TANKER VESSEL

As specified earlier, different variances of liquefied freight necessitate the use of

different kinds of tanker vessels. Tanker ships are mainly classified on the basis of type
of cargo and size of the vessel. Some of the most commonly used tankers are:

 Crude Oil tanker

 Chemical tanker
 Product tanker
 Gas tanker

Crude Oil Tankers

Tanker vessels that are used for oil transportation through marine channels are
referred to as oil tanker ships. The terminology of ‘oil tankers’ too by itself is a big
domain and covers not just crude oil tankers but also those vessels that are used in the
transiting of distilled and processed rock oil. ULCCs or Ultra Large Crude Carriers are
the biggest oil tanker vessels in operation presently with DWTs ranging to a maximum
of about five-hundred and fifty thousand tonnes.

The second biggest crude and product tanker vessel types in operation are the VLCCs
or Very Large Crude Carriers. These vessels’ variances have a maximum DWT of
slightly over three-hundred thousand tonnes.

Crude oil tankers and product tankers are also classified on the basis of the important
international water conduits in which they can gain easy entryway. These vessels
include:

The tanker vessels that are built to suitably pass through the Panama and Suez Canals
are referred to as Panamax and Suezmax vessels. The former vessels have DWTs up
to eighty thousand tonnes while the latter ships have DWTs ranging to about two-
hundred thousand tonnes. After both the canals where underwent expansion, higher
capacity tankers have been built to pass through them. These vessels are known as
Post-Panamax and Post-Suezmax vessels.

nker vessels are indispensable in the maritime domain. The utility of these vessels has become
even more applicable and viable in the ever-growing nature of maritime liquefied cargo
transportation, thanks to the technological advancements that have been made in the structural
and constructional facets of these vessel types. The Transfer of oil from one country to
another is a very large task. Billions of barrels of oil a day are shipped in Oil Tankers
to various destinations all over the world. There are many different shipping routes,
but there are six major transit chokepoints” which deal with the most traffic of oil
tankers and are areas of high risk for something to go wrong with the oil
transfer. The Strait of Hormuz, The Strait of Malacca, The Suez Canal, Bab el-
Mandab, The Turkish Straits, and The Panama Canal are different areas of the sea
that connect large bodies of water and can sometimes create bottleneck
situations. The Strait of Hormuz is an area where tankers from Persian Gulf nations
(mainly the Middle East) travel through to get to their destinations in the United
States, Japan, China, and Western Europe, connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gilf
of Oman. About 40% of all Oil Tanker traffic passes through The Strait of Hormuz
because (as seen on the graph below) the Middle East is the leader of oil production,
thus making them the lead exporter of oil. The Strait of Malacca is a smaller area of
passage than most chokepoints, but it is one of the most unsafe passages of any
transport route in the world. It is the target of many terrorist attacks because of its
bottleneck design in the Singapore Strait. The area of passage is located in between
the island of Malaysia and Indonesia because it is the shortest route to get Oil into
Japan, China, and other Asian countries. The Suez Canal in Egypt connects the Red
Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, only allowing smaller tankers to pass through,
transporting Oil mainly to Europe, but also to the Unites States. The Oil comes from
some revenues in Asia but mainly from Saudi Arabia, again, making this chokepoint
an export region for the Middle East. Bab-el Mandab is a chokepoint between the
Red Sea and The Gulf of Aden which begins the only transportation route that
transports Persian Gulf Oil exclusively. Many of the times, the oil the Persian Gulf
and Middle Eastern countries export gets sifted in with other country’s oil, which
makes the Bab el-Mandab unique. The oil from this area travels directly to Europe
and the Unites States. Both Bosporus and Dardanelles are canals that make up The
Turkish Straits and basically divide Asian countries on the Black Sea from European
countries that end the Mediterranean Sea. Oil that is being transported out of Russia
and other regions of the Black Sea first encounter the Bosporus which is a small canal
leading into a sort of mini-sea, which then leads to the Dardanelles canal which
carries the Tankers out into the Mediterranean sea. These tankers end up in Europe,
providing them with much of their oil. The sixth Chokepoint is The Panama Canal
that takes Oil generated in the United States to other areas of the United States and
to Latin American countries. All of these transportation routes are listed in order
from most barrels transported per day to the least. The Strait of Hornez transports
the most with about 16.5 billion barrels per day, while The Panama Canal only
transfers about ½ a million.

