Knock Nevis - 
The world's largest ship ever

Do you think that once there was a ship of almost half kilometer long? Knock Nevis is the supertanker I’m talking about.

This sea giant is so large that four football (soccer) fields could be laid end to end on her deck. It takes 5.5 miles to stop with a turning circle of over 2 miles.

She is of 458.45 meters in length from tip to tip (LOA). That surpasses the height of Empire State Building in New York City (443 meters high), and Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (424 meters high).

The vessel has a beam of 68.8 meters, approximately the width of a football field.

She sits 24.6 meters in the water when fully loaded, which makes it impossible for her to navigate even through the English Channel, let alone man-made canals at Suez and Panama.

Largest vessel in the world

Isn’t she really large ship? Definitely, she is the longest and largest ship ever built in history.

In below picture, you can visually compare between the tanker (red color) and the tallest sky scrappers in the world.

Source: Wikipedia

If you want to compare the Knock Nevis with other mega ships of different types (Emma Maersk, RMS Queen Mary 2, MS Berge Stahl, and USS Enterprise), here it is.

Source: Wikipedia

For comparison, the supertanker is 61 meter longer than Emma Maersk, the world’s largest container ship.

Main particulars

Name	Knock Nevis
IMO	7381154
GT	260,941
NT	214,793
Laden Displacement	646,642 long tons
Light Displacement	81,879 long tons
Length (LOA)	458.45 m (1,504.10 ft)
Beam	68.8 m (225.72 ft)
Draught	24.611 metres (80.74 ft)
Depth	29.8 m (97.77 ft)
Propulsion	Steam Turbine
Speed	16 knots
Capacity	4,240,865 barrels (of crude oil)
Tonnage	564,763 DWT
Type	ULCC (Ultra Large Crude Carrier)
Ex. Names	Seawise Giant; Happy Giant; Jahre Viking
Post Name	Mont

History

• 1979: Commissioned at Sumitomo Heavy Industries' Oppama shipyard as Seawise Giant, originally by a Greek ship owner who went bankrupt before delivery;
  The shipyard then sold the newbuilding to Hongkong based OOCL who immediately had her lengthened by several more metters;
• 1981: Launched as Seawise Giant;
• 1986: hit by Exocet missiles in the Iran-Iraq War and sank in shallow water off Iran’s Kharg Island;
• 1988: A few months after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the Norwegian shipowner Anders Jahre bought the shipwreck, had her refloated, repaired by the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore;
• 1989: Renamed Happy Giant;
• 1991: Relaunched and renamed again, this time to the Jahre Viking;
• 2004: the ship was bought by Singapore based First Olsen Tankers and converted to an FSO - a Floating Storage and Offloading unit. She was also renamed to Knock Nevis. For years after that she was permanently moored in the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in Quatar waters of the Persian Gulf;
• Dec 2009: Sold to Indian scrapers, and renamed Mont for final journey to scrapping area;
• 2010: Scrapped.

After demolition of Mont, the title of the world’s largest ship will pass to other vessels, possibly the supertanker TI Asia and her sisters TI Europa, TI Oceania & TI Africa.

Videos

An interesting Youtube video about the supertanker by Jeremy Clarkson

Pictures

The super tanker at sea, once upon a time...

recently beached for demolition...

and finally, scrapped...

Still, remaining of the legacy: its refurbished anchor placed in Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

You may want to watch a slide show on Youtube

Related articles

• World's largest ship
• Largest containership over years
• Emma Maersk
• Elly Maersk

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