History
Seawise Giant was built in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. at their Oppama shipyard in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan as a 418,000 ton ULCC to be named the Porthos by a Greek owner. However, after the vessel was launched, he failed to take delivery, and it was christened Oppama by S.H.I.
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 156,000 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 m (1,504.1 ft) and a draft of 24.611 m (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. The rudder weighed 230 tons, the propeller 50 tons.
Seawise Giant was damaged during the Iran–Iraq War by an Iraqi air force attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on 14 May 1988 and carrying Iranian crude oil. She was declared a total loss and was laid up in Brunei Bay.
Shortly after the Iran-Iraq war, Norman International bought the wreckage of the ship and repaired her. She was renamed Happy Giant after the repairs. These repairs were done at the Keppel Company shipyard in Singapore after towing her from the Persian Gulf. She entered service in October 1991 as Happy Giant.
Jørgen Jahre bought the tanker in 1991 for US$39 million and renamed her Jahre Viking. From 1991 to 2004, she was owned by Loki Stream AS and flew the Norwegian flag.
In 2004, she was purchased by First Olsen Tankers Pte. Ltd., renamed Knock Nevis, and converted into a permanently moored storage tanker in the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf.
Knock Nevis was renamed Mont, and reflagged with Sierra Leone by new owners Amber Development Corporation, for her final voyage to India in January 2010 where she was scrapped. Her 36 tonne anchor was saved and sent to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum for exhibition.
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