Drone Videos of Cargo Ships

OCEANCRAFTS Motion Gallery put together this terrific compilation of drone footage of giant containerships.  These vessels, which are designed exclusively for standard-sized containers, are the lifeblood of the global economy.  The largest containerships are now capable of carrying an astounding 24k twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU's).  These cargoes can be worth billions of US dollars; to get them to their destinations quickly, containerships reach speeds in excess of 30 knots using some of the world's largest diesel engines.

Check out this fascinating drone video by chill_side of a containership plowing its way through half-frozen waters of the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, Russia.  The video was shot near the city of Kronstandt, which is located on Kotlin Island about 30 km (around 18 mi.) west of central St. Petersburg, in the Gulf of Finland.  The island, which is part of the city of St. Petersburg, is the long-time home of the Russian Baltic Fleet.  The waters around Kronsadt are generally completely frozen during the winter months.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of a cargo ship heading into the harbor of Kuwait City, compliments of top AirVuz contributor The Drone Life PK.  He filmed the Hong Kong flagged Yangtze Ambition bulk carrier sailing into the Shuwaikh Port, which is just to the southwest of the city center.  It's the primary import port for this oil-rich (but otherwise resource-poor) emirate.   The Shuwaikh port is part of an industrial complex that includes many of the country's manufacturing facilities.  

Check out this impressive drone video of a giant containership headed into the port of Tacoma, Washington, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot cward360.  The port is located at the head of Commencement Bay, at the southern end of Puget Sound.  In 2014, the ports of Tacoma and Seattle effectively combined operations, creating the Northwest Seaport Alliance; as a combined entity, as of 2018, it was the fifth-busiest containerport in the USA and the busiest on the country's West Coast outside of Los Angeles.

One of the major innovations in global trade has been the development of massive containerships capable of carrying billions of dollars of cargo around the world in a single voyage.  The newest Ultra Large Container Vessels are capable of handling over 19k 20 foot container equivalent  units (known as "TEU's" in the shipping trade).  Contributor Yaniv Schwartz flew his drone over one of these gigantic vessels in 2017, resulting in this amazing video. 

The title says it all.  Top drone pilot and aerial videographer David Etienne Durivage (profile name "Dizifilms") created this spectacular aerial video of a cargo carrying ship operating in the Canadian Arctic.  The video shows the containership plowing through the thick ice of the foreboding Arctic Ocean, and the bird's eye perspective of this scene is incredible.  A ship like this is capable of breaking through modest ice coverings; much thicker ice would require a dedicated icebreaker to clear a path.  

Ther expansion of the Panama Canal which was completed in the mid-2010's has profoundly altered the world of international shipping.  Pre-expansion, the largest "Panamax" ships which could pass through the canal's two lock systems were limited to about 5k 20 foot equivalent container units ("TEU's") of capacity.  As of June, 2016, the canal can now accommodate ships carrying up to 13k TEU's.  Contributor OCEANCRAFTS Motion Gallery brings us this drone video of the Maersk Emden, which is an example of a "Post-Panamax" ship.  

Located on Biscayne Bay, PortMiami is one of America's most scenic ports.  Better known for its cruise ships, the port also handles cargo traffic.  Whether carrying tourists or containers, virtually all shipping in and out of the port use the Government Cut, a channel which runs between Fischer Island and Miami Beach's South Pointe,  and which is the only deep draft connection between the bay and the Atlantic Ocean.   Check out this drone video of a cargo ship heading through the channel out to sea, compliments of cubanfly.  

Liquified natural gas (LNG) is a compressed form of natural gas which is transportable by specialized ships that can carry the clean-burning fossil fuel to distant markets.  In this drone video by OCEANCRAFTS Motion Gallery, you'll get an aerial view of a Japanese-flagged LNG tanker called the Al Khor.  Measuring just under 300 meters long (about 1k ft.), the ship can carry about 135k cubic meters of LNG or about 4.8 million cubic ft; this equates to about 80 million cubic meters of natural gas or around 2.8 billion cubic feet.  

Not as large or glamourous as their containership cousings, car carrier ships nonetheless play a critical role in the global auto trade.  Car carrier ships are expressly designed to carry thousands of passenger vehicles on journeys around the globe.  In this video, contributor Ryan Smith uses a drone to give us an aerial tour of the car carrier Metis Leader as it carries 8,500 vehicles through the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts (USA).

