A tanker (or tank ship or tankship ) is a ship designed to transport or store liquids or gases in bulk . Major types of tankship include the oil tanker (or petroleum tanker ), the chemical tanker , cargo ships , and a gas carrier . Tankers also carry commodities such as vegetable oils, molasses and wine. In the United States Navy and Military Sealift Command , a tanker used to refuel other ships is called an oiler (or replenishment oiler if it can also supply dry stores) but many other navies use the terms tanker and replenishment tanker . Tankers were first developed in the late 19th century as iron and steel hulls and pumping systems were developed. As of 2005, there were just over 4,000 tankers and supertankers 10,000 LT DWT or greater operating worldwide.
29-658: Friedrich Breme was an escort tanker that was built in August 1936 for the German-American Petroleum Company in Bremen . On 12 June 1941, Friedrich Breme was spotted by the light cruiser HMS Sheffield at position 49°48′00″N 24°07′34″W / 49.80°N 24.126111°W / 49.80; -24.126111 northwest of Cape Finisterre , came under fire and was scuttled . 88 German sailors were rescued, which included 12 wounded. The Friedrich Breme
58-399: A ship is a determined depth of the vessel below the waterline , measured vertically to its hull 's lowest—its propellers , or keel , or other reference point. Draft varies according to the loaded condition of the ship. A deeper draft means the ship will have greater vertical depth below the waterline. Draft is used in under keel clearance calculations, where the draft is calculated with
87-441: A book by William Davies , an early tanker captain, was published in 1903, although Davies had printed earlier versions himself. Including his calculations on the expansion and contraction of bulk oil, and other information for tanker officers, it went into multiple editions, and in 1915 The Petroleum World commented that it was "the standard book for computations and conversions." Draft (hull) The draft or draught of
116-578: A hydrodynamic effect known as squat , which causes a local pressure reduction under the vessel. This in effect causes a ship to 'vertically sink 'down' leading to a reduction in under keel clearance . Large ships experience a draft increase to heel effect where the ship's beam angles on one side during an alteration of course (sometimes known as turning effect). Draft is a significant factor limiting navigable waterways, especially for large vessels. This includes many shallow coastal waters and reefs, but also some major shipping lanes, therefore restriction on
145-433: A relatively new concept, dating from the later years of the 19th century. Before this, technology had simply not supported the idea of carrying bulk liquids. The market was also not geared towards transporting or selling cargo in bulk, therefore most ships carried a wide range of different products in different holds and traded outside fixed routes. Liquids were usually loaded in casks—hence the term " tonnage ", which refers to
174-430: A ship can be affected by multiple factors, besides the variations caused by changes in displacement: When measured to the lowest projecting portion of the vessel, it is called the "draft, extreme"; when measured at the bow, it is called "draft, forward"; and when measured at the stern, the "draft, aft"; the average of the draft, forward, and the draft, aft is the "draft, mean", and the mean draft when in full load condition
203-725: A single product or simultaneously transport mixed cargoes such as several different chemicals or refined petroleum products. Among oil tankers, supertankers are designed for transporting oil around the Horn of Africa from the Middle East . The supertanker Seawise Giant , scrapped in 2010, was 458 meters (1,503 ft) in length and 69 meters (226 ft) wide. Supertankers are one of the three preferred methods for transporting large quantities of oil, along with pipeline transport and rail . Tighter regulation means that tankers now cause fewer environmental disasters resulting from oil spills than in
232-404: Is loaded, the deeper it sinks into the water, and the greater its draft (also referred to as its displacement). After construction, the shipyard creates a table showing how much water the vessel displaces based on its draft and the density of the water (salt or fresh). The draft can also be used to determine the weight of cargo on board by calculating the total displacement of water, accounting for
261-423: Is the "draft load". These are markings and numbers located on both sides of a vessel, as close as possible to the bow and stern bow and stern , and then also, often amidships . The number and its associated marking indicate the distance from the marking to the bottom lowest fixed reference point of the vessel (e.g., its keel ). The numbers and markings were large and clear; for instance, on U.S. naval vessels,
290-411: Is the draft in feet); in metric marking, the bottom of each draft mark is the draft in decimeters and each mark is one decimeter high, spaced at intervals of 2 decimeters. An internal draft gauge or draft indicator is used on larger ships. It consists of a pressure gauge attached to a seacock below the light-load line and calibrated to reflect the draft of the ship. Larger ships need to keep
319-542: The Guinness brewery used tankers to transport the stout across the Irish Sea . Different products require different handling and transport, with specialised variants such as " chemical tankers ", " oil tankers ", and " LNG carriers " developed to handle dangerous chemicals, oil and oil-derived products, and liquefied natural gas respectively. These broad variants may be further differentiated with respect to ability to carry only
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#1732876056066348-538: The Suez Canal , the limiting factor for Suezmax ships is draft. Some supertankers are able to transit the Suez Canal when unladen or partially laden, but not when fully laden. Canals are not the only draft-limited shipping lanes. A Malaccamax ship, is the deepest draft able to transit the very busy but relatively shallow Strait of Malacca . The Strait only allows ships to have 0.4 m (1.31 ft) more draft than
377-522: The United States Maritime Administration 's statistics count 4,024 tankers of 10,000 LT DWT or greater worldwide. 2,582 of these are double-hulled. Panama is the leading flag state of tankers, with 592 registered ships. Five other flag states have more than two hundred registered tankers: Liberia (520), The Marshall Islands (323), Greece (233), Singapore (274) and The Bahamas (215). These flag states are also
406-471: The average freight rate assessment (AFRA) system, which classifies tankers of different sizes. To make it an independent instrument, Shell consulted the London Tanker Brokers' Panel (LTBP) . At first, they divided the groups as General Purpose for tankers under 25,000 tons deadweight (DWT); Medium Range for ships between 25,000 and 45,000 DWT and Large Range (later Long Range) for
