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Left a bit, right a bit. Celebrity Silhouette reverses 26 miles to reach the sea

It's bad enough trying to reverse a car, but can you imagine what it's like trying to do it with a £500 million luxury cruise ship the length of three football pitches?

Well Captain Dimitrios Kafetzis had to do just that ... and for 26 miles, manoeuvring in some places with little more than 2ft either side to play with, and being careful no to scratch the paintwork.

The challenging 12-hour exercise was necessary to relocate Celebrity Silhouette, the new Celebrity Cruises ship, from its inland shi yard in Papenburg, Germany, to the open sea in Emshaven, Netherlands.

Celebrity Silhouette negotiates a lock during her journey down the River Ems

It was Silhouette’s first journey, and the ship is unlikely to encounter anything quite like it again.

The scale of the ship and the geography of the shipyard forces the captain to steer the ship backwards out of the yard, assisted by tugboats fore and aft, and along the River Ems.

Preparations for the journey – termed a ‘conveyance’ by ship owners Celebrity Cruises – include removing power lines and railway tracks that normally pass over the river to allow the ship to pass through.

Celebrity Silhouette makes a fine sight as she negotiates her passage along the River Ems

The journey also has totake place at high tide to ensure there is enough water in the river, and to prevent the possibility of any wind causing mishaps.

The route along the River Ems includes various locks and other tight squeezes, travelling on an aqueduct over an autobahn (motorway). In places the 121ft metre wide ship will pass through gaps of only 125ft.

Travelling at less than four miles per hour, Celebrity Silhouette joins three sister ships that were also built in Papenburg and made the same complex journey.

After some finishing work is completed in Emshaven, the Netherlands, Celebrity Silhouette will sail to Hamburg where it will officially launch and be named on July 21.