Bulk cargo ships can be easily distinguished from containerships; while the latter will be stacked with thousands of usually colorful shipping containers, the cargo of the former is hidden in the massive cargo holds. Dry bulk cargo comes in many varieties, but by weight most cargo is iron ore, coal, or agricultural foodstuffs. In this video, contributor Omer Gocken used a drone to capture a bulk cargo carrier cruising through the Straits of Bosphorus near the great city of Istanbul, Turkey. 

Among the assets most critical to the global economy are oil tankers.  Since the vast majority of petroleum is consumed far from where it is extracted, the world depends on a fleet of massive ships carrying this liquid cargo from producers to consumers.  These ships are able to transport oil virtually anywhere for just a few dollars per barrel.   Contributor Ryan Smith managed to use his drone to capture the tanker Iver Prosperity cruising through the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts, USA. 

Contributor Elb Cut Media used a DJI Phantom 4 drone to shoot this epic aerial video of a containership being pulled by tugboat through the Port of Hamburg.  Hamburg is Germany's largest port and one of the keys to its export-driven economy, although it lies not on the seacoast but 110 km (about 70 mi) upstream from the (North Sea) mouth of the Elbe River.  The video provides a great bird's eye perspective on the complex process of safely moving massive ships through crowded ports like this one.  

Contributor Red-fpv is one of the top FPV pilots in France, and his freestyle exploits are legendary.  In this video, he takes his FPV act out into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.  He and one of his friends flew their FPV racing drones over an oil tanker cruising in the international waters near the island of Malta.  Prepare to be blown away by the way he handles this Afromax tanker, a tanker class which runs up to 120,000 tons of gross deadweight.  

Among the other things which distinguish the Australian city of Melbourne is its seaport.  The city, which lies at mouth of the Yarra River in the southeastern state of Victoria, was actually not blessed with a great natural harbor like Sydney.  In the late 19th century, the river was widened to be able to accommodate larger ships.  Now, the port is the country's busiest containership port.  In this drone video by Steffshots, you'll get a bird's eye view of a giant containership heading out of the great port to sea.

If you want an idea of how much large containerships have revolutionized the economics of shipping goods, check out this fantastic drone video by contributor and pilot Passport_Aerial.  He put together a great top-down shot of a massive containership easing its way out of the port of Miami, Florida.  Those little "boxes" you see are each 20' and 40' containers.  With the largest ships carrying up to 20k 20 foot equivalents (TEU's), a single ship can transport several billions of dollars worth of goods.

Contributor Atamer.Medya used a drone to create this aerial view of a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) ship sailing in the Ukraine.  LPG is a compressed form of natural gas which allows it to be transported long distances by ship rather than pipeline.  Purpose-built LPG ships like this one can carry over one hundred million cubic meters (several billion cubic ft.) of natural gas.  LPG facilities and transportation permit the development of natural gas resources which would otherwise be stranded.

DereksAerial created this drone video of a barge plying the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee.  Barges are a unique type of cargo ship: they do not have onboard power.  The flat-bottomed ships are used to transport cargo on rivers or in other shallow waters that prohibit the deeper drafts associated with on-board propulsion.  During the great age of canal-building in the 19th century, before the widespread adoption of rail transport, barges were the critical form of transportation.  

Contributor Yaniv Schwartz was able to fly his drone over an ultralarge containership plying the waters of the Mediterranean.  The ship, operated by th Chinese state-owned Cosco shipping company, measures an incredible 366 meters or 1.2k ft.   That's about 10% longer than the world's largest aircraft carriers.  In terms of their physical size and cargo value, large containerships are the kings of the seas, although in terms of weight they are outdone by the largest oil tankers and dry bulk ships.  

It's not every day you see footage from a racing drone flying around a giant oil tanker.  Contributor Nilsen F. did just that.  He attached a GoPro Session 5 to a Cheetah x-frame FPV drone and found the Phaedra Bright cruising in international Mediterranean waters near Malta.  This ship is an Aframax-class oil tanker.  Aframax-class ships are the next size class from Panamax, meaning they are too large to pass through the Panama Canal.  Needless to say, the FPV views of this vessel are incredible.  

