The tanker Seawise Giant during its reparations at Hitachi shipyard of Singapore on December 27, 1990 after being hit by Iraqi Exocet during the Iran- Iraq war.

Most of you must be familiar with Titanic, but it is high time you heard the legend of the Seawise Giant. This is the extraordinary story of a ship that returned to life even after being sunk in a missile attack ordered by Saddam Hussein. 

Measuring 1,504 feet in length and having a cargo capacity of over 564,000 tons, the Seawise Giant was the world’s longest, biggest, and heaviest ship ever made. It was longer than the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building. 

“Her deck covered more area than six football fields. End to end, she was just over 1500 feet — longer than the Empire State Building is tall,” Andrew Boyd, an expert in industrial engineering from the Univerisity of Houston, said.  

The giant vessel sailed the sea for over two decades, and when it finally retired, it took more than a year and 18,000 workers to break it down and turn it into scrap. Humans never again dared to make another ship of the magnitude of the Seawise Giant.

Birth of the Seawise Giant

In the late 1970s, Tokyo-based ship maker Sumitomo Heavy Industries received an order from a Greek businessman to build a huge supertanker. Surprisingly, in 1979, when the ship was almost complete, the businessman backed out. 

Some sources suggest he went bankrupt, while others claim he changed his mind. However, the reason behind his decision not to buy the Seawise Giant has yet to come out. 

Two years later, Tung Chao Yung, the owner of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), a Hong Kong-based logistics company, contacted the Sumitomo staff. He was interested in buying their supertanker, but had one condition.

Yung wanted the ship to be bigger, and the Japanese ship-maker agreed. Finally, when Yung’s company received the supertanker, it was 1,504 feet long. Its rudder (steering system) alone weighed 230 tons.

It was Yung who gave it the name “Seawise Giant.”

This supertanker was unlike anything that ever roamed the sea. It was so big that if a sailor had to turn the ship, he would at least require 2.719 square miles of empty area. 

Moreover, if the vessel was moving at its maximum speed (16.5 knots, ~30.5 km/h) and the captain wanted to stop, they would’ve had to cover another 5.6 miles before the ship slowed down and eventually stopped.

Stopping a large ship like Seawise Giant immediately is not practical and safe once on the move. This is because the inertia generated by its immense size can shake things inside. Imagine sitting in a large, fully loaded, fast-moving bus, and the driver suddenly applies brakes. 

However, Seawise Giant remained a valuable asset for OOCL. For the next seven years, the company regularly used the vessel to transport crude oil between the US and the Middle East. 

What caused the death and revival of Seawise Giant 

Everything changed for the Seawise Giant in 1988. It was the year when Iraq and Iran were at war. On May 14, 1988, the ship fully loaded with Iranian crude oil was about to depart from Iran’s Larak Island when suddenly the Iraqi Air Force began dropping bombs and missiles in the area.

The oil in Seawise Giant’s tanks caught fire and within a short duration of the attack, the glorious vessel was on fire. It underwent serious damage and eventually sank. However, this was not the end of its journey.

By the time the war was over, OOCL suffered massive losses due to the sinking of the Seawise Giant. They knew where the giant vessel sank, but they left it as it was, as their analysis showed that retrieving and repairing the supertanker was not economically viable. 

“She was declared a total constructive loss and laid up in Brunei Bay. But the tides of fortune had other things in store for her.” Surrinder Kuman Mohan, a sailor who served as the captain of the Seawise Giant for 10 years, said in an interview.

This was when a Norwegian company, Normal Internation, saw a big opportunity. They decided to bring back, repair, and own the vessel. It cost them millions of dollars, but eventually, they could fix the vessel using 3,700 tons of steel.

They also changed the supertanker’s name to Happy Giant. However, Normal International could only briefly keep the ship to themselves, as many wealthy folks began showing interest in buying it. 

Seawise giant’s glorious return to the sea

In 1991, Normal International received an offer they couldn’t refuse. Jørgen Jahre, a shipping mogul from Norway paid them $39 million and bought Happy Giant which he renamed Jahre Viking.

Soon the supertanker was again active in the business of transporting oil. Jahre’s company hired a team of 40 crew members led by captain Surrinder Kumar Mohan who successfully operated the vessel for the next 10 years.

Because of its size, the ship also received widespread media attention. Some of its voyages were also featured in TV shows and documentaries. 

“The vessel has received extensive media coverage in the past. BBC’s Discovery channel has featured T. T. Jahre Viking, interviewed with BBC by “Jeremy Clarksons. The program “Extreme Machines” was shown on television worldwide several times, including in India. Another program, “Building the Biggest“, received wide coverage worldwide,” Mohan said.

However, the rules and requirements of sea trade changed over time. In the early 2000s, oil shipping companies switched from big, old, and slow vessels to small, fast, and highly maneuverable ones. 

Compared to modern vessels, Jahre Viking required much more fuel and had higher operational costs. Additionally, due to its length, it couldn’t travel easily and quickly through important but narrow trade routes such as the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal.  

All these challenges eventually forced Jahre to sell the world’s largest ship to First Olsen Tankers, a shipping company with a secret plant to make money from the Seawise Giant without sending it to the sea.

The last hurrah of the longest ship

The first Olsen Tankers received the ship in 2004. They renamed it Knock Nevis and used it for five years as a stationary storage facility at the Al Shaheen Oil Field in Qatar. 

Finally, when the vessel remained no longer suitable for storing tanks, it was sold to a ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, India, and renamed Mont. 

Soon, Seawise Giant embarked on its final journey and arrived at its destination in December 2009. For the next year, 18,000 workers dismantled it into pieces. 
The only part of the supertanker that exists today is its anchor, which weighs a whopping 36 tons and is exhibited at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

“To my great regret, I do not think another vessel of the size of Jahre Viking will ever be built, as it is not financially viable considering the current new building cost, legislation of double hulls, and the demand for the crude oil,” Mohan said.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Rupendra Brahambhatt Rupendra Brahambhatt is an experienced writer, researcher, journalist, and filmmaker. With a B.Sc (Hons.) in Science and PGJMC in Mass Communications, he has been actively working with some of the most innovative brands, news agencies, digital magazines, documentary filmmakers, and nonprofits from different parts of the globe. As an author, he works with a vision to bring forward the right information and encourage a constructive mindset among the masses.