Amid a boom in global trade, the schooners of yesteryear have been replaced with steel-plated freighters that dwarf most other man-made structures. South Korea is the source of some of the largest of these sea-going behemoths.

PREVIOUS | NEXT Here, two workers perch atop a cherry-picker, hosing down the prow of the Ottoman Dignity, a Turkish-owned crude oil carrier destined for the Mediterranean. The ship's eight-story-tall hull still bears scarlike weld lines that trace the massive subsections of the ship's steel skin.