Oil is transported to and from other various places, but the main producers and
consumers are depicted in the bar graph. North America, Latin America, the Middle
East, Russia (the former USSR), Europe, and Asia comprise most of the world,
creating a situation where international over-sea transportation of oil via oil tankers
is vital and extremely valuable.

BULK CARRIER

Sabrina I is a modern Handymax bulk carrier.

Class overview

Subclasses: Handymax, Handysize, Panamax, Capesize

Built: c. 1850–present

Active: 9,570 vessels over 500 GT (2012)[1]

General characteristics (typical)

Type: Bulk carrier

Tonnage: up to 400,000 DWT

Propulsion: 2-stroke diesel engine and 1 propeller

Notes: Rear house, full hull, series of large hatches

 Plans of a geared Handymax bulk carrier

Grain bulk carrier & loading apparatus, Seattle 2010

A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or colloquially, bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to
transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the
first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fuelled the development of
these ships, causing them to grow in size and sophistication. Today's bulk carriers are specially
designed to maximize capacity, safety, efficiency, and durability.
Today, bulk carriers make up 15% - 17% of the world's merchant fleets[2] and range in size from
single-hold mini-bulk carriers to mammoth ore ships able to carry 400,000 metric tons of
deadweight (DWT). A number of specialized designs exist: some can unload their own cargo, some
depend on port facilities for unloading, and some even package the cargo as it is loaded. Over half
of all bulk carriers have Greek, Japanese, or Chinese owners and more than a quarter are registered
in Panama. South Korea is the largest single builder of bulk carriers, and 82% of these ships were
built in Asia.
On bulk carriers, crew are involved in operation management and maintenance of the vessel taking
care of safety, navigation, maintenance and cargo care, in accordance with international maritime
legislation. Cargo loading operations vary in complexity and loading and discharging of cargo can
take several days, Bulk carriers can be gearless (dependent upon terminal equipment) or geared
(having cranes integral to the vessel). Crews can range in size from three people on the smallest
ships to over 30 on the largest.
Bulk cargo can be very dense, corrosive, or abrasive. This can present safety problems: cargo
shifting, spontaneous combustion, and cargo saturation can threaten a ship. The use of ships that
are old and have corrosion problems has been linked to a spate of bulk carrier sinkings in the 1990s,
as have the bulk carrier's large hatchways, important for efficient cargo handling. New international
Image Courtesy: VesselsValue

Due to the tendency of trade routes to change pushing demand somewhere

else, VesselsValue has put together a report showing the current state of
affairs at the top 5 Panamax Bulker trade routes based on the total ton miles
moved.
Mainly a grains trade, especially soybeans, the volatile Panamax bulker trade has been
dominated by vessels moving cargos from Brazil to China. However, this route has been
on a downtrend from a peak during the last quarter of 2015, according to VesselsValue.

The main soybean export competitor to Brazil is the USA. This route peaked in 2014 to
2015 when the US had better than normal harvest, which led to lower US export prices,
and increased sales to China. Meanwhile, Brazil’s soybean crop that season developed
slower due to weather incidents, and the US “poached” Brazil’s exports to China.

The fourth quarter of 2016 saw a continuation of the reduction of ton miles on the
Brazil to China route, with increases on the Australia and USA to China routes.

The evolution of the top 5 trade routes for Panamax bulkers can be measured through
the billons of ton miles, the laden distance travelled multiplied by the amount of cargo
carried for every vessel in the fleet, moved from country to country over time,
VesselsValue said.

regulations have since been introduced to improve ship design and inspection, and to streamline the
process of abandoning ship.

PASSENGER VESSEL
Merchant vessels that are employed to aid in the transiting of voyagers and passengers
through the medium of water transportation are referred to as passenger ships. The
terminology however covers a lot of aspects under its umbrella, thus rendering a
generalised nature to its nominal citation.

The criteria for passenger vessels are governed as per stipulations set by the
International maritime Organisation (IMO). These stipulations not only specify the
minimal amount of surface area required for a dozen voyagers but also lay down the
regulatory requirements to ensure the safety and security of passengers.

erry ships are those vessels which are used to transit voyagers on short-natured water
travel routes. Ferry ships can be dual in nature that is, either they can be vessels are
only used for the purposes of transporting passengers or they can be ships that can
also carry vehicular load along with the intake of voyagers.

