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Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Majesty of the Seas

Monday, 5th February 2007 by James

Most driveways around the world are reserved for parking the family car, but 58 year old ex-coal miner Francois Zanella uses his driveway to park his personal home-made cruise ship.

The ship is a 1/8th reproduction of the Royal Caribbean International cruise-liner, Majesty of the Seas. Mr. Zanella spent 11 years constructing it, by hand, in his hometown of Morsbach, Moselle, France. With sponsorship from various local companies he built the hull, installed two 100 hp engines, decorated the 160m² internal living space and eventually launched the vessel on 23 June 2005.

At 33.5m long, 4.75m wide and 90 tons the mini-Majesty of the Seas is a fully functional canal boat and is now driven around the canals of Europe. This photo of Mr. Zanella gives a good idea of the ship’s scale.

The real Majesty of the Seas is also available on Google Earth, seen here docked in the Port of Miami. However, this version certainly won’t fit in the canals of Europe - it weighs 73,941 gross tons and accommodates up to 2,744 passengers whilst cruising around Nassau, Coco Cay and Key West.

The whole story of Francois’ model, and Wikipedia for Majesty of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas (mini).

Thanks: Mathieu Mangeot & Aurelien_F & OGO50

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Locations: Florida, France / Categories:

5 Responses to 'Majesty of the Seas'

  1. 1. Frank Taylor says: February 5th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

    Nice story James! I hadn’t heard about this guy before.

  2. 2. Ben says: February 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    Yeah, there was a documentary on German TV about this guy. One day he called the manufacturer of the Majesty of the Seas and asked for some blueprints as he wanted his 1:8 scaled ship to be as original as possible, and the engineer was like “yeah ok … … wait! … that’s 33 meters! Are you f—ing nuts??”

  3. 3. R2Lamigra says: February 6th, 2007 at 10:21 pm

    Amazing….absolutely amazing!!!!!

  4. 4. Rob says: February 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    Worlds largest Cruise Ship:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_Seas

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  5. 5. Stephen says: February 9th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Believe it or not, these ships do fit through the canals of Europe - well, some of them at least. Check out Norwegian Dawn built in Papenburg, North Germany at the Meyerwerft. Once finished, the ships are moved out to the North Sea by way of the local waterways, eventually emerging from the River Ems. I heard they have to dismantle the local bridges every time!

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

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