Coastal trading vessel

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Coastal merchant vessel Warnemunde Handelsschiff (01) 2006-09-21.JPG
Coastal merchant vessel

Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters or skoots, [1] are shallow-hulled [2] merchant ships used for transporting cargo along a coastline. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled seagoing ships usually cannot (26-28 feet), but as a result they are not optimized for the large waves found on the open ocean. Coasters can load and unload cargo in shallow ports.

Contents

For European inland waterways they are limited in size by the navigable dimensions of those waterways. E.g. ships on the French waterways are limited to the Freycinet gauge of 38.5m length, 5.05m breadth, and 2.5m draft. [3]

N3-S-A1 illustration from ""American World Traders-New Ships for the Merchant Marine, 1945 Maritime Commission N3-S-A1.jpg
N3-S-A1 illustration from ""American World Traders-New Ships for the Merchant Marine, 1945

World War II

N3-M-A1 as USS Enceladus (AK-80), August 1943 in original Navy configuration. Note Whirley crane, a part of the original N3-M-A1 design. USS Enceladus AK-80 N3-M-A1 USN 19-N-51234.jpg
N3-M-A1 as USS Enceladus (AK-80), August 1943 in original Navy configuration. Note Whirley crane, a part of the original N3-M-A1 design.
USAPRS Thomas F. Farrel, Jr. underway off the East Coast of the United States, 26 August 1944. USAPRS Thomas F Farrell Jr.jpg
USAPRS Thomas F. Farrel, Jr. underway off the East Coast of the United States, 26 August 1944.

During World War II there was a demand for coasters to support troops around the world.

Type N3 ship and Type C1 ship were the designations for small cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. [4] [5] Both were use for close to shore and short cargo runs. [6] [7] [8] The Government of the United Kingdom used Empire ships type Empire F as merchant ships for coastal shipping. British seamen called these "CHANTs", possibly because they had the same hull form as Channel Tankers (CHANT); initially all the tankers were sold to foreign owners and therefore there was no conflict in nomenclature. The USA and UK both used coastal tankers also. [9] [10] [11] UK used Empire coaster tankers and T1 tankers. Many coasters had some armament, such as a 5-inch (127 mm) stern gun, 3-inch (76.2 mm) bow anti-aircraft gun and Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. These were removed after the war.

After the war many of the ships were sold to private companies all around the world. [12] [13]

Shipyards

Major coastal trading vessel shipyards include: [14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Louis, Murray A. "Skoots to the Rescue: A Microcosm of the Dunkirk Evacuation, Operation "Dynamo"" (PDF). The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America. 51 (1). Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  2. ↑ Tsoudis, George (2021-03-21). The Shipbroker's Working Knowledge . Retrieved 2025-08-29.
  3. ↑ "Freycinet Gauge". Archived from the original on 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  4. ↑ National Park Service, Scotts Bluff
  5. ↑ T. Colton. "N-Type Coastal Cargo Ships". Merchant Ship Construction in U.S. Shipyards. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  6. ↑ Auke Visser's, T1 Tanker types
  7. ↑ NavSource USS Klickitat (AOG-64)
  8. ↑ shipbuildinghistory.com, T-1 Tankers
  9. ↑ marad.dot.gov, Coastal Tankers
  10. ↑ marad.dot.gov, Coastal Tanker
  11. ↑ "marad.dot.gov, Activation specifications for t1 -m-bt2 tanker" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-08-06. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  12. ↑ Mitchell, William Harry & Sawyer, Leonard Arthur (1990). The Empire Ships (2nd ed.). London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press Ltd. ISBN   1-85044-275-4.
  13. ↑ "NJ Scuba, Tanker". Archived from the original on 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  14. ↑ USM shipyards, usmm.org
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