Giant cruise ship gets cut in half to make it bigger in unsettling process people didn't think was possible

People have been left stunned by a video showing a cruise ship being cut in half.

You might immediately think that this was due to striking a rock, or an iceberg, but in fact the ship was actually cut in half entirely on purpose.

There is, of course, a pretty obvious question around this bizarre process, and that is, of course, why on earth anyone would deliberately cut a ship in half?

It's all very cleverly done as well, with those carrying out the procedure clearly knowing exactly what they're doing.

In the clip, believed to be from 2018, the ship is sitting in a dry dock - that's a dock it can sail into before the water is drained out and the ship can be worked on.

Normally this might be to actually build the ship from scratch, then once the work is complete the dry dock is refilled with water and the ship can be towed out.

But in the case of this video they were carrying out some very different work on the ship indeed.

Which brings us back to the original question - why would you cut a ship in half on purpose?

The ship was cut in half. (Silversea)

Well, you might think it's for some sort of study, maybe the ship is being retired and they want to see the cross-section to see wear and year.

This, of course, is absolutely wrong.

That's because the ship is actually being cut in half in order to alter its size and make it bigger.

How it works is that the vessel is painstakingly and carefully bisected, including with the internal walls, and the two halves moved away from each other.

A new section which has been built to exactly match the two sections is then wheeled into place between the halves.

Workers then painstakingly attach the two halves to the new section of the ship, which in this case saw the ship being lengthened by 15 metres.

The new piece is slotted into place. (Silversea)

The ship was called Silver Spirit, which is owned and operated by company Silversea.

Some 500 skilled workers put in approximately 450,000 man hours to insert the mid section and stretch Silver Spirit from 195.8 to 210.7 metres.

The operation involved 846 tons of steel and 110,000 metres of cabling and 8,000 metres of piping.

After the work was finished the ship has had its capacity increased by about 12 percent.

Barbara Muckermann, chief marketing officer of Silversea, told CNN in a statement: “The lengthening and refurbishment of Silver Spirit will replicate the modern elegance of our latest vessel to make for a more luxurious traveling experience.

“We are eager to share the new and improved layout of our cherished ship with our valued guests.”

Topics: News, World News, Travel, Technology

Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.