# Luxury liner squeezes under bridge with 20" to spare **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 3, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355 "2010-11-03T18:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/21 "2010-11-05T23:44:53Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > This was also done in Oct 2009 by her sister ship, “Oasis of the Seas”: > > [Oasis of the Seas - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Oasis_of_the_Seas) > > Holy crap. 225,000 tons. That’s a lotta steel. And stuff. Isn’t the ship’s ton a unit of volume? It’s still a lotta steel. And stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/22 "2010-11-06T00:06:42Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Isn’t the ship’s ton a unit of volume? > > It’s still a lotta steel. And stuff. How could a ton be a measure of volume? It’s the mass of the water the ship displaces, and thus, the ship’s weight. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/23 "2010-11-06T00:10:51Z")
From the Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > Oasis measures 225,282 gross tons… Her displacement—the actual mass of the vessel—is estimated at approximately 100,000 tons, about the same as that of an American Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Gross tons, a unit of volume. Displacement tons: a unit of mass. Air conditioning tons: a unit of heat flow. :: looks it up :: [Tonnage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnage) is not a simple thing. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/24 "2010-11-06T00:17:36Z")
Woah. Didn’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/25 "2010-11-06T00:37:30Z")
Was this a planned event? Did they know ahead of time how tight the tolerance was going to be to clear that bridge? Jesus…it just somehow seems irresponsible to have to take these kinds of measures to travel a route that could potentially be bypassed elsewhere. If I was on that thing I’d have been quite a bit concerned! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/26 "2010-11-06T00:47:10Z")
I don’t get it. It looked like there was heaps of room to me. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/27 "2010-11-06T03:38:17Z")
Apparently having heavier passengers would be a virtue in this case. I would like to see an occasional cruise establish a minimum per-passenger weight of 175 pounds (not least because this would cut the number of children on board to zero). ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/28 "2010-11-06T04:04:07Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t get it. It looked like there was heaps of room to me. I agree. On the video the clearance looked like tens of metres. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/29 "2010-11-06T04:13:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t get it. It looked like there was heaps of room to me. Well, either they are exaggerating the closeness of the ship to the bridge or the camera angle is giving us an optical illusion. It looked like there was plenty of room to me, too. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/30 "2010-11-06T04:21:09Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Was this a planned event? Did they know ahead of time how tight the tolerance was going to be to clear that bridge? Jesus…it just somehow seems irresponsible to have to take these kinds of measures to travel a route that could potentially be bypassed elsewhere. > > If I was on that thing I’d have been quite a bit concerned! I doubt they had a choice. There are only three sounds allowing passage from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea (the Great Belt, the Oresund and the Little Belt), all bridged, and it looks like the Great Belt Bridge (the “Store Belt Bridge” in the video) is the one with the most clearance. ETA: The ships are built in Finland, so they HAVE to get from the Baltic to the North Sea to deliver it to the home port. It’s not like they sailed the ship up there for kicks. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/31 "2010-11-06T05:14:29Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Was this a planned event? Did they know ahead of time how tight the tolerance was going to be to clear that bridge? 😃 When I launch a $1.5 billion ship, I usually just hand the keys to the Captain and say “Head towards the Atlantic. Say, you don’t need any charts or anything, right?” > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Jesus…it just somehow seems irresponsible to have to take these kinds of measures to travel a route that could potentially be bypassed elsewhere. The Varangian Vikings were able to get from the Baltic to the Black Sea by water a thousand years ago (though they carried their boats across land part of the way). I wonder why Royal Caribbean didn’t just do that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/32 "2010-11-06T06:09:06Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Apparently having heavier passengers would be a virtue in this case. I would like to see an occasional cruise establish a minimum per-passenger weight of 175 pounds (not least because this would cut the number of children on board to zero). Non-American children, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/33 "2010-11-06T06:17:25Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Was this a planned event? Did they know ahead of time how tight the tolerance was going to be to clear that bridge? Jesus…it just somehow seems irresponsible to have to take these kinds of measures to travel a route that could potentially be bypassed elsewhere. I vote for publicity stunt. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/34 "2010-11-06T06:43:17Z")
If Americans were watching, there’d be lots of whoo-hooing when it passed under. Darn Finns. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/35 "2010-11-06T08:28:08Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > I vote for publicity stunt. While I certainly would not say a cruise ship company is beyond pulling a publicity stunt, this ship (and her sister ship, the _Oasis of the Seas_) were both built in Finland. Looking [at the map](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baltic_Sea_map.png), any ship built in Finland is going to have to get past Denmark and Sweden some way or another, unless it wants to spend its career sailing around the Baltic; while I’m sure there’s a market for Baltic cruises, I doubt it could support monster ships like these (which are intended for more tropical climes). You could use the [Kiel Canal](http://www.kiel-canal.org/english.htm) to bypass the Danish straits entirely, except that the locks are about 50 meters too short and 5 meters too narrow. As **septimus** suggests, they could go for a Viking-style portage, but the cost of the beer or mead needed to get everyone drunk enough to haul a 100,000 ton ship across Schleswig-Holstein would probably be prohibitive. From a [close-in view](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Belte_inter.png) of the straits around the Danish islands, your choices are the Little Belt, the Great Belt, or the Øresund. The [Little Belt Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Belt_Bridge_%281970%29) has a clearance of 44 meters and the [Øresund Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96resund_Bridge) has a clearance of 57 meters; that leaves the [Great Belt Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Fixed_Link), with a clearance of 65 meters. I guess if anybody wants to build an even **BIGGER** cruise ship, they’re going to have to have it built in Korea. > [@a35362](#): > > If Americans were watching, there’d be lots of whoo-hooing when it passed under. Darn Finns. Presumably Danes, actually. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/36 "2010-11-06T09:05:32Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Man, you’ve got to have a shitload of faith in your calculations to do something like that. “We can make it under that bridge, but only if we’re going at full speed. Let’s kick this pig!” Hm, maybe. But then again Finns seem to be speed demons - ever seen how much rally footage on youtube is crazy ass finns breaking the sound barrier in tiny little cars banzaing around sicily and malta?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/37 "2010-11-06T13:35:07Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Hm, maybe. But then again Finns seem to be speed demons - ever seen how much rally footage on youtube is crazy ass finns breaking the sound barrier in tiny little cars banzaing around sicily and malta?😃 Who needs youtube. I saw a couple of Finns in '86 racing for the world championship, in person, in cars that were so hot they were going to be banned the next year. Speed demons, yes, but also very polite. I’m sure they’d be just gushing apologies if they trashed somebody’s shiny, new suspension bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/38 "2010-11-06T14:22:14Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > From a [close-in view](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Belte_inter.png) of the straits around the Danish islands, your choices are the Little Belt, the Great Belt, or the Øresund. The [Little Belt Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Belt_Bridge_%281970%29) has a clearance of 44 meters and the [Øresund Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96resund_Bridge) has a clearance of 57 meters; that leaves the [Great Belt Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Fixed_Link), with a clearance of 65 meters. The Øresund crossing also includes a tunnel. I wonder whether the depth over the tunnel was not enough for the ship? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/39 "2010-11-06T15:09:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Cruise ships sure have gotten ugly in the last few years. …so have their passengers. -d&r- ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355/40 "2010-11-06T16:08:20Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Apparently having heavier passengers would be a virtue in this case. I would like to see an occasional cruise establish a minimum per-passenger weight of 175 pounds… Which brings us back to the alcohol and cheesecake… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luxury-liner-squeezes-under-bridge-with-20-to-spare/559355.md?page=3)