Rotterdam has the largest port in Europe, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland and into France. In 2003 Singapore took over, and in 2005 Shanghai, as the world's busiest port. In 2006, Rotterdam was the seventh largest port in the world in terms of containers (TEU) handled.

The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, has been completed.

In 1872, the Nieuwe Waterweg ('New Waterway') opened, a ship canal constructed to keep the city and port of Rotterdam accessible to seafaring vessels as the natural Meuse-Rhine channels silted up. The canal proper measures approximately 6.5 kilometers (4 mi) from the western tips of its protruding dams to the Maeslantkering ('Maeslant Barrier'). Many maps, however, include the Scheur as part of the Nieuwe Waterweg, leading to a length of approximately 19.5 kilometers (12 mi).

Richards Bay is one of South Africa's largest harbours. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, (forceful), on the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

It began as a makeshift harbour that was set up by Commodore of the Cape, Sir Frederick Richards during the Boer War of 1879. In 1935 the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created to protect the ecology around the lagoon and later by 1943 it expanded into the Richards Bay Park. The town was laid-out on the shores of the lagoon in 1954 and proclaimed a town in 1969. In 1976 Richards Bay harbour was converted into a deep water harbour with railway and an oil/gas pipeline linking the port to Johannesburg. Two aluminium smelters and a fertiliser plant have been erected at the harbour. Iron ore, rutile (titanium oxide) and zircon are mined from the sand dunes close to the lagoon by Richards Bay Minerals Richards Bay Minerals. Local exports include coal, aluminium, titanium and other heavy minerals, granite, ferrochrome, paper pulp, woodchips and phosphoric acid.

Her Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport (HMS Drake), is one of three operating bases for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth). HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon. It is the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. The adjacent Royal Dockyard is owned and operated by Devonport Management Limited (DML) and is commonly called Devonport Dockyard.

In 2006 the Ministry of Defence announced that a review would be undertaken to examine the future of the three Naval Bases. The Naval Base Review is seeking to examine the long term future needs of the Royal Navy, with the most likely outcome being either retaining the three current Naval Bases, but with reduced capacity in each, or closing one of the two on the south coast of England.

Harbour in Singapore - one of the world's biggest.

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The RMS Titanic's place in dock in Southampton. During Titanic's maiden voyage (from Southampton, England; to Cherbourg, France; Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland; then New York City), she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday 14 April 1912, sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 on Monday 15 April, having broken into two pieces at the aft expansion joint.

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Meyer Werft is the only remaining shipyard in Papenburg.

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Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries began as a shipyard located in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The shipyard has built many types of ships continuously since then, the most famous being the RMS Titanic.

Harland and Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland (1831–1895) and Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913, in the UK from age 14). Harland had bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island, in which he was employed as general manager, from Robert Hickson in 1858. Their main business today is ship repair and conversion work, ship design and bridge building. Harland and Wolff also owns the world's largest dry dock, which is in Belfast.

After buying Hickson's shipyard, Harland made Wolff, his assistant, a partner in the company. Wolff was the nephew of Gustavus Schwabe, a financier from Hamburg. Schwabe had heavily invested in the Bibby Line, and the first three ships that the newly incorporated shipyard built were for the that line. Harland made a success of the business through several innovations, notably replacing the wooden upper decks with iron ones which increased the strength of the ships; and giving the hulls a flatter bottom and squarer section, which increased their capacity.

Gdańsk Shipyard (Stocznia Gdańska) is a shipyard in the city of Gdańsk, and one of the biggest in all of Poland. It is situated on the left side of Martwa Wisła and on the Ostrów Island. In the years prior to 1945, this area was part of the Danziger Werft and Schichau-Werft. During the times of the People's Republic of Poland it was known as the Lenin Shipyard and the Gdańsk Shipyard gained international fame when Solidarity (Solidarność) was founded there in September 1980.

In course of privatisation the status of company was changed in 1990 from the state owned company into the joint stock company with the National Treasury 61% in shares and 31% owned by employees. From that time the shipyard operated as the Stocznia Gdańska S.A.

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