NOVA

With their commanding presence at sea,

today's cruise ships carry on a long and historic tradition.

Long before jet planes,

ships were the only way to travel the globe.

Today, they carry thousands of people

and have become a popular vacation choice.

Competition is intense,

with companies building ever-bigger ships

to drive costs down.

But now in Italy,

a team of craftsmen and engineers is taking on

a new kind of shipbuilding challenge.

They are racing to build the ultimate cruise ship...

a superliner,

finely crafted to the most minute detail.

Well, I wanted to build

something unique, one-of-a-kind,

never to be repeated again.

But building this record-breaking superliner

involves a series of unique engineering challenges.

The ocean can be a deadly place.

How do you keep hundreds of passengers safe

sailing far from shore through violent storms

and rough swells?

And to complete the ship on schedule,

the team must combine time-honored tradition

with trailblazing technology.

To build a ship is a continuous pressure.

We cannot miss our target.

Inside the extraordinary race

to build the ultimate cruise ship,

right now on NOVA.

Today in Genoa, Italy,

this team of construction workers is starting work

building a brand new ship.

One that will present a new and difficult set of challenges,

both technical and aesthetic.

For the team here is constructing a cruise ship

they hope will set a new standard.

In keeping with maritime tradition,

a welder attaches rare coins to the hull to bring luck...

That's a beautiful thing.

In nomine padre...

...and a priest provides a blessing.

Engineers in this region of Italy

have a formidable reputation.

They have been building ships since medieval times.

But this job will present new challenges

beyond anything they've faced before.

The worldwide cruise market has exploded over the past 25 years,

from under four million passengers a year,

to over 22 million.

It's a $39 billion-a-year industry.

Competition is fierce, with companies building

ever-larger vessels to drive prices down

and make cruising more affordable than ever.

Why don't we just do like... you know,

I'm doing a puzzle here.

But one cruise company and its CEO, Frank Del Rio...

Just like that.

...are taking this ship in another, more risky direction.

On deck four

we need four pieces.

My vision is very simple.

To make this the most luxurious cruise ship ever built.

But is there a market for that?

Where many of the big cruise ships hold

over 5,000 passengers,

this vessel, the Seven Seas Explorer,

will carry just 750.

But they will be paying top dollar

and their expectations will be equally high.

They will be housed in 375 suites.

And at the top will be a 4,400 square-foot suite

that will go for $10,000 a night.

Are there enough people willing to spend enough money

to keep this venture afloat?

There is risk any time you break barriers,

but these are calculated risks.

But this ambitious scheme is not just a business challenge,

it's an engineering challenge

for the ship's designers and builders.

First: luxury is heavy.

The marble and glass materials needed to give the liner

its sumptuous feel will add weight.

Engineers need to invent clever ways to balance the ship

so it remains stable in the water.

And there's another even bigger challenge.

The ocean can be a deadly place.

Without making it too obvious,

engineers must devise ingenious ways

to save passengers' lives

in the event of a fire or a collision at sea.

And there's a final challenge.

The engineers must meet a tight deadline.

To fill the ship with customers, tickets for the maiden voyage

will go on sale before the liner is complete.

Canceling them will be costly.

That would cost us in excess of $5 million

to the immediate bottom line,

and probably cost us $25 million in lost reputation.

So an expensive proposition that we won't let happen.

In Italy, it's the job

of engineer Pierluigi Punter to deliver the ship on time.

I am very proud to be in charge of this project.

Several thousand people will be involved,

but I will coordinate all the activities,

from the starting of the design, up to delivery.

I hope to survive.

The pressure is on Pierluigi and his team

to turn these sheets of steel into a finished ship.

To deliver the ship on time,

Pierluigi has a detailed and ambitious plan.

He will build his ship, piece by piece, in a dry dock,

installing the engines and machinery as it goes.

To save time, he must simultaneously construct

a large section of the vessel in another shipyard,

making sure it will join up perfectly

to the rest of the ship.

Then the shipyard will build up the decks to complete the hull,

put in the cabins...

...fit the windows,

and install the navigation equipment.

To ensure it all works, they will test everything

in a series of sea trials.

And finally complete the interiors of the cabins

and public areas.

It's like building a floating city,

and they only have 18 months to do it.

Stage one.

The team needs to cut and weld together

more than 12,000 tons of steel to assemble the liner's hull...

the structure around which the rest of the ship

will take shape.

To build the hull in time,

the team will employ an ingenious technique.

In the past, ships were constructed from the bottom up...

a bit like building a house.

Only once the hull was finished,

did they install the ventilation,

electrical cables, pipes and machinery.

But this method was slow,

too slow for today's competitive environment.

To build a ship is a continuous pressure.

We have a penalty on the contract

about the delay on delivery.

So to build the Explorer's hull, Pierluigi is using a technique

developed in Japan in the 1950s,

made possible by the invention of bigger, stronger cranes.

Workers will first assemble the steel plates

into sections one deck high, building them upside-down

to make it easy to install the pipes, cables,

and ventilation as they go.

Cranes will then flip the pieces over and join several together

to form a megablock.

It will take 53 megablocks to construct the Explorer.

Once each block is complete,

giant cranes will lift it into position.

Using this "megablock" method, the team can work

on many parts of the ship at the same time,

speeding up production.

Ch megablock begins life in a giant bath.

Here, a computer-controlled plasma cutter

cuts the steel to shape.

The machine's nozzle fires a 30,000 degree Fahrenheit jet

of superheated gas towards the steel at 20,000 feet per second.

This melts and cuts the steel underwater,

which keeps it cool and prevents distortion.

But the next critical job must be completed by hand.

250 skilled welders join theieces together

to form each megablock,

with welds as strong as the steel itself.

It takes about four weeks

to build each of the 53 megablocks.

This method of construction is fast, but not fast enough

for the schedule.

So Pierluigi has a plan to speed up construction.

We decided to build

part of the ship in another shipyard

to reduce the production time,

and to take advantage of the capacity of the two shipyards

at the same time.

While the shipyard in Genoa is building most of the vessel,

a large section has been assembled 400 miles away

at a second yard in Castellammare di Stabia.

This shipyard sits in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

It has been building ships for hundreds of years.

Over the last eight months, the workers here have assembled

11 megablocks to form this 200-foot section of the ship.

Now they face a daunting challenge.

They must launch their section into the sea.

A tug will then tow it up the coast to the shipyard in Genoa,

where welders must attach it to their section of the vessel.

If the plan works, it will cut eight weeks

off the construction schedule.

Before they launch the section,

surveyor Antonio Vairo must carry out one final check.

For the last eight months,

he has been measuring the dimensions of this section.

We are measuring the length of the section