JAHRE Viking, the biggest ship, the biggest moving object that mankind has ever built, was first delivered as King Oppama in 1978. The vessel size was then 450,000 DWT tonnes. Shell France, built three vessels of 550,000 DWT tonnes. When CY Tung in Hong Kong bought over the King Oppama, he wanted the world’s biggest largest ship and sent the vessel to Japan for enlargement. The length of the ship was extended by 80 metres and the dead weight capacity was increased to 564,000 tonnes and the vessel’s new name was SEAWISE GIANT.
The vessel was now bigger than anything that had sailed before. The length was 454 metres and the beam 69 metres. There was room for four (4) football fields on deck! Unfortunately, the vessel was bombed by Iraqi Mirage jets on the 14th May 1988 during the conflict between Iraq and Iran. The vessel was salvaged. Viking was part of the inspection team and handled the complete engine room repairs at Keppel Singapore after the vessel got new Owners and sailed again as JAHRE VIKING. Note that Viking was roped in as steam turbine specialists, representing STAL-LAVAL of Sweden (later ABB, now Siemens). It is notable that all the above vessels, the world’s four largest tankers had STAL-LAVAL main propulsion turbines.