Ship size comparison: cruise ships, carriers and submarines

Ship size comparison chart: from a canoe to a supertanker

The longest ship ever built was the supertanker Seawise Giant at 1,504 ft / 458 m, according to Guinness World Records – about 90 canoes end to end; it was scrapped in 2010. Among ships in service today, the biggest container ships reach 1,312 ft / 400 m – MSC Michel Cappellini, which its owner calls the world’s largest container ship, with a length MSC rounds to the meter – followed by cruise ships like Icon of the Seas at 1,198 ft / 365 m.

Every length here is the overall length, bow to stern, as the builder, the navy, a museum or Guinness World Records states it. Where an original did not survive, a replica stands in: the galleon is the Galeón Andalucía and the carrack the Santa María replica of the Fundación Nao Victoria; the Viking ship is the Gokstad ship in Oslo. Longest first:

Cruise ship size comparison: Icon of the Seas, Titanic and a ferry

Icon of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships today, is 1,198 ft / 365 m long – about 1.4 times the length of the Titanic (883 ft / 269 m) and 463 ft / 141 m longer than the car ferry Color Fantasy (735 ft / 224 m), which its operator calls the largest cruise ship with a car deck. The superyacht Azzam, the largest superyacht on record, measures 593 ft / 181 m, about 49 percent of the cruise ship. The Titanic was 883 ft / 269 m long according to the US Senate inquiry into its sinking – a giant in 1912, and shorter than many ships today. More in the guide “Titanic size comparison: how the ship measures up to today’s giants”.

Cruise ships are also tall and wide, but Height Studio compares ships by length, the number every shipyard publishes. In the length view each ship starts at the same line, so you can count how many people would fit along the hull: about 214 average young men (5 ft 7 in / 170.8 cm) lying head to toe for Icon of the Seas.

Aircraft carrier size comparison: next to cruise ships and buildings

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is 1,106 ft / 337 m long, 92 ft / 27.9 m shorter than Icon of the Seas (1,198 ft / 365 m) – so today’s biggest cruise ships outdo even this carrier in length. Stood on its stern, the carrier would rise 23 ft 4 in / 7.1 m above the top of the Eiffel Tower (1,083 ft / 330 m) and reach about 88 percent of the Empire State Building (1,250 ft / 381 m).

An Ohio-class submarine of the US Navy is 560 ft / 171 m long, about 51 percent of the carrier, and the battleship Yamato measured 863 ft / 263 m. Wooden sailing ships like those in pirate stories were far smaller: the galleon replica measures 180 ft / 55 m and the Santa María replica 93 ft / 28.3 m – about 6.1 galleons would fit along the carrier.

How to use Height Studio

1. Add yourself and others

   Open “Add person”, type a name and a height – 5′9″, 69 in, 175 or 1.75 m all work – and pick a figure, a build and a color. Children, teens and older people have their own silhouettes. “Add to comparison” puts the person into the chart.

2. Pick from the library

   In “Library”, type what you are looking for – a country, an animal, a building – or open a category. Every row shows the size and what was measured, and “Order” lists the figures A–Z or “Tallest first”.

3. Measure and compare

   Tap a figure to draw its measuring line across the chart. A card shows how much taller or shorter everyone else is and, for big things, how many of you it would take to reach the top.

4. Compare by length

   “Length” lines everything up by its length instead: ships, planes, trains, cars, whales and dinosaurs side by side from a start line, with people and rockets lying down. “Height” switches back.

5. Zoom, move and go full screen

   Pinch or use + and − to zoom, drag to move along the line-up, and “Fit all” brings everything back into view. “Full screen” gives the chart the whole screen; on a phone, turn it sideways for the widest view.

6. Share or save

   “Share link” copies a link with the whole comparison and “Save PNG” downloads it as a picture. In “Line-up” you can rename, recolor, reorder or remove every figure.

Popular comparisons

Tap one to load it into the chart above, then add yourself next to it.

