Need For The Cargo Ship example essay topic

In 1886, the GLUCKAUF, built in Britain in 1886 became the world's first true; oil tanker with separate tanks for the oil, built into her hull. Previously, petroleum had been transported in small containers loaded on conventional merchant ships. The driving forces behind the evolution of tankers were the demand for oil and the growing competition between oil companies striving for a greater share of the market for kerosene and other refined products. In 1850, the cargo ship generally still had her sailing ship-type flush deck, except for a central bridge built across the tops of the paddle frames. This was found to be convenient place from which the Captain and watch keepers could control the ship, even though the steering wheel and the helmsman were still exposed on the upper deck aft and were often lost overboard in heavy seas. This created another need for the cargo ship to be refined.

With the Gluckauf the vessel hull itself became the oil container. They did not use cargo tanks inside the ship like the modern day tankers but instead used the hull itself as the cargo tanks. Until her appearance, oil had previously been shipped in barrels or drums. Now it could be pumped directly into the ships tanks. With this method they could hold more cargo in the cargo tanks than before with the barrels loaded onto the merchant ships.

This became the prototype of the modern day tanker. This started a new trade, which, would grew enormously over the years. The Gluckauf was a steel sail assisted steamer. The rigging on the ship was as a three masted Barkentine. The sails were put on the ship to help to increase speed during the voyages, but they were also important due to the fact that the steam engines were not very reliable. The ship used coal for its fuel and was the first to place engines in stern.

It was single screw propulsion with all steam-powered pumps. It was one of the first ships to create a cofferdam between the engines and the oil cargo. This was achieved by putting the pump room forward of the boiler in a separate space. This was an important safety feature because if the boilers were to explode or any explosion happened in the engine room the cofferdam would prevent the explosion from coming in contact with the explosive cargo. It had a maximum dead weight tonnage of 2,307. The Gluckauf was built in Newcastle in 1886 for the German American Petroleum Co, by WG Armstrong and Co.

W G Armstrong & Co., is located on the banks of the Tyne River, the shipyard is most famous the being the largest builder of warships in the world. Today the large tankers rival the largest liners for size and even larger tankers, of 100,000 tons and more, are being built to carry the fuel necessary for modern industry. The Gluckauf met many challenges on its voyage. When the came into New York the longshoremen refused to load the ship with oil. They feared that their jobs were at risk because their job was to load and unload the barrels on oil onto the old merchant ships. With the Gluckauf though they would not be needed and most of the men would lose their jobs.

The longshoremen convinced the local coal merchants not to refuel the ship. This caused the future tankers to add additional bunker ing capacity to avoid the need to refuel. In 1915 the availability of bunker ing stations lead the tankers to switch from coal burning boilers to oil driven plants. The coal burning tankers were still predominantly used during World War I. While en route to New York on March 29, 1893 the Gluckauf encountered a heavy gale and ran aground on Fire Island.

The crew dropped the anchor in an effort to prevent the ship from going up on the beach. The surf men saved the crew from the Blue Point Life-Saving Station rescued the crew by breeches buoy and a Lyle gun. A Lyle gun is a cannon that shoots a projectile attached to a line from the shore to the stranded vessel. The gun can shoot the projectile over 1000 feet to the deck of the ship. The Blue Point Surf men where stationed at Blue Point Station, New York Coast Guard Station #80, which is located 9 1/2 miles east northeast of Fire Island Light in 1856. In 1912, the station was rebuilt to replace a structure that was old and unsuited for the present day needs.

The station disappeared from the records entering World War II; the site was abandoned in 1946. The first records of the United States Coast Guard can be traced back as early as 1820. On April 7 wrecking tugs towed the Gluckauf off the sand bar and started to tow it to harbor. While in tow the hawser broke and the Gluckauf permanently went up onto the beach. With its stern sunk in the sand and its bow up on the beach the Gluckauf quickly became a Fire Island tourist attraction.

Visitors posed on or near the vessel. In 1900, junk dealers built a narrow-gauge railroad over the beach hills and, using horse-drawn carts, removed everything they could strip from the vessel. The ship stayed visible for several years after the grounding but eventually the ocean swallowed it up. Now the Gluckauf sits 75 to 100 ft offshore in 25 ft of water. Small sections are exposed at low tide though. The ship is now a jumbled mass of twisted wreckage, spread over a wide area.

Many people dive on the wreck today. Some of the dive information for the Gluckauf is, Visibility is poor, and worsens as the surge increases. There are no artifacts worth mentioning left on the vessel. The most dived section is the stern where the visibility ranges from 0 - 20 feet.

It is a beginner dive at a depth of 25 feet and the bow is on the beach at low tide. Due to the large tides diving should only be done at a slack tide to avoid the risk of being swept into the twisted jagged metal Today the waves break over what remains of the hull. Though fishing is good at the site, surf casters from the area say their hooks sometimes get entangled in the underwater wreckage After the production of the Gluckauf as the first "modern" tanker the tanker took on a much larger form. They went from the Gluckauf at a dead weight tonnage of 2,307 tons and a length of 300 feet, to a tanker type called an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC). These ULCC's are 1504 feet and a dead weight tonnage of over 500000 tons and over with a beam of 233 ft.

The Gluckauf can almost fit across the beam of a large ULCC with only 67 feet sticking over the side...

Bibliography

1. web Tanker Operations A Handbook for the Person in Charge 4th edition, Cornell Maritime Press, Centreville, Maryland. 20013. web web web GLUCKAUFHistory of the Prototype of the "modern day" tanker.