The Seawise Giant was a 564,763 ton super super-tanker. She was the longest and largest man-made creation on the sea — recalls the erection over 2,000 years earlier of the Great Wall of China — longest and largest man-made creation on the land. Two wonders of the old and new worlds: the Great Wall, relentlessly forging its way up and down mountain ramparts for 3107 miles on its interminable vigil of guarding an ancient land; the Seawise Giant, sailing ever onward in her vital role of carrying oil across the endless sea.

The super supertanker was originally built in 1979 at Sumitomo Heavy Industries's Oppama shipyard for a Greek owner who refused to take delivery of the vessel due to extensive vibration issues related to faulty gear design. C.Y. Tung bought the incomplete ship under an agreement the builder would increase its length so the deadweight tonnage could be increased from 480,000 to 564,763 tons. In creating the world's largest ship, the original Seawise Giant tanker was cut in two in the huge Nippon Kokan dock and the two sections were floated out and moored while the new midbody was floated in. The massive operation involved cutting the original tanker in two and inserting a specially-built midbody 267.2ft (81.45 meters) long and boosting the size by over 140,000 dwt, itself the equivalent of a good-sized tanker. The two sections were then moved back in and joined to the new midbody, making the new Seawise Giant.

After the refit, the ship had a capacity of 564,763 metric tons deadweight (DWT), a length overall of 1,504.1 ft (458.45 meters) and a draft of 80.74 ft (24.6 meters). She had 46 tanks, 339,500 sq ft (31,541 square meters) of deck space, and drew too much water to pass through the English Channel. She is a quarter of a mile long, her huge rudder weighs 230 tons, the propeller 50 tons and the 50,000 horsepower steam turbine engine driving it the largest single unit in a merchant ship. C.Y. Tung's spectacular creation of the Seawise Giant, with “Seawise” coined from his famous initials, was headlined in world newspapers and magazine.

HISTORY

At first, she operated between the Middle East and the USA but from about 1986 she was used as a floating storage ship and transshipment terminal in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. In May, 1988, the ship was attacked and heavily damaged by bombs dropped from Iraqi jets while lying at the Iranian Hormuz terminal in the Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Iran-Iraq War in late 1989, the wreck (which had by then been towed to Brunei) was bought by a Norwegian limited liability partnership ("KS-company") managed by Norman International. They had the wreck repaired by the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, and renamed the “Happy Giant”. However in 1991, before the repairs were completed, the KS-company managed by Norwegian shipping company became Jørgen Jahre, and the vessel was delivered from Keppel Shipyard as the “Jahre Viking”.

During the late 1990s, the majority of the KS-company was bought by Norwegian shipowner Fred Olsen through his company First Olsen Tankers. In March 2004, the ship was sent by her new owner, Fred. Olsen Production, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Olsen Tankers, to the shipyard Dubai Drydocks to be refitted as a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO). There, she was given her current name, “Knock Nevis”. The ship is now permanently moored in the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf, operating as a FSO.

View the S.T. Seawise Giant video