On the Internet, you will most likely find outdated information that the largest tanker in the world in terms of deadweight is Knock Nevis. However, this is no longer quite the case, and let's see why. During its existence, this supergiant has changed several names: Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, Mont. Moreover, he managed to change not only the name, but also the dimensions, as well as the scope of its application.
Let's start with the story.
ULCC (Ultra Large Crude Oil Carrier) Knock Nevis was designed by the Japanese company Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. (SHI) in 1974 and built at the Oppama shipyard in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. At the time of construction, the vessel had a maximum length of 376.7 meters, a width of 68.9 meters and a side height of 29.8 meters. Its deadweight was 418 610 tons. The tanker was driven by a Sumitomo Stal-Laval AP steam turbine with a capacity of 37,300 kW at 85 rpm. A 4-blade constant pitch propeller with a diameter of 9.3 meters was supposed to provide the tanker with a speed of 16 knots (29.6 km / h). On September 4, 1975, the tanker was solemnly launched. For a long time the vessel had no name and was named according to the building number of the hull - vessel No. 1016. During factory sea trials, an extremely strong vibration of the body was revealed when the machine was in reverse. This became the reason for the refusal of the Greek shipowners to accept the vessel. The refusal, in turn, led to lengthy litigation between builders and customers. Eventually, the Greek company went bankrupt, and in March 1976 the ship was taken over by SHI and named Oppama.
Its payload was 480,000 tons (typical modern oil tankers hold 280,000 tons).
But the Greek ship owner, apparently, did not find this enough. And he ordered an increase in the size of the tanker. After that, the Seawise Giant (as it was then called) was cut in half, and additional sections were added in the middle.
SHI, using its legal right of ownership, sold Oppama to Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Line, owned by tycoon CYTung, who instructed the shipyard to rebuild the tanker. It was planned to add a cylindrical insert to increase the vessel's deadweight by 156,000 tons. The refitting work ended two years later, in 1981, and the refurbished vessel was handed over to a shipowner under the name Seawise Giant and raised the Liberian flag.
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As a result of the restructuring, the maximum length of the vessel was 458.45, the draft for the summer load line was 24.611 meters, and the deadweight increased to a record 564 763 tons (according to the classification society Det Norske Veritas). The number of cargo tanks increased to 46, and the main deck area was 31,541 square meters. meter. After the restructuring, the monster had a displacement of 657,018 metric tons at full load, which, together with its size, made the Seawise Giant the largest ship ever to sail on Earth. However, the speed dropped to 13 knots. The sediment of the Seawise Giant made the Suez and Panama Canals and the Pas-de-Calais impassable for him.
As it turned out later, it was the figures that we mentioned above that became not only a plus, but also a minus of this giant. When fully loaded, the tanker sank almost 30 meters under the water. You probably noticed it in the photos
Due to its size, the tanker could not pass the Suez and Panama Canals, and it was also forbidden to pass through La Lance, since there was a high probability of running aground.
In 1981, after finishing all the work to increase the size, Seawise Giant finally began to work off the money invested in it. His route ran from oil fields in the Middle East to the United States and back.
However, the Iran-Iraqi war that was taking place at that time made its own adjustments in the life of the tanker. Since 1986, the vessel has been used as a floating terminal for the storage and further transshipment of Iranian oil. But this did not save the ship, on May 14, 1988, an Iraqi fighter attacked the Seawise Giant. The Iraqi fighter fired the Exocet anti-ship missile at the unique tanker, which was then located almost in the Persian Gulf (or rather, in the Strait of Hormuz, lying between Iran and the UAE, leading into the Gulf).
The tanker received significant damage and lost all oil. An uncontrolled fire broke out on the ship and the crew left him. 3 people were killed. The tanker ran aground near the Iranian island of Larak and was declared sunken.