The latter kind of ferrying vessels are referred to as a Ro/Ro vessels as they make use
of ‘Roll On/Roll Off’ ramping systems to enable easy loading and unloading of the
vehicles.
uise ships are the most famous type of merchant vessels which are used for transiting
of passengers from one country to another for recreational trips. Though presently
cruise vessels are used for recreational transiting of passengers, these vessels were
preceded by voyager vessels that aided in the transporting of voyagers for commercial
purposes internationally. Since passenger vessels’ capacitance is quantified on the
basis of their GRT (Gross Registered Tonnage), vessels which have been built with
higher GRTs can be called as large cruise ships, while those with smaller GRTs can be
denoted as small cruise ships. The voyager carrying capacitance would also likewise
vary between the likes of the larger and smaller cruise ship types.

These days, passenger vessels are like floating cities, having the very best luxuries and
facilities for a safe and lavish voyage. Read more about the top luxury cruise ships in
the world. Moreover, some of the biggest and best ships in the world are cruise ships.

Passenger ships include ferries, which are vessels for day to day or overnight short-sea trips moving
passengers and vehicles (whether road or rail); ocean liners, which typically are passenger or
passenger-cargo vessels transporting passengers and often cargo on longer line voyages;
and cruise ships, which often transport passengers on round-trips, in which the trip itself and the
attractions of the ship and ports visited are the principal draw.
An ocean liner is the traditional form of passenger ship. Once such liners operated on scheduled line
voyages to all inhabited parts of the world. With the advent of airliners transporting passengers and
specialized cargo vessels hauling freight, line voyages have almost died out. But with their decline
came an increase in sea trips for pleasure and fun, and in the latter part of the 20th century ocean
liners gave way to cruise ships as the predominant form of large passenger ship containing from
hundreds to thousands of people, with the main area of activity changing from the North Atlantic
Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.
Although some ships have characteristics of both types, the design priorities of the two forms are
different: ocean liners value speed and traditional luxury while cruise ships value amenities
(swimming pools, theaters, ball rooms, casinos, sports facilities, etc.) rather than speed. These
priorities produce different designs. In addition, ocean liners typically were built to cross the Atlantic
Ocean between Europe and the United States or travel even further to South America or Asia while
cruise ships typically serve shorter routes with more stops along coastlines or among various
islands.
For a long time, cruise ships were smaller than the old ocean liners had been, but in the 1980s, this
changed when Knut Kloster, the director of Norwegian Caribbean Lines, bought one of the biggest
surviving liners, the SS France, and transformed her into a huge cruise ship, which he renamed the
SS Norway. Her success demonstrated that there was a market for large cruise ships. Successive
classes of ever-larger ships were ordered, until the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth was finally
dethroned from her 56-year reign as the largest passenger ship ever built (a dethronement that led
to numerous further dethronements from the same position).
Both the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) (1969) and her successor as Cunard's flagship RMS Queen
Mary 2 (QM2), which entered service in 2004, are of hybrid construction. Like transatlantic ocean
liners, they are fast ships and strongly built to withstand the rigors of the North Atlantic in line voyage
service,[1] but both ships are also designed to operate as cruise ships, with the amenities expected in
that trade. QM2was superseded by the Freedom of the Seas of the Royal Caribbean line as the
largest passenger ship ever built; however, QM2 still hold the record for the largest ocean liner.
The Freedom of the Seas was superseded by the Oasis of the Seas in October 2009.[2]

Measures of size[edit]
Further information: List of world's largest passenger ships

Ocean Liner Titanic (1912), 46,328 GRT, 52,310 tons displacement

Ocean liner Queen Mary (1936), approximately 81,000 - 83,000 GRT, displacement over 80,000 tons

Ocean liner Queen Mary 2 (2003), 148,528 GT, approximately 76,000 tons displacement