• Cruise ship (Icon of the Seas) vs. RMS Titanic – 1,198 ft / 365 m against 883 ft / 269 m: about 1.4 times as long, a difference of 315 ft / 96 m.
• Cruise ship (Icon of the Seas) vs. USS Gerald R. Ford (aircraft carrier) – 1,198 ft / 365 m against 1,106 ft / 337 m: a difference of 92 ft / 27.9 m.
• USS Gerald R. Ford (aircraft carrier) vs. Ohio-class submarine (US Navy) – 1,106 ft / 337 m against 560 ft / 171 m: about 2 times as long, a difference of 546 ft / 166 m.
• Supertanker Seawise Giant (longest ship ever) vs. Container ship (MSC Michel Cappellini) – 1,504 ft / 458 m against 1,312 ft / 400 m: a difference of 192 ft / 58.4 m.
• RMS Titanic vs. Battleship Yamato – 883 ft / 269 m against 863 ft / 263 m: a difference of 19 ft 9 in / 6 m.
• Superyacht Azzam vs. Galleon (Galeón Andalucía replica) – 593 ft / 181 m against 180 ft / 55 m: about 3.3 times as long, a difference of 412 ft / 126 m.
• Gokstad Viking ship vs. Canoe (Old Town Discovery 169) – 75 ft / 23 m against 16 ft 9 in / 5.1 m: about 4.5 times as long, a difference of 59 ft / 17.9 m.
• Car ferry Color Fantasy vs. Research icebreaker Polarstern – 735 ft / 224 m against 387 ft / 118 m: about 1.9 times as long, a difference of 348 ft / 106 m.

Tips for better comparisons

• Measure in the morning, barefoot. You are tallest right after waking up and lose a little height over the day. The guide How to measure your height at home shows an exact method with a wall and a book.
• Start from an idea. “Ideas to try” below the chart loads ready line-ups – family, dinosaurs, the tallest buildings, the solar system – that you can change freely.
• Stand next to your country. Search for your country in “Library” and add its average man or woman, or open the average height by country page with the whole ranking.
• No account needed – but mind what a link shows. A shared link keeps the whole comparison in its address, so a bookmark saves it. Our server never sees that part, but anyone you send it to can read the names. Use initials for real people, or send the PNG.

How do I convert centimeters to feet and inches?

Divide the centimeters by 2.54 to get inches, then take out whole groups of 12 as feet: 175 cm ÷ 2.54 = 68.9 in, which is 5 ft 8.9 in – about 5′9″. The other way round, multiply the inches by 2.54: 5′9″ is 69 in, or 175.3 cm. Or leave it to the tool: type either one and switch with the “ft / in” and “cm / m” buttons. The chart rounds to the nearest inch; the line-up keeps the exact value.

What is measured: without shoes, at the shoulder, nose to tail

• People stand straight, without shoes. Children show the WHO median for their age; country averages are the mean height of 19-year-olds in 2019, estimated by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration from measured data.
• Four-legged animals are measured at the shoulder, as zoos and breed standards do. The figure stands with its shoulder on that height, so a horse’s head rises above the line.
• Long animals – snakes, whales, sharks and most dinosaurs – are measured nose to tail, so the drawing is scaled by its length. Dinosaur sizes are museum estimates from fossils.
• Buildings use their official height to the architectural top, spires included; mountains their height above sea level. Planets sit on the ground like balls and are drawn by their diameter, and altitudes such as the Kármán line run across the chart.

Where the numbers come from

The figures in the library rest on 406 source pages – nothing is guessed. The one exception is marked as such: mythical creatures are legends, so their sizes come from the stories that tell of them or are illustration sizes, and each one carries a legend tag. Typical values are averages or the middle of the range a source gives, so real individuals vary. A few of the main sources by category:

• People & ages: World Health Organization, NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)
• Famous people: Guinness World Records, NBA.com, Team USA
• Sports: FIBA, Volleyball World, International Journal of Morphology
• Animals: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Animal Diversity Web, American Kennel Club
• Prehistoric: Natural History Museum, London, Field Museum, Chicago, Guinness World Records
• Mythical creatures: Project Gutenberg, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Internet Archive
• Tiny world: Animal Diversity Web, The Wildlife Trusts, Royal Horticultural Society
• Objects: The IFAB, FIBA, FIVB
• Vehicles: Lufthansa Group, NASA, SpaceX
• Buildings: CTBUH Skyscraper Center, U.S. National Park Service, Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District
• Nature: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Woodland Trust, Guinness World Records
• Space: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Science, NASA
• Altitudes: FAI, NASA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Countries: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

Every source with its link is on the sources page.

More height comparisons

• Height comparison chart
• Average height by country
• Dinosaur size comparison
• Tallest buildings in the world
• Tallest man in the world
• Animal size comparison
• Bear size comparison
• Cat size comparison
• Shark size comparison
• Spider size comparison
• Length comparison
• Planet size comparison