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

Discover the fascinating journey of Knock Nevis, the world's largest ship, from Japan to Alang, India - Merchant Navy Info - Blog

Knock Nevis is the largest ship / sea-wise giant ever built and also continues to entertain sea lovers for decades and to this day. There are different types of ships in the world used for different purposes. For example, there are container ships used to transport cargo. There are cruise ships for luxury vacations, battleships used by the navy,  fishing boats, and also more. All of these different types of boats come in different sizes. You may be wondering, what is the largest ship ever built by mankind? This article provides an answer to this question.

The largest ship ever built by mankind had various names but was widely known as Knock His Nevis. It is interesting to know that this ship was longer than some of the tallest buildings in the world. Below are some interesting facts about this ship and also its lifelong journey from construction to dismantling.

What was Knock Nevis?

Knock Nevis was a supertanker ship. This was the longest ship built in the history of the shipping industry. It was manufactured by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, a company based in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. This ship had the largest carrying capacity in history. Her displacement when fully loaded was 657,000 tons. This made it the most difficult format of all. The draft is 24.6 meters. To this day, it is considered the largest ship of all time. Knock Nevis had several other names, including ‘Sea Wise Giant’, ‘Happy Giant’, ‘Years Viking’, ‘Obama’ and also ‘Mont’.

Knock Navi range!

There are many historical accounts of how large this ship was. Knock Nevis was almost twice the size of the Titanic. It was large enough to fit four soccer fields or also soccer fields on the deck of the ship. Knock Nevis took 8.8 miles to stop. She also had a turning radius of over 2 miles. The huge ship was over 1,500 feet long. It was too large to pass through the English Channel or the  Suez and Panama canals. The length of the ship from tip to tip was 458.45 meters. This is higher than the Empire State Building in New York or the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The Empire State Building is 443 meters high, and the Petronas Towers is 424 meters high. The ship weighed over 564,000 tons.

History of Knock Nevis  

Birth 

In 1974, the Greek owner commissioned Sumitomo Heavy Industries to build a large tanker. Construction took a total of five years. The order was delivered in 1979 from the same industry. Unfortunately, the Greek customer went bankrupt at the time of delivery and refused to accept the ship. The ship’s manufacturer called it Oppama. The ship was then put up for sale and eventually purchased by a Hong Kong-based company called  Hong Kong Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL). The company increased the ship’s length by many more meters. This process took almost two years to complete.

Life

At the end of her life, this ship was launched in 1981 under the name “Sea Wise Giant”. As already mentioned, the Sea wise Giant had a carrying capacity of more than 564,000 tons and a length of 458.45 meters. She also had a width of 69 meters and a draft of almost 25 meters. Knock Nevis had over 31,451 square meters of deck space and a total of 46 tanks. It was part of the war between Iran and Iraq. In 1986, it was hit by an Exocet missile in shallow waters off Iran’s Kharg Island.

It sank into these waters. The ship was transporting Iranian oil when it was attacked by an Iraqi parachute bomb. The ship caught fire, caught fire, and eventually sank. But the story of the largest ship in human history doesn’t end there. In 1989, nearly a year after her sinking, the ship was recovered from the seabed by a Norwegian conglomerate called Norman International, which purchased the wreck. 

The wreck was transported to Singapore for extensive repairs. The ship was so badly damaged that it took a long time to repair it. The ship was then repaired in Singapore. She was renamed Happy Sea Wise Giant in Singapore. In 1991, the ship was sold again to a Norwegian shipowner named Jørgen Hers Jarls. He renamed her ship Years Viking. In 2004, her ship was sold again. This time, I purchased First Olsen Tankers. They renamed the ship Knock Nevis, which became the ship’s most common name. This is the same name it is called today. Subsequently, the ship was used many times as a mobile offshore platform or floating storage and unloading unit.

End

At the end of January 2010, the Amber Development Corporation bought back her ship and changed her ship name to her M/V Mont. They just brought this ship for the last voyage. The trip ended in Alang, India. Eventually, it was whittled down to its final destination. This was the end of the journey of the life of the largest ship ever built by mankind. No other ship has been built to match the capacity and size of  Knock Nevis. This ship was bought and sold many times throughout its life. Below is a timeline summarising the life of  Knock Nevis.

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