On April 4, 2010, Somali pirates took over the South Korean supertanker Samho Dream along with its 24 crew members, including five Koreans and nineteen Filipinos.
On 14 May 1988, the large 564,739 dwt Liberian supertanker, Seawise Giant, whilst carrying crude Iranian oil, was sunk by Iraqi anti-ship missiles off the coast of Larak Island.
Secondary reports alleged that he was also involved in the capture of dozens of other ships, among which were the MV Sirius Star supertanker and the Russian tank-laden MV Faina in 2008.
MT Haven, formerly Amoco Milford Haven, was a VLCC (very large crude carrier), leased to Troodos Shipping (a company run by Lucas Haji-Ioannou and his son Stelios Haji-Ioannou).
In the movie, LAPD Police Officer Alex Shaw (Jason Patric) and his girlfriend Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock) are trapped on the ship, where navigation computers have been reprogrammed by a computer hacker, (Willem Dafoe) setting the ship on a collision course with a supertanker.
SEAgel could also replace balsa wood to insulate supertankers and to provide sound damping in high-speed trains.
In 1975 Forsyth sold an original screenplay entitled No Alternative - about "a supertanker being held for ransom" - to film producer Lew Grade who had also purchased film rights to Forsyth's The Shepherd.