History of the oil tanker
The oil was moved in earthenware vessels to the river bank where it was then poured into boat holds for transportation to Britain.
For example, in the early years of the Russian oil industry, barrels accounted for half the cost of petroleum production.
[5] The first ocean-going oil-tank steamer, the Vaderland, was designed and built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of the United Kingdom for the American-Belgian Red Star Line in 1873,[3][5] although the vessel's use was soon curtailed by the authorities citing safety concerns.
[10] Other challenges included allowing for the cargo to expand and contract due to temperature changes, and providing a method to ventilate the tanks.
Riedmann of Geestemünde entered the petroleum trade in 1877, he noted the difficulties of using barrels, and began to experiment with the former emigrant ships Adona and Derby, filling their large iron drinking water tanks with oil.
In October 1879 he purchased the Andromeda at Liverpool, an 1,876-ton full-rigged composite ship built in 1864, brought it to Teklenborgs Werft, and added seventy iron tanks to the hold.
[10] Within a year, he ordered seven more single-hulled tankers: the Mohammed, Tatarin, Bramah, Spinoza, Socrates, Darwin, Koran, Talmud, and Calmuck.
It was the first dedicated steam-driven ocean-going tanker in the world and was the first ship in which oil could be pumped directly into the vessel hull instead of being loaded in barrels or drums.
[5] The Vandal, the first diesel-electric ship, was capable of carrying 750 long tons (760 t) of refined oil was powered by three 120 horsepower (89 kW) diesel motors.
The idea that led to moving Russian oil to the Far East via the Suez Canal was the brainchild of two men: importer Marcus Samuel and shipowner/broker Fred Lane — the London agent for the De Rothschild Frères.
[20] With facilities prepared in Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Kobe, the fledgling Shell company was ready to become Standard Oil's first challenger in the Asian market.
They quickly adopted Isherwood's new longitudinal framing system that allowed much larger ships and a simpler construction process.
In combination with the oil fields discovered in Mexico and Venezuela, this caused a rise in the demand for tankers, which gave opportunities for the first independents, such as the Norwegian Wilh.
[29] A large ship at the time, with a capacity of 14,500 long tons of deadweight, Maumee began refuelling destroyers en route to Britain at the outset of World War I.
[29] This technique enabled the Navy to keep its fleets at sea for extended periods, with a far greater range independent of the availability of a friendly port.
[29] This independence proved crucial to victory in World War II by the ships commanded by Fleet Admiral Nimitz who, as Maumee's executive officer, had played a key role in developing underway replenishment.
One example of this is the Australian fleet oiler HMAS Kurumba which provided underway replenishment services in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy from 1917 to 1919.
When World War II broke out in 1939, Roosevelt could not support the United Kingdom directly, as in 1935 the Shipping Neutrality Act was signed to prevent Mussolini from invading Ethiopia.
Daniel Keith Ludwig had an important role in this, as he introduced the method at his Welding Shipyards in Norfolk as part of the Emergency Shipbuilding program.
[37] Forced to move oil around the Cape of Good Hope, shipowners realized that bigger tankers were the key to more efficient transport.
The expected economic decline did not come, due to reasons amongst others the Marshall Plan, with the demand for oil increasing to the point in 1947 that there was a shortage of tankers.
Although the voyage was a success, a second attempt to cross the passage in winter proved impossible, and there were numerous environmental concerns with the project, so it was cancelled and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System built.
The Suez Canal closed until 1975 and freight rates skyrocketed because of the shortage of tonnage now ships had to pass the Cape of Good Hope.
The world's largest supertanker ever was built for Tung Chao Yung in 1979 at the Oppama Shipyard of Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. as the Seawise Giant.
The other two, the British Shell tanker Mactra and the Norwegian Kong Haakon VII were damaged heavily, but remained afloat.
Shell investigated the matter and came to the conclusion that water drops that impact steel with high velocity generates static electricity that can cause explosions in combination with cargo vapors.
[27] The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the incentive to introduce legislation requiring tankers to have a double hull, a measure that is not seen as the best solution by all experts.
Where a double hull should minimize the consequences after a disaster, Concordia Maritime developed the Stena V-MAX, a VLCC with two propellers, two rudders and two redundant engine rooms, where a single fault does not result in loss of steering, reducing the chances of a grounding.
Fear for political instability and high and excessive consular fees led the president of Liberia, William Tubman, in 1948 to start an open register with the help of Edward Stettinius, Jr.
[61] Open registries have been branded as flags of convenience by ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) to have lower standards for vessel, equipment, and crew than the traditional maritime countries and often have classification societies certify and inspect the vessels in their registry, instead of by their own shipping authority.
