History of the Gluckauf

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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.

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