DVA winner Timelab.pro created this stunning drone video (DVOW winner in June 2019) of two Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers powering through the ice-covered Berents Sea.  Fifty Years of Victory and the Yamal are the only two active Arktica-class icebreakers.  These doubled-hulled vessels are just under 150 meters (486 ft.) long and displace about 25k tons.  Their two OK900A nuclear reactors produce an incredible 340MW of power, enough "juice" to fully supply a medium-sized city.

Here is an amazing aerial view of a large ship being towed into one of the USA's busiest ports.  The vessel is a containership operated by Evergreen Marine, a large Taiwanese shipping company which operates about 150 of these behemoths.  The ship is being towed into the Port of Tacoma, which lies south of Seattle on Washington's Puget Sound.  The ports of Tacoma and Seattle merged their operations in 2015 to form the Northwest Seaport Alliance, which is now the fourth-busiest container port in the United States.

Top content creator and pilot jesus_tr created this phenomenal drone video of a containership off the coast of İzmir in western Turkey.  One of Turkey's oldest cities, İzmir has been one of the most important eastern Mediterranean ports for milennia.  Turkey's third largest city and the largest in the country's (western) Aegean Region, it's also the home of the country's largest container port.  The city sits at the head of the Gulf of Izmir and features one of the region's finest natural harbors. 

Dry bulk carriers are the unsung "heroes" of international shipping.  Carrying cargoes that range from iron ore to soybeans, they are vital to keeping the population of food-importing countries properly fed, as well as to industries like steel manufacturing.  With their comparatively low value cargoes by weight, they sail at considerably slower speeds relative to containerships.  In this drone video by OCEANCRAFTS Motion Gallery, you'll see a number of dry bulk carriers heading out of Tokyo Bay, Japan.   

In this drone video by DudezUAV, you'll get an aerial view of one of the world's most unusual ships.  It's called the BOKA Vanguard, and it's the largest semi-submersible heavy lift ship in the world.  Built in South Korea's Hyundai shipyards, the vessel was launched in 2012.  It's used for transporting extremely heavy cargo such as floating oil rigs to their drilling locations around the world.  It's also capable of carrying other ships.  Using massive ballast tanks, the BOKA is capable of carrying up to 110k tons.  

Contributor Caldina3188 used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to create this awesome aerial view of a giant containership heading into port in Hong Kong.  The Port of Hong Kong sits in Victoria Harbor, one of the earth's finest natural harbors.  Part of the great delta of the Pearl River, it is one of the 5-6 busiest ports in the world, measured by twenty foot equivalent container units ("TEU's").  The ship shown in the video is operated by COSCO; the Chinese state-owned company is the world's third largest shipping concern.

Flying his custom 5-inch quad with the GoPro Hero 7 Hypersmooth, mini-quad pilot JZFPV takes us out on the water for a little early morning cruise in Savannah, Georgia. The costal city is known for its manicured parks, romantic antebellum architecture and historic downtown. You won’t see any of that in this FPV flight, but you will get those silky, smooth southern vibes thanks to JZFPV’s pristine flying skills and the gorgeous sunrise over the water.

Refrigerated cargo ships revolutionized the business of transporting perishable commodities, which previously had to be consumed near where they were grown.  Nowadays, reefers (as they are called) play a more modest role in transporting spoilable cargo, with most perishables now transported by air or by specially outfitted containers. In this drone video by OCEANCRAFTS MOTION GALLERY, you'll get an aerial view of a reefer called the Silent Star.  The Bahamas-flagged ship was built in 2001 and displaces about 10k tons.    

When it was launched in 2007, the NYK Venus was one of the world's largest containerships.  The Panama-flagged vessel has a length of just under 340 meters (about 1.1k ft.) and displaces just under 100k gross tons.  It carries nearly 10k 20 ft. equivalent units (TEU's) at speeds of up to nearly 25 knots.  In this drone video by OCEANCRAFTS Motion Gallery, you'll get an aerial tour of the giant ship, which was built in South Korea.  Incredibly, the largest containerships today have over double the displacement and carrying capacity.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot PO3SMITH is one of the world's most prolific (and proficient) aerial filmer of oceangoing ships.  Based in New England, he's filmed everything from 19th century sailing ships to coast guard cutters.  In this video, he was able to capture a medium-sized tanker vessel cruising at sunset in the Cape Cod Canal, which separates Cape Cod from the mainland of Massachusetts.  The Liberian-flagged ship was launched in 2008.  It has a length of about 185 meters (just over 600 ft.) and a deadweight of about 38k tons.