Coastal trading vessel

Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters or skoots,[1] are shallow-hulled[citation needed] merchant ships used for transporting cargo along a coastline.

Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled seagoing ships usually cannot (26-28 feet), but as a result they are not optimized for the large waves found on the open ocean.

Coasters can load and unload cargo in shallow ports.

British seamen called these "CHANTs", possibly because they had the same hull form as Channel Tankers (CHANT); initially all the tankers were sold to foreign owners and therefore there was no conflict in nomenclature.

[10][11] Major coastal trading vessel shipyards include:[12]

Coastal merchant vessel
N3-S-A1 illustration from ""American World Traders-New Ships for the Merchant Marine, 1945
N3-M-A1 as USS Enceladus (AK-80) , August 1943 in original Navy configuration. Note Whirley crane, a part of the original N3-M-A1 design.
USAPRS Thomas F. Farrel, Jr. underway off the East Coast of the United States, 26 August 1944.