These Are the Enormous Ships That Could Transport the USS Fitzgerald

It would not be the first time for sure. No matter how bad the damage is I do see an heavy lift op the the Fitz's future.

They are awesome machines. I'd love to sail on one some day. I'm not in the habit of sinking perfectly good ships, and would love to try! That said, I always chuckle at media's hyperbole regarding the size of ships in general. The submersible ship in question that might transport the Fitz back to the US is 30k tons. Nearly 3 times the size of the Fitz herself. However...that pales in comparison to, say, a carrier @ 100k tons. Pretty impressive, right? Not so fast. The largest merchant ship I've ever been on was 300k tons -- 3 times the size of a carrier. And the largest ship ever constructed, the Knock Nevis, was 600k tons -- fully SIX TIMES the size of a carrier by deadweight tonnage. She was so big and unique that, when the Iranians SANK her, it was deemed worth it to re-float her and put her back in service. Oil tankers, bulk ships, and container ships are all regularly MUCH more massive than aircraft carriers.