Immediately after the end of the Gulf War, the sunken Seawise Giant was bought by the Norwegian company Norman International, most likely for reasons of prestige, raised and renamed Happy Giant. After the ascent, in August 1988, he raised the Norwegian flag and was towed to Singapore, where he underwent refurbishment at the Keppel Company shipyard. In particular, about 3.7 thousand tons of hull structures were replaced. Prior to entering service in October 1991, ULCC was sold to the Norwegian shipping company Loki Stream AS, owned by Jørgen Jahre, for USD 39 million and left the shipyard under the new name Jahre Viking.
The next changes in the life of the giant ship happened in 2004. After the adoption of laws prohibiting the entry of tankers without double hulls into US and European ports in 2004, Jahre Viking once again changed its owner and name. In March of the same year, it was bought by the Norwegian company First Olsen Tankers Pte. Ltd. and renamed to Knock Nevis. From that moment on, his career as a transport ship ended. In Dubai, the ULCC was converted into a Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) crude oil storage tanker and anchored in the offshore Al Shaheed oil field off the coast of Qatar.
In 2009, the tanker once again changes its owner and name. Mont, as the ship was now called, sets out on its last voyage. Its destination is India, or rather the world famous Alang ship graveyard. There, within a few months, the tanker is cut into pieces and sent for smelting.
It was sold to Amber Development Corporation for recycling. The new owner renamed Knock Nevis Mont and raised the Sierra Leone flag on it. In December 2009, he made his last crossing to the shores of India. On January 4, 2010, Mont was washed ashore near the Indian city of Alang, Gujarat, where its hull was cut into metal for a year.
Think about it: the giant's stopping distance is 10.2 kilometers, and the turning circle exceeds 3.7 kilometers! So, among other ships scurrying in these waters, this supertanker is like an elephant in a china shop.
When a tanker needs to be brought to an oil terminal, they take it in tow and pull it very, very slowly. It is easy to imagine what can happen if an error in maneuvering a vessel weighing almost a million tons can happen.
Technical characteristics of the supertanker Knock Nevis
Commissioned: 1976
Withdrawn from the fleet: 2010-04-01
Length: 458.45 m
Width: 68.86 m
Draft: 24, 611 meters
Power plant: steam turbines with a total capacity of 50,000 liters. from.
Speed: 13-16 knots
Crew: 40 people.
Weight of transported cargo: 564 763 tons
The only thing left of the world's largest ship is its 36-ton anchor, which is kept in the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.
There was another giant. The tanker was produced in 1976 - it took 10 months in time, as well as about 70,000 tons of metal and cash in the amount of $ 130,000,000. Moreover, the tanker was built according to the original design, and there was no modernization during its use. This grandiose vessel made five voyages annually, but since 1982 it began to stand idle many times, and in 1985 its owners decided to sell the tanker for scrap. This vessel was truly impressive in its size. It consisted of forty tanks, the total volume of which was approximately 667,000 m3.
It was about 414 meters long and 63 meters wide. The deadweight was over 550,000 tons. Oil was pumped here using four pumps. This powerful tanker was driven by four steam turbines, each with a capacity of 64,800 hp. The speed developed by the tanker was 16 knots. He consumed 330 tons of fuel per day. The tanker's crew consisted of 16 people.
After the giant was dismantled, the largest supertankers are four TI-class ships with double hulls: Oceania, Africa, Asia and Europe. They are 380 m long and surpass their competitors in terms of deadweight - 441,585 tons.
The representative of the Hellespont Fairfax tanker series was built in 2002 for the Canadian shipping company Hellespont Group at the Daewoo Heavy Industry Ltd shipyard in South Korea, and is one of the largest tankers in the world in the ULCC classification (Extra Large Oil Tanker). Next to him, the aircraft carrier will seem like a dwarf, and in one voyage it will deliver enough crude oil to fill the fuel tanks of cars of a state like Canada. The Hellespont Fairfax cost the owners $ 100 million. He became a miracle of the open seas and oceans. It was built by thousands of workers over a year and a half.
