Seawise Giant

The TT Seawise Giant—earlier Oppama; later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, and Mont—was a ULCC supertanker and the longest self-propelled ship in history, built in 1974–1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. She possessed the greatest deadweight tonnage ever recorded. Fully laden, her displacement was 657,019 tonnes.

At the time she was built, she was the heaviest self-propelled ship of any kind. With a laden draft of 24.6 m (81 ft) and a length of 1,504.10 ft, she was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal. Overall, she is generally considered the largest self-propelled ship ever built. In 2013 her overall length was surpassed by 30 m by the floating liquified natural gas installation Shell Prelude (FLNG), a monohull barge design 488 m long and 600,000 tonnes displacement. Seawise Giant's engines were powered by Ljungström turbines.

She was damaged in 1988 during the Iran–Iraq War, but was later repaired and restored to service. The vessel was converted to a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) in 2004, moored off the coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf at the Al Shaheen Oil Field.

The vessel was sold to Indian ship breakers, and renamed Mont for a final journey in December 2009. After clearing Indian customs, the ship sailed to Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang, Gujarat, where she was beached for scrapping, which was completed in 2010.

History


Seawise Giant was ordered in 1974 and delivered in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (S.H.I.) at Oppama shipyard in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan, as a 418,611-ton Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC). The vessel remained unnamed for a long time, and was identified by her hull number, 1016. During sea trials, 1016 exhibited severe vibration problems while going astern. The Greek owner refused to take delivery and the vessel was subject to a lengthy arbitration proceeding. Following settlement, the vessel was sold and named Oppama by S.H.I.

The shipyard exercised its right to sell the vessel and a deal was brokered with Hong Kong Orient Overseas Container Line founder C. Y. Tung to lengthen the ship by several metres and add 146,152 tonnes of cargo capacity through jumboisation. Two years later the ship was relaunched as Seawise Giant. "Seawise", a pun on "C.Y.'s", was used in the names of other ships owned by C.Y. Tung, including Seawise University.

After the refit, the ship had a capacity of, a length overall of 458.45 m and a draft of 24.611 m. It had 46 tanks, and 31541 m2 of deck space. When Seawise Giant was fully loaded, her 25 meter/81 foot draft was too deep for the ship to safely navigate the relatively shallow waters of the English Channel. The rudder weighed 230 tons, and the propeller weighed 50 tons.

Seawise Giant was damaged in 1988 during the Iran–Iraq War by an Iraqi Air Force attack while anchored off Larak Island, Iran on 14 May 1988 and carrying Iranian crude oil. The ship was struck by bombs. Fires ignited aboard the ship and on oil that escaped into the surrounding water, which blazed out of control. Contrary to some more recent online reports, the vessel did not sink; images of the burnt-out but still afloat vessel have been published online.

After the fires were extinguished, the remaining cargo was discharged to other tankers. The ship was declared a constructive total loss, which means the ship was intact but so damaged that it would cost more to repair it than the value of the repaired vessel.

Shortly after the Iran–Iraq war ended, a Norwegian investment firm managed by Finanshuset bought the damaged vessel, which had by then been towed to a lay-up location off Labuan. The manager was Norman International AS, a Norwegian ship manager that was subsequently dissolved in 1992. The vessel was subsequently towed from Labuan to Singapore and repaired at the Keppel Corporation. The ship was renamed Happy Giant, in line with Norman International’s tradition of naming tankers with the prefix «Happy» and bulkers with the prefix «Norman». She re-entered service in October 1991.

Jørgen Jahre bought the tanker in 1991 for US$39 million and renamed her Jahre Viking. From 1991 to 2004, she was owned by various Norwegian investment firms and flew the flag of Norway.

In 2004, the tanker was purchased by First Olsen Tankers, renamed Knock Nevis, and converted into a permanently moored storage tanker in the Qatar Al Shaheen Oil Field in the Persian Gulf.

Knock Nevis was renamed Mont and reflagged to Sierra Leone by new owners Amber Development for a final voyage to India where she was scrapped at Alang by Priya Blue Industries. The vessel was beached on 22 December 2009. Due to the length and the size of the vessel, scrapping only finished at the end of 2010. The ship's 36 tonne anchor was saved and donated to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum in 2010. It was later moved to a Hong Kong Government Dockyard building on Stonecutters Island.

Size record
Seawise Giant was the longest ship ever constructed, at 458.45 m, longer than the height of many of the world's tallest buildings, including the 451.9 m Petronas Towers.

Despite a great length, Seawise Giant was not the largest ship by gross tonnage, ranking sixth at 260,941 GT, behind the crane ship Pioneering Spirit and the four 274,838 to 275,276 GT Batillus-class supertankers. She was the longest and largest by deadweight: 564,763 tonnes.

Seawise Giant was featured on the BBC series Jeremy Clarkson's Extreme Machines while sailing as Jahre Viking. According to her captain, S. K. Mohan, the ship could reach up to 16.5 knots in good weather. It took 5+1/2 miles for the ship to stop from that speed, and the turning circle in clear weather was about 2 miles.