Round About: Homage to the Largest Ship Ever
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
In our "Toughest Casters on the Planet" ad series, we showed you how major shipbuilders depend on Hamilton. That got us thinking: What's the biggest ship ever built?
The crown goes to the Seawise Giant, a now-defunct oil tanker that was longer than the Empire State Building and hauled more than half a million tons. Fully loaded, she weighed 724,239 tons and spanned 1,503 feet, nearly 200 feet longer than the next closest vessel.
Her rudder alone weighed 230 tons. The anchor 50 tons.
Built in 1979, the ship was so large it couldn't pass through major waterways like the English Channel and the Panama Canal. After a 31-year career of transporting crude oil, she was purchased and scrapped in India in 2010.
Although we never had the pleasure of gracing her presence, there are plenty more ships at work in the shipping industry for Hamilton's heavy-duty casters, either building vessels, or carting containers on and off them.