Seawise Giant: The amazing story of the largest ship ever built

As if that wasn’t enough, in those three decades of existence, Seawise Giant also Had to face attack from Saddam Hussein’s army In Iraq, who engulfed it in fire until it sank.

But like every great story of the sea, the disaster was far from over. It was reborn and remained active for many years.

This supertanker was built in 1979 at the Sumitomo Heavy Industries shipyard in Oppama, Japan.

Various sources indicate that a Greek magnate was the one who ordered it built, but he never achieved it. Then in 1981 it was bought by Hong Kong businessman Tung Chao-yung, owner of the sea transportation company Orient Overseas Container Line.

they named the ship sea ​​giant For a play on words with his father’s first name, tung chi-hwa,

According to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, its new owners did not feel it was big enough, so they ordered it to be built 140,000 tonnes of additional capacity added By adding another segment of length.

So this new supertanker has arrived Record length of 458.45 meters, It is more than the size of skyscrapers like Petronas Towers (252) or from malaysia New York Empire State (381).

was about 100 meters longer than sea ​​sign (365), is the largest tourist cruise ship in the world today. and more than 200 meters long titanic (269).

The length of its beam (ship’s width) was also 68 meters. In its huge tanks it could carry almost 4 million barrels of oilEnough to take the car to the Sun about 10 times (round trip).

And when it was fully charged, it turned on weight 657,000 tons, To lift that amount of weight, it burned 220 tons of fuel a day.

When the BBC visited the ship in 1998, Captain Surinder Kumar Mohan reported that it could travel at a speed of about 16 knots (about 30 km/h).

“To apply the brakes and stop completely, it requires a space of about 8 km,” the captain said.

And turning it in the opposite direction, he said, was a more complex task: about 3 km of space was required to achieve this.

But the ship the BBC visited was a renovated Seawise Giant.

And at the height of the oil trade between the Middle East and the West, this supertanker made deliveries around the world as well. served as a floating reservoir,

This was the last assignment he completed in May 1988, when he was stationed on the Iranian island of Larak. The Persian Gulf was going through the last months of the war between iraq and iran,

without prior notice, The Seawise Giant was attacked by bombs from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces.

As expected, the ship burst into flames and sank in the shallow waters of the bay.

Once the war ended, the Norwegian firm Norman International wanted to save the ship. She was refloated and repaired in 1991 with 3,700 tons of new steel.

It is no longer the Seawise Giant, as it was renamed good demon,

With its rebirth, the supertanker is back in operation, but now carrying fuel for merchant transportation firm KS. It was renamed again, now as Jahre Viking,

Already in the 1990s, the industry was moving towards more fuel-efficient tankers, an area in which Jahre Viking was not the best.

Furthermore, the fact that it was very big to cross major sea routes such as Suez Canal or Panama CanalStarted playing against its profitability.

So in 2004 it was sold again to the Norwegian First Olsen Tankers, which gave it a facelift. floating warehouse of oil.

Now its name has been changed knock nevis, towed to the coast of Qatar. and finally ceased operations in 2009, when it was renamed mont And was taken to India to be cut into pieces.

Of the enormous seagoing giant, only its 36-ton steel anchor remains, which is displayed in a garden of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, the port that gave birth to it as the largest supertanker ever built.