The Singapore-flag tanker Challenge Premier, owned by NYK Bulkships (Asia) Pte Ltd, of Singapore, was back on its second visit last Friday.
Built at Onishi by the Shin Kurushima Dockyard Company, the vessel has been in service since August 2005. This products carrier is of similar size to other tankers that have been calling here in recent times.
It is a 15-knot, 28,059gt, 45,897dwt vessel with an overall length of 179.88m, a breadth of 32.20m and a loaded draught of 12.022m.
Compared with the Japanese-built, Singapore-registered Knock Nevis, reported sold last week by Oslo-listed Fred Olsen Production to Asian interests, Challenge Premier is a mere pup.
For Knock Nevis, which has had a rather colourful history, is the largest ship of all time.
But the vessel was never built to hold this distinction. The tanker was built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries' Oppama shipyard at Yokosuka for the P. M. Nomikos-managed Atlantian Shipping Company.
It was launched without a name on September 4, 1975, and when completed in March 1976, delivery was declined by the Nomikos firm.
So Sumitomo was left with this vessel on their hands, which they laid up under the name, Oppama, awaiting a sale.
It was taken off their hands when the C.
Y.
Tung group bought it in 1979.
The new owner then decided to have the vessel lengthened and in June 1980, it arrived at Nippon Kokan's yard at Tsu for this work to be carried out.
In its original form the vessel was a 189,110gt, 418,600dwt ultra-large crude carrier (ULCC).
But when it was commissioned into service in December 1979 as the Liberian-flag Seawise Giant it had grown in size to a 238,558gt, 564.764dwt vessel having a loaded displacement of 647,955 tonnes. And the new 81m-long section added to the hull increased the overall length to 458.45m, including bulbous bow.
With an extreme breadth of 68.86m and a loaded draught of 24.612m, the cargo section of the double-hull ULCC was divided into 46 tanks.
Two steam turbines, with a combined output of 50,000shp and geared to a single screw, gave a service speed of 15.5 knots.
During the Iran-Iraq war the vessel suffered minor damage from two attacks by Iraqi aircraft in October and December 1987. Then in a further Iraqi attack on May 14, 1988, while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, parachute bombs seriously damaged the vessel and claimed the lives of 40 crew members.
It was subsequently declared a constructive total loss and towed to Brunei, where it was laid up before being taken to Singapore, where it was repaired by the Keppel shipyard.
In 1989, it was sold to A/S Giant of Oslo and renamed Happy Giant, and two years later Jahre Viking when bought by the Jahre interests of Sandefjord. I notice that in 1996 the gross tonnage had been increased to 260,941gt, which finally brought it into line with the 1969 International Convention of Tonnage Measurement of Ships.
Because of its size the tanker had restrictions on where it could be employed and therefore spent most of its career as a storage vessel.
After being bought by the Fred Olsen concern in June 2004, it was converted at Dubai into a FSO (floating storage and off-loading unit) through a $US22 million ($NZ31 million) investment programme. The vessel was permanently moored at the Qatar, Al Shaheem terminal from August 17, 2004, until moved to the Fujairah anchorage two months ago.
Prior to its recent sale Fred Olsen had considered selling the FSO for demolition if it failed to secure a new project. It has been afloat now for more than 34 years and is a reminder of an era when it was fashionable to build such large crude carriers.