World’s largest ship’s final destination is Gujarat’s Alang

World’s largest ship Knock Nevis(Mont) will arrive at Gujarat’s Alang-Sosiya shipyard in next some days. According to sources in Gujarat Maritime Board, this gigantic ship will arrive at ship breaker Sanjay Mehta owned Priya Blue plot no. V-1 through Shreeji Shipping agency. Ship breaking masters at world’s biggest ship breaking yard in Gujarat estimates it will take at least one year to break this hypergiant ship completely.

About the ship

The Knock Nevis is a massive ship, currently used as a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO). Owned by the Norwegian company Fred Olsen Production, she was previously a supertanker and still holds the record as the longest ship ever built.

When plying the sea, the vessel had a fully laden draft of 24.6 m (81 ft), rendering it unable to navigate the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal when its load was up to capacity. As a tanker she was known as the Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking.

Knock Nevis was built in 1979 at Sumitomo Heavy Industries’s Oppama shipyard as Seawise Giant for a Greek owner who proved unable to take delivery. 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 87,000 metric tons of cargo capacity through jumboisation.Two years later she was relaunched as Seawise Giant.

After the refit, the ship had a capacity of 564,763 metric tons deadweight (DWT), a length overall of 458.45 metres (1,504.1 ft) and a draft of 24.611 metres (80.74 ft). She had 46 tanks, 31,541 square metres (339,500 sq ft) of deck space, and drew too much water to pass through the English Channel.

From 1979 to 2004, she was owned by Loki Stream AS and flew the Norwegian flag.

Damaged during the Iran–Iraq War(14 May 1988) while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, she was declared a total loss and laid up in Brunei. At the end of the war she was towed to the Keppel Company shipyard in Singapore, repaired, and relaunched in October 1991 as the Happy Giant. For her reconstruction was needed 3.200 Ton steel and 32 Kilometer new pipelines.

Jorden Jahre bought the tanker in 1991 for US$39 Million and renamed her Jahre Viking.

In 2004, she was bought by First Olsen Tankers Pte. Ltd., renamed Knock Nevis, and converted into a permanently moored storage tanker moored in the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf.

Knock Nevis has just been renamed Mont, and reflagged with Sierra Leone, for a single voyage to India which will see the world’s largest ever ship be scrapped.

The Knock Nevis was the longest ship ever constructed, longer than many of the world’s tallest buildings are tall. Though slightly smaller than Taipei 101 at 509.2 metres (1,671 ft) and the Sears Tower at 527.3 metres (1,730 ft) from street level to top of antenna, she is larger than the Petronas Twin Towers at 452 metres (1,480 ft).

In spite of its great length, the Knock Nevis is not the largest ship, ranking fifth in gross tonnage at 236,710 GT, behind the four 274,838 to 275,276 GT Batillus-class supertankers, the largest self-propelled objects ever constructed.

Source: Wikipedia, and other online essays on the subject

World’s largest ships

Comparing tallest buildings with this ship

Details

IMO No: 7381154
Built: 12/1976
Type: Tanker
Status: In service as FSO.
SubType: Crude
Flag: Norway (NIS)
DWT: 564,761 ( After reconstructing )
Draft: 24.61
Builder: Sumitomo H.I. (1016)
GT: 236,710
LOA: 458.45
Owner: First Olsen Tankers Pte. Ltd.
NT: 214,793
Beam: 68.86
Speed/Cons: 13.00/-
Class: NV
Depth: 29.80
Engine Type: Sumitomo Stal-Laval AP steam turbines, 50.000 PS, 37300 kW by 85 RPM
Cubic: 658,362

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