''Pierre Guillaumat'' was a
supertanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cr ...
built in 1977 by
Chantiers de l'Atlantique
Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire, ...
at
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Oc ...
for Compagnie Nationale de Navigation. It was the third vessel of the and distinguished for being the biggest ship ever constructed (by
gross register tonnage). It was surpassed in length,
deadweight tonnage
Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water
Fresh water or ...
and
displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and physics
*Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
only by ,
which, though it was originally smaller when it was built in 1976, was subsequently lengthened and enlarged.
It was named after the French politician and founder of
Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine is a French brand of oils and other motor products (such as brake fluids) for automobiles and trucks. Elf is a former petroleum company which merged with TotalFina to form "TotalFinaElf". The new company changed its name to Total ...
oil industry,
Pierre Guillaumat, and was completed in 1977. However, the poor state of the tanker market, accentuated by the huge dimensions of the ship that restricted where it could be employed, meant that ''Pierre Guillaumat'' was unprofitable for most of its career and the vessel was laid up at
Fujairah
Fujairah City () is the capital of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, seventh-largest city in UAE, located on the Gulf of Oman (part of the Indian Ocean). It is the only Em ...
anchorage on 2 February 1983.
Later that year, it was bought by the
Hyundai Corporation and renamed ''Ulsan Master'', she arrived at
Ulsan
Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
for demolition on 19 October 1983.
Its gigantic proportions left ''Pierre Guillaumat'' with very limited employment opportunities. The vessel could not pass through the
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...
, and its draft meant it was only able to enter a small number of ports. It was therefore often moored at
offshore rigs and oil terminals such as
Antifer
''Antifer'' is an extinct genus of large herbivorous deer belonging to the tribe Odocoileini native to South America during the Pleistocene, becoming extinct around 12,000 years ago. It was one of the largest South American deer genera, with an ...
and, after
lightering Lightering (also called lighterage) is the process of transferring cargo between vessels of different sizes, usually between a barge ( lighter) and a bulker or oil tanker. Lightering is undertaken to reduce a vessel's draft so it can enter port fac ...
to reduce her draft, at
Europoort
Europoort (, , also "Europort") is an area of the Port of Rotterdam and the adjoining industrial area in the Netherlands. Being situated at Southside of the mouth of the rivers Rhine and Meuse with the hinterland consisting of the Netherlands, ...
.
Technical data
The vessel's
length overall
Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also ...
was , its
beam ,
draft
Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
, and measured , and . Propulsion was provided by two propellers each driven by two
Stal-Laval steam turbine
A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...
s developing a total power of . The service speed was , with fuel consumption of about
of heavy oil per day and fuel enough for 42 days.
The cargo was carried in 40
tanks
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; t ...
with a total volume of . They were divided into central and lateral tanks, whose dimensions were designed to reduce considerably the risk of pollution caused by collision or grounding. Ahead of the international standards of the time, the wing tanks had a maximum unit volume not exceeding , which was reduced to in the most vulnerable parts of ship.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Gallery and technical information at aukevisser.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre Guillaumat
Ships built in France
1977 ships
Tankers of France
Oil tankers