Whenever there is a talk about the world's biggest ship, Titanic is mentioned. But do you know that there was a ship in the world that was twice as long as Titanic, whose repair alone cost 100 million dollars (about 2212 crore rupees in today's value). It also has a special connection with India. Read this news...
When a Hollywood movie was made on the story of 'Titanic', the memories of the incident of 1912 became fresh in people's minds, in which the world's largest ship of that era sank during its very first voyage. About 1500 people lost their lives in this accident and after that the world almost gave up on building big ships. Even then, big ships continued to be built for cargo transportation, but Japan built such a ship in 1979 that ruled every ocean in the world. This ship also has a special connection with India.
Between 1974-79, Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries built the 'Seawise Giant'. Till date, no ship bigger than this has been built in the world. In terms of length, it was twice the size of Titanic. However, this was also a cargo ship. With time, the ship's owners and its name kept changing and around 2010, its name disappeared.
The owner refused to take it
It so happened that Japan started the construction of this ship in the Oppama shipyard, the order for which was given by a Greek businessman. When the construction took a little more time, the owner refused to take it. Till then the ship had not been named. After this, a long legal battle took place between the manufacturing company and the owner of the ship and because of the Oppama shipyard, it was named 'Oppama'. However, later the shipyard sold this ship to C.Y. Tung of China. As a corruption of his name, it was named 'Seawise Giant'.
When the ship was destroyed in the Iran-Iraq war
This ship was mainly used to transport crude oil. It used to circle the whole world twice a year. It was in 1988, when this ship left Iran with crude oil, it stopped for a short rest at Larak Island on the way. During this time, the air force of the then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein attacked this ship and it sank slightly in the shallow water.
2212 crores were spent on repairs
After 1988, this ship was sent for repairs. According to a report by TOI, at that time, its repair cost alone was $100 million, which would be worth about $265 million today. In Indian currency, this amount comes to about Rs 2212 crore.
The special thing about this ship was that its length was about 1500 feet. Whereas Titanic was almost half its size. After being out of the sea for 2 years for repairs after 1988, it again got a new owner in 1991. A Norwegian company bought it and then it was named 'Jahre Viking'. Apart from being the largest ship in the world, it was also the largest self-propelled ship.
This ship found its final destination in India
This ship got the most popularity by the name 'Jahare Viking'. Even after 1991, it ruled the seas for almost 20 years. In the year 2009, it reached Gujarat, India. It was dismantled here in 'Alang', one of the world's largest ship breaking yards. About 1000 workers took a whole year to do this work. The anchor of this ship alone weighed about 36 tons, which is currently kept in the Maritime Museum of Hong Kong.
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