435-415: The 1970s. Amoco Cadiz , Braer , Erika , Exxon Valdez , Prestige and Torrey Canyon were examples of accidents. Oil spills from tankers amounted to around 1,000 tonnes in 2020 from three incidents (an all-time low), down from 636,000 tonnes from 92 incidents in 1979 - a fall of 99.8%. Many modern tankers are designed for a specific cargo and a specific route. Draft is typically limited by
464-510: The Suez Canal. Capesize , Ultra Large Crude Carriers and a few Chinamax carriers, are some of the ships that have too deep a draft when laden, for either the Strait of Malacca or the Suez Canal. A small draft allows pleasure boats to navigate through shallower water. This makes it possible for these boats to access smaller ports, to travel along rivers and even to 'beach' the boat. A large draft may increase ultimate stability in, depending on
493-425: The available depth of water (from Electronic navigational charts ) to ensure the ship can navigate safely, without grounding. Navigators can determine their draught by calculation or by visual observation (of the ship's painted load lines ). A ship's draft/draught is the "depth of the vessel below the waterline measured vertically to the lowest part of the hull , propellers , or other reference point". That is,
522-418: The content of the ship's bunkers , and using Archimedes' principle . The difference between the forward and aft drafts of a ship is termed its trim . In commercial ship operations, the ship will usually quote the mean draft as the vessel's draft. However, in navigational situations, the maximum draft, usually the aft draft, will be known on the bridge and will be shared with the pilot . The draft of
551-513: The depth of water in loading and unloading harbors; and may be limited by the depth of straits or canals along the preferred shipping route. Cargoes with high vapor pressure at ambient temperatures may require pressurized tanks or vapor recovery systems. Tank heaters may be required to maintain heavy crude oil , residual fuel , asphalt , wax , or molasses in a fluid state for offloading. Tankers used for liquid fuels are classified according to their capacity. In 1954, Shell Oil developed
580-405: The draft or draught is the maximum depth of any part of the vessel, including appendages such as rudders, propellers and drop keels if deployed. The related term air draft is the maximum height of any part of the vessel above the water. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate in relation to the under keel clearance available. The more heavily a vessel
609-448: The hull form, as the center of gravity can be lower. A broad beamed boat like a catamaran can provide high initial stability with a small draft, but the width of the boat increases. A term called keel depth is used for submarines , which can submerge to different depths at sea, specifying the current distance from the water surface to the bottom of the submarine's keel. It is used in navigation to avoid underwater obstacles and hitting
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#1732876056066638-516: The maximum draft (the draft limit , a distance from the seabed or riverbed to the water level) is sometimes established (in particular, all ports set up draft limits). Panamax class ships—the largest ships able to transit the Panama Canal —do have a draft limit (and an "air draft" limit for passing under bridges) but are usually limited by beam , or sometimes length overall , for fitting into locks . However, ships can be longer, wider and higher in
667-464: The numbers were, historically, as a standard, 6 inches tall, with spacing of 12 inches bottom to bottom, vertically. These hull markings constitute a "banded" scale, and may be accompanied by international load line markings. The scale may use Imperial units or metric units ; the Imperial system is as stated above (markings 6 inches high, spaced at 12 inch intervals, where the bottom of each marking
696-469: The propeller immersed when they are light (without cargo ), and may ballast further to reduce windage or for better directional stability or seakeeping, or to distribute load along the hull to reduce hogging and sagging stresses. To achieve this they use sailing ballast distributed among ballast tanks to stabilize the ship, following the unloading of cargo. The draft of a large ship has little direct link with its stability because stability depends mainly on
725-456: The relative positions of the metacenter of the hull and the center of gravity. However, a "light" ship may have an excessively high stability which can cause uncomfortable rolling of the ship. A fully laden ship (with a large draft) can have either a high or low stability, depending on the height of the center of gravity , which is affected by the distribution of cargo. The draft of a ship can be increased by longitudinal motion in shallow water,
754-499: The then-enormous ships that were larger than 45,000 DWT . The ships became larger during the 1970s, and the list was extended, where the tons are metric tonnes : At nearly 380 vessels in the size range 279,000 t DWT to 320,000 t DWT , these are by far the most popular size range among the larger VLCCs. Only seven vessels are larger than this, and approximately 90 between 220,000 t DWT and 279,000 t DWT . [REDACTED] As of 2005,
783-611: The top six in terms of fleet size in terms of deadweight tonnage . Greece, Japan, and the United States are the top three owners of tankers (including those owned but registered to other nations ), with 733, 394, and 311 vessels respectively. These three nations account for 1,438 vessels or over 36% of the world's fleet. Asian companies dominate the construction of tankers. Of the world's 4,024 tankers, 2,822 (over 70%) were built in South Korea, Japan and China. Petroleum Tables ,
812-581: The volume of the holds in terms of how many tuns or casks of wine could be carried. Even potable water, vital for the survival of the crew, was stowed in casks. Carrying bulk liquids in earlier ships posed several problems: Tankers were first used by the oil industry to transfer refined fuel in bulk from refineries to customers. This would then be stored in large tanks ashore, and subdivided for delivery to individual locations. The use of tankers caught on because other liquids were also cheaper to transport in bulk, store in dedicated terminals, then subdivide. Even
841-732: Was the escort tanker for the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Atlantic Ocean . Tanker (ship) Tankers can range in size of capacity from several hundred tons , which includes vessels for servicing small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, for long-range haulage. Besides ocean- or seagoing tankers there are also specialized inland-waterway tankers which operate on rivers and canals with an average cargo capacity up to some thousand tons. A wide range of products are carried by tankers, including: Tankers are
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