[2] Controlled manually or hydraulically, a loading arm employs swivel joints and can, to some extent, follow the movement of a moored vessel.
[6] Loading arms service vessels in a wide range of sizes, from small river barges to the largest supertankers.
[6] Environmental constraints, such as the range of tide, wind conditions, and earthquake tolerance, can also affect choice of loading arm.
[2] Since the earliest days of tankships, the need to safely and efficiently transfer bulk liquid to a moored ship has been fundamental.
[7] Ludvig Nobel responded to the disaster by creating a flexible, leakproof loading pipe which was much more resistant to spills.