

Heavy lift vessels are specially designed to move cargo that would be difficult, expensive, or simply impossible to transport under its own power, like superyachts, cruise ships, or even oil platforms.

Instead of relying on giant cranes, many of these vessels use a clever semi-submersible design.

They partially sink themselves by filling ballast tanks with water, allowing another ship to float directly over the deck, the water is then pumped back out, lifting the cargo completely clear of the sea.

Among the largest examples is the Boka Vanguard, a massive heavy lift vessel that stretches 275m (902ft) long and 70m (230ft) wide.

Built in South Korea in 2011, it can transport an incredible 110,000 tons of cargo in a single voyage.

That means it can carry offshore oil platforms, drilling rigs, floating production facilities, and even enormous cruise ships that need to be taken to dry dock for repairs.

It’s large and in charge and it makes perfect sense

As ridiculous as the idea sounds, transporting ships on another ship actually makes perfect sense.

Rather than sailing a brand-new vessel thousands of miles under its own power, heavy lift ships reduce fuel consumption, avoid unnecessary wear on engines and equipment, and allow ships to be delivered safely to customers anywhere in the world.

Boka Vanguard has completed some remarkable missions over the years, including transporting the Noble Paul Romano drilling platform and carrying Carnival Vista to a shipyard in the Bahamas after the cruise ship needed repairs.

It could even carry the world’s biggest cruise ship.

Another famous heavy lift vessel is the Blue Marlin, which has transported everything from military vessels to giant offshore platforms and even the massive SBX-1 floating radar.

Without these floating giants, moving some of the world’s largest structures across the oceans would require far more time, money, and risk.

Sometimes the biggest ship in the sea isn’t carrying containers at all, it’s carrying another ship, like a nesting doll.