Built in 1970 at the yards of Eriksbergs, of Gothenburg, Sweden, Stolt Surf joined the merchant fleet of Stolt-Nielsen Inc., one of the largest operators of parcel tankers in the world.

Stolt Surf departed Singapore on 4 October 1977, on a routine voyage across the Pacific Ocean to Portland, in the United States.

Steam pipes and electric cables were torn and ruptured, whilst the wave smashed a number of windows and port holes.

The proof gathered by Stolt Surf joined a growing body of evidence that the linear model did not adequately explain all of the types of waves that could be encountered.

Despite this, it was not until the separate encounters by the cruise liners Bremen and Caledonian Star in the South Atlantic, that the possibility of nonlinear causes of freak waves was seriously considered.