Knock Nevis : The Journey of the World’s Largest Ship from Japan to Alang,India

M/V Knock Nevis was the world’s largest ship ever until it was scrapped in one of the ship breaking yards of Alang, India in 2010. The supertanker, which was known as the most massive ship ever built by man, had an extremely dramatic life. From its maker’s shipyard in Japan to its death knell in Alang, the ship had been through a series of interesting incidents right from the start. In this article we trace the very interesting life of Knock Nevis – the greatest ship every built.

Tracing the Time-Line of Knock Nevis

Below we have tried to pen down the time line of Knock Nevis from the very start. It’s a pity that a vessel of such high prestige is now scrapped, but then something of that size for sure cannot be put in museums. Know the interesting life of the supertanker Knock Nevis below:

In 1979, a Greek Owner placed an order to Sumitomo Heavy Industries for building a tanker ship, which later became Knock Nevis. However, the owner failed to take delivery of the vessel and thus the ship was christened as Oppama by the makers itself.

The ship was then sold to the Orient Overseas Container Line, which asked the makers to increase the length and cargo capacity of the vessel. It took 2 years for the refit and at the end of which, the ship was re-launched as Seawise Giant.

Seawise Giant had a capacity of 564,763 metric tonnes deadweight, overall length of 458.45 meters, a beam of 69 meters and a draft of 24.611 meters. She had a total of 46 tanks and 31,451 square meters of deck space.

In 1988, the Seawise Giant was damaged and sunk during the Second World War (Iraq-Iran war) and was declared unusable.

After the war, Norman International bought the wreckage, got it repaired in Singapore, and launched it again as Happy Giant.

In 1991, Jorgen Jahre, a Norwegian shipowner, bought the ship and renamed her Jahre Viking.

In 2004, Jahre Viking was bought by the First Olsen Tankers and was renamed as Knock Nevis. Since then, it had been used as immobile offshore platform or FSO – a floating storage and offloading unit.

It was then bought by Amber Development Corporation and renamed as M/V Mont, for a single and last voyage to Alang, India in January 2010, where she was scrapped.

Check out some interesting videos of the Ship

Checkout the ultimate slideshow

You may also read Amazing Flip ship.

About Author

Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.

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