85,000- Ton Tanker Delivers First Carso

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 8

85,000- Ton Tanker Delivers First Carso

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

SAN FRANCISCO. The world’s largest tanker, the 8,000,000-dollar (about £2,700,000) 15knot Universe Leader, has demonstrated that the Suez Canal is not indispensable in the delivery of oil. The Universe Leader which, actually, is too large for the canal, has delivered her first cargo of crude oil to the Richmond refinery of the Standard Oil Company of California. The Golden Gate seemed barely . large enough to permit the entrance of the vessel, too big to negotiate either the Panama or the Suez Canals, into the Bay of San Francisco after her voyage from Sumatra. Her second voyage will be to the Persian Gulf and back, via the Southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean. When the Universe Leader glided through the Golden Gate, she carried sufficient crude oil to produce enough petrol for every one of California’s 6,000,000 motorists to drive 50 miles. Her cargo of crude oil could keep the refinery working at full capacity for four days. Two aircraft carriers, outward bound, were dwarfed by this tanker, 855 feet long and 125 feet wide. In spite of the size of the Universe Leader, those concerned with the economics of transporting crude oil predict that in a few years she will be “small” by comparison with the vessels now on the drawing boards. “We have not reached the maximum in tankers yet,” said her 60-year-old Captain Jesse Bird, of New York, who brought her here from Indonesian waters. “This voyage proved that. The ship handled well; and there is no handicap in being big.”

The Universe Leader is distinctive, however, for more than her size. She was constructed in a Japanese yard at Kobe, flies the flag of the African republic of Liberia, and is manned by a crew of 58 men of six nationalities. Owned by the National Bulk Carriers, Inc., of New York, she is hauling crude oil for the Standard Oil Company of California.

Only one vessel is longer than the Universe Leader and that is the Queen Elizabeth which is 987 feet from bow to stern compared with the tanker’s 855 feet. But the latter’s deadweight tonnage exceeds that of the Queen Elizabeth, being 85,500 tons compared with the liner’s 84,000 tons.

The tanker carries her crude oil in 52 separate tank compartments below deck. Into this space is pumped 602,622 barrels of oil (26,000,000 gallons). This cargo weighs 79,640 tons and with the weight of the vessel causes the record displacement of 109,000 tons.

“Compare that displacement with the displacement of the carrier Forrestal,” says the chief mate. Mr Bernard Baum. “The Forrestal displaces only 75,000 tons.”

The owners and users of the tanker are convinced that the size of the vessel is the secret of her economy. They explain that she has the capacity of six regular-size tankers and can therefore do the work of six voyages in one. Her capacity is twice that of the other “large” tankers now operating. But though the Universe Leader may be economical because of her size, she also raises considerable problems for those who have to unload her. When he entered the Bay, her keel was 45 feet below the surface of the water and her draft exceeded the depth of the dockage area at the oil company’s refinery.

Captain Bird dropped one of his four 16-ton anchors in the stream opposite the Treasure Island Naval Base, prac-

tically hiding the island from the shore. Then two ordinary size tankers came alongside and the Sumatra crude oil was pumped from the Universe Leader into the “auxiliary vessels.” After each had sailed to the refinery twice, the Universe Leader rode high enough to inch her way into the refinery’s dock. Her single funnel is on the stern. The navigation bridge is forward of midships, almost three storeys high to give the helmsman a view beyond the bow.. The flying wings of the bridge extend the whole width of the vessel. One observer describing the Universe Leader, said: “She looks like a stretched out dachshund. And the navigational bridge up forward is the flea on her back.” Members of the crew aboard the Universe Leader include American officers, a French radio operator, and German, British, West Indian, Chinese, and Okinawan crew.