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.
23-463: The MV Prestige was an oil tanker owned by a Greek company based in Athens and operating under a Bahamian flag , that on 19 November 2002 sank off the coast of Galicia , Spain . The sinking caused a major environmental disaster , polluting thousands of miles of coastline with 50,000 tonnes of oil. Prestige was a single-hulled oil tanker with a length overall of 243 metres (797 ft),
46-491: A beam of 34.4 metres (113 ft), a hull depth of 18.7 metres (61 ft), and a draft of 14 metres (46 ft). It had a 42,820 GT and a total cargo capacity of 81,589 tonnes deadweight (DWT). The ship was launched on 10 December 1975 and completed on 30 March 1976 by Hitachi Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. in Maizuru, Kyoto , Japan. At the time of its sinking, it was owned by Mare Shipping, and registered in
69-429: 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." Amoco Cadiz Amoco Cadiz
92-417: A high wave over a spire of rock which she then was impaled on. The rock cut through the plating of her bottom and thrust into the network of piping and machinery of the pump room as well as rupturing the rear wall of number-four cargo tank. The engine room flooded. She rolled and ground on the rock for about five minutes until another large wave lifted her off and she continued her southwesterly drift, pulling
115-433: 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
138-725: 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
161-572: The Amoco Cadiz passed Ushant at the western tip of Brittany, headed for Lyme Bay in the United Kingdom. At 9:46 am when the supertanker was north of Ushant and 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi) west of Portsall she turned to avoid another ship and her rudder jammed, full over to port. Captain Bardari shut down the engine and attempted to make repairs, but they were not successful. Meanwhile,
184-642: The Bahamas . 42°53′N 9°53′W / 42.883°N 9.883°W / 42.883; -9.883 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
207-542: 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
230-585: The Pacific after her. The ship then drifted through the Portsall Rocks and at 9:30 pm she ran aground for the second time, on the Men Goulven rock 2 km (1.243 mi) from the shore. She hit the reef stern first and the bottom under the engine room was opened. She pivoted round to the port and stopped with her bow pointing toward land. She came to rest with her stern impaled on a rock about 12 metres under
253-522: 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
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#1732876839615276-471: 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
299-415: 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
322-470: The charges was visible as huge water fountains and shook the ground ashore more than a mile away. Amoco Cadiz contained 1,604,500 barrels (219,797 tons) of light crude oil from Ras Tanura , Saudi Arabia and Kharg Island , Iran . Severe weather resulted in the complete breakup of the ship before any oil could be pumped out of the wreck, resulting in her entire cargo of crude oil (belonging to Shell ) and 4,000 tons of fuel oil being spilled into
345-513: 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
368-415: The ship's drift. At 7:00 pm, the captain shut down the engines so that the Pacific could try to attach another hawser. The supertanker dropped one anchor, but the flukes broke off. At this point the supertanker was drifting at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) toward the Portsall Rocks. A new towline was successfully attached at 8:55 pm. Amoco Cadiz ran aground for the first time at 9:04 pm. She rode
391-489: The surface and her bow on another six to seven metres deep. Between these rocks the depth was 25 to 30 metres. The Pacific had increased her towing speed, but shortly after 10:00 pm the second tow broke. After the second grounding, the waves broke Amoco Cadiz into two parts held together by distorted metal on the port side. On 24 March the two parts were completely torn apart and the rear section swung 90 degrees around from pointing southwest to southeast. On 25 March she
414-499: 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,
437-611: 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 ,
460-581: 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
483-425: The wind began blowing from the northwest, driving the ship toward the coast. By the time the tugboat Pacific successfully attached a hawser , it was 2:00 pm and the Amoco Cadiz had drifted 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) closer to the shore. For two hours, the tugboat struggled to slow the vessel's drift, but then the towline parted. Captain Bardari turned his engines on full astern and this helped slow
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#1732876839615506-452: Was an oil tanker owned by Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Shell Oil . Operating under the Liberian flag, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall Rocks , 2 km (1.2 mi) from the coast of Brittany , France. Ultimately she split in three and sank, resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind to that date. On 16 March 1978 in a southwesterly gale ,
529-502: Was close to breaking apart again, and by 28 March the wreckage was further moved around by the tides and waves. By 29 March she had broken into three separate pieces and it was decided to destroy her with depth charges dropped from three Super Frelon helicopters . The Navy dropped twelve Mark 56 anti-submarine grenades, each containing 350 lb (158.757 kg) of high explosives set to go off 8 m (26 ft 2.96 in) under water, and she sank 15 minutes later. Detonation of
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