MS Oasis of the Seas (2009), 225,282 GT, approximately 100,000 tons displacement
Because of changes in historic measurement systems, it is impossible to make meaningful and
accurate comparisons of ship sizes over time beyond length. Three alternative forms of
measurement are ship volume, weight, and weight of water it displaces. A fourth, deadweight
tonnage (DWT), is a measure of how much mass a ship can safely carry, and is thus more relevant
to measuring cargo vessels than passenger ships.
Historically, gross register tonnage (GRT) was a measure of the internal volume of certain enclosed
areas of a ship divided into "tons" equivalent to 100 cubic feet of space (about 2.83 m³).
The displacement (or displacement tonnage) is a measure of both a ship's weight and the weight of
water (measured by volume and converted into tons) it displaces, which are one and the same
by Archimedes' principle. While seemingly straightforward, it has four variants in measure, Loaded
displacement, Light displacement, Normal displacement, and Standard displacement. Of these, the
first is most appropriate to measuring a passenger vessel.
Gross tonnage (GT) is a comparatively new measure, only adopted in 1982 to GRT. It is calculated
based on "the moulded volume of all enclosed spaces of the ship", and is used to determine things
such as a ship's manning regulations, safety rules, registration fees, and port dues. It is produced by
a mathematical formula, and does not distinguish between mechanical and passenger spaces, and
thus is not directly comparable to historic GRT measurements.
While a high displacement can indicate better sea keeping abilities,[3] gross tonnage is nowadays
promoted as the most important measure of size for passengers, as the ratio of gross tonnage per
passenger – the Passenger/Space Ratio – gives a sense of the spaciousness of a ship, an important
consideration in cruise liners where the onboard amenities are of high importance.[4][5]
Historically, a ship's GRT and displacement were somewhat similar in number. For
example, RMS Titanic, put in service in 1912, had a GRT of 46,328 and a displacement reported at
over 52,000 tons.[6] Similarly, Cunard Line's mid-1930s RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen
Elizabeth were of approximately 81,000 – 83,000 GRT and had displacements of over 80,000 tons.[7]
Today, due to changes in construction, engineering, function, architecture, and, crucially,
measurement system – which measures functionally all of a ship's internal volume, not just part of it
– modern passenger ships' GT values are much higher than their displacements. The Cunnard
Queens' current successor, the 148,528 GT RMS Queen Mary 2,[8][9] has been estimated to only
displace approximately 76,000 tons.[10][11] With the completion in 2009 of the first of the over 225,000
GT Oasis Class dedicated cruise ships, Oasis of the Seas, passenger ships' displacements have
finally risen to 100,000 tons,[12] well less than half their GT.
This new class is characteristic of an explosive growth in gross tonnage, which has more than
doubled from the largest cruise ships of the late 1990s. This reflects the much lower relative weight
of enclosed space in the comparatively light superstructure of a ship versus its heavily reinforced
and machinery-laden hull space, as cruise ships have grown slab-sided vertically from their
maximum beam to accommodate more passengers within a given hull size.

Safety regulations
CONTAINER VESSEL
s the name suggests, a vessel structured specifically to hold huge quantities of cargo
compacted in different types of containers is referred to as a container vessel (ship).
The process of sending cargo in special containers is known as containerization.

The initiation of the container shipping forms one of the most remarkable developments
in the maritime cargo industry. Container ships, a type of cargo ship, have
revolutionised the manner in which cargo supplies are ferried and transported across
the world, by providing assurance of safety and security of the thus transported cargo
supplies. Some of the biggest shipping companies today deal mainly with containerized
form of cargo.

he very first models of container ships were launched in the early 1950s and were
mainly designed to ferry goods trains’ freight cars. Using crane systems and ramp
systems, these freight cars could be laded and unloaded from the vessels. Over the
years technological advancement has made it possible for comparatively far more
feasible methodologies, though crane systems still play a major role in the loading and
unloading operations of the containers to and from the vessels’ holds. Specialized
lashing and cargo handling systems are used to secure the containers in their places.

Container vessels are typical in that that they are constructed to accommodate
immense possible cargo loads. The load holding capacitance of container vessels is
measured in terms of Twenty-foot Equivalent Units or TEUs, with the biggest container
ships carrying as much as over 15,000 -16,000 TEUs. Because of such high
capacities, some of the largest ships in the world are container ships.

ome of the main types of container ships based on size are:

 Panamax
 Suezmax
 Post-Panamax
 Post-Suezmax
 Post-Malaccamax

Container shipping vessels represent a majority in terms of the packaged cargo ferried
across the world. On account of the relevance and the ever-increasing demand for
better maritime cargo transportation channels, there has been seen huge strides in the
container ships’ domain. Such advancements are expected to grow even more in the
days to com