Hellespont Fairfax is a new generation double-hulled tanker vessel. Its size is shocking. As long as four football fields. Deck run is a mini marathon. With a reinforced double hull to prevent leakage, the vessel is capable of carrying seven times its own weight of oil. Building a tanker has become a gigantic engineering exercise. While the reason for the big ship is profit, there is concern for the environment behind the double hull. In the 1990s, legislators insisted that all new tankers should be built with two hulls. The outer shell absorbs force in a collision, while the inner one contains the hazardous cargo. This is how the evolution of ships began, which led to the creation of the Hellespont tankers.
A total of four identical Hellespont supertankers were built, but they already have different names and owners. In 2004, the two vessels Hellespont Fairfax and Hellespont Tapa were acquired by the Shipholding Group and were soon renamed TI Oceania and TI Africa, respectively. At this time, the Belgian company "Euronav HB" acquired two other tankers "Hellespont Alhambra" and "Hellespont Metropolis" and later renamed them into "TI Asia" and "TI Europe".
Modern tankers owe our geographic location. Oil is found in the Arabian Peninsula, and the people in North America and Europe need it the most. And a fleet of tankers for more than half a century has created a "bridge" between the countries.
For such supertankers, there are not many places in the world where they can come and unload. The start of the Hellespont Fairfax route was the terminals of Saudi Arabia, then the route through the Cape of Good Hope to the Gulf of Mexico to the terminals of Houston. It covers this distance in five weeks. After unloading, the vessel goes across the Atlantic to the Strait of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea, then through the Suez Canal to Saudi Arabia. The draft of a fully loaded vessel does not allow movement along the channel. Such delivery costs 400 thousand dollars, but the capabilities of the ship cover the costs.
There are twenty one tanks on board the tanker. The total capacity is 3.2 million barrels, which is enough to fill 15 thousand oil tankers. The tanks are separated for commercial reasons. They can carry various grades of crude oil. The vertical walls have a special coating that prevents sticky and oily oil from sticking. The piping system is located on the upper deck in order to timely detect the leak and not take up valuable volume for the cargo.
The engine, nine-cylinder and highly efficient, was first installed on this vessel. Conventional ships have seven cylinders, but the Hellespont has high power requirements. Crankshafts with pistons are directly connected to the propeller shaft, no neutral, first or other gears. Many vessels have two or more propellers, this tanker has one with a diameter of 10.5 meters and weighing 104 tons.
The vessel is automated to such an extent that only one person can keep it on course. In addition, all systems are duplicated, since on a long voyage the tanker is far from maintenance workers. Supertanker captains belong to a select group of seafarers, only the best sailors in the world are ready for such a job - he is responsible for the safety of cargo and for the lives of people. Video cameras are installed on board at five points for a better view of the vessel. For the crew, the cabins are furnished in European style and there is even a small pool. The vessel needs 4.5 kilometers to come to a complete stop.
Basically, supertankers are unloaded through a pipeline several kilometers offshore. As an addition to the safety of the ship against fire in the tanks, a fire extinguishing system is installed on board, which, between the hulls of the ship, distributes exhaust gases depleted in oxygen from the ship's engine, which prevents the fire from developing, and eventually disappears itself due to the absence of a source of combustion …
The outer part of the deck is painted dazzling white from excess heat and the evaporation of valuable cargo. The crew are given over dark glasses. The hull of the vessel is treated with seven layers of anti-corrosion and adhesive coating from hitchhikers (mollusks, shells and others). The inside of the case is also covered with a protective anti-abrasive coating to fight rust. The service life of the vessel is 40 years.
Hellespont tankers have truly become one of the largest vessels in shipbuilding history. Enough innovation has been put into them to be considered super ships.
Hellespont Fairfax tanker technical data:
Length - 380 m;
Width - 68 m;
Draft - 24.5 m;
Displacement - 234,000 tons;
Marine power plant - Sulzer 9RTA84T diesel engine;
Power - 50 220 hp from.;
Speed - 17.2 knots;
Crew - 37 people;