It is an almost impossible endeavor: The Peter Pan, a gigantic car ferry shall become - even bigger. It is lengthened from 190 to a mighty 220 metres! How do the engineers do that? They cut the ferry into two parts and insert a 30-meter-long section in the middle, which is prefabricated in another shipyard, 200 kilometers away. All this – in just 58 days.
Because time is a crucial issue here, sixty workers already start preparing the ferry for her lengthening during its final crossing to the shipyard: German Dry Docks in Bremerhaven. The responsible engineers are nervous: to fit all the restrictions of the shipping company TT-Line, they have to apply a very special cutting method, that has never been used before. And in fact: the first problems arise, when they try to pull the two halves of the ship apart – each of them weighing several thousand tons. Some steel beams have snagged.
But this is not the only problem the crew will have to deal with: they can only move the gigantic single pieces of the ship when the dock is flooded. Lose ends like the engine room therefore have to be sealed up watertight to save the sensitive technology. Will the welding seams hold? Will the mid section arrive on time in Bremerhaven? Will the three single pieces all fit together in the end? The first passengers are already booked on the new Peter Pan. A breathtaking race against time…
