TT Seawise Giant—formerly Oppama; later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, and Mont—was a ULCC supertanker and the longest self-propelled ship in history. She was built in 1974–1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Seawise Giant's engines were powered by Ljungström turbines. The ship 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 and a length of 458.45 m, the ship was incapable of navigating the English Channel,[3] the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal. She is generally considered the largest self-propelled ship ever built.[4][5] In 2013, her overall length was surpassed by 30 m by the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) installation Shell Prelude, a monohull barge design 488 m long with 600,000 tonnes displacement.[6].
The ship was damaged in an airstrike in 1988 during the Iran–Iraq War but later repaired and restored to service.[7] The vessel was moored off the coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf at the Al Shaheen Oil Field in 2004 and converted to a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit.[8]
Seawise Giant was sold to Indian ship breakers and renamed Mont for her final journey in December 2009. After clearing Indian customs, the ship sailed to Alang Ship Breaking Yard in Alang, Gujarat and beached for scrapping, which was completed in 2010.[8][9]
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).[11] 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 unknown 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.[4]
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.[4][12]
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.[26]
Despite her 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 at 564,763 tonnes.[27][28]
Seawise Giant was featured on the BBC series Jeremy Clarkson's Extreme Machines while sailing as Jahre Viking. According to captain Surrinder Kumar Mohan,[29] the ship could reach up to 16.5 knots in good weather.
See also
- List of longest ships
- TI-class supertanker
- Freedom Ship
Further reading
External links
References
- retrieved 16 October 2012^
- —^
- The remarkable story of the largest ship ever built telegraph.co.uk, 1 March 2018, retrieved 6 October 2022^