Word: merchant
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...disasters began more than two weeks ago, when the Liberian-flag tanker Argo Merchant, well off course, ran hard aground on the Nantucket shoals, a well-charted section of the sea just southeast of Nantucket Island. After a week's battering by wind and waves, the 640-ft. ship began breaking up, spilling its entire cargo into the frigid Atlantic. Immediately endangered were not only the sandy strands of Nantucket and Cape Cod but also the rich fishing grounds of Georges Bank. Shortly after the Argo Merchant grounding, another Liberian ship, the Sansinena, exploded in Los Angeles harbor with...
...drama was heightened. But they may be only a sample of things to come. The transportation of oil by sea has increased enormously in the years since World War II, and oil tankers, once a little-noticed breed of ship, now constitute more than half of the world's merchant-ship tonnage. In U.S. ports, tanker traffic has increased proportionately as the nation has turned heavily to imports to meet its growing thirst for fuel. In 1966 the U.S. imported 940 million bbl. of oil and petroleum products. Now nearly three times as much is arriving in U.S. ports?about...
...tanker of 28,000 tons was considered so impressive that Britain's Princess Margaret formally launched it. By 1960, tankers of more than 100,000 tons were becoming commonplace. Now the supertankers make the 18,743-ton Argo Merchant seem like a skiff by comparison. Over 30% of the world's tanker fleet consists of ships with capacities of over 200,000 tons. Japan's Globtik Tokyo (length: 1,243 ft.; draft: 91 ft. 11 in.) can carry a whopping 476,292 tons. The hazards such ships pose are correspondingly enormous...
Ecological Hazard. No scientists are willing to forecast the effects of the oil now spreading seaward from the Argo Merchant. Most believe that if the globs of oil, called oilbergs because most of their mass is below the surface, continue to move east, the damage will be held to a minimum. But shifting winds could still bring the oil ashore, fouling beaches and causing massive ecological damage. The spill has already driven hundreds of sea birds ashore, bedraggled and helpless. The oil could also threaten humpback whales, which migrate through the affected area, and imperil the already endangered gray seals...
...suck it off the surface may work fairly well in the quiet waters of harbors or slow-flowing rivers. But the open ocean poses all but insuperable problems. Coast Guardsmen lost $200,000 worth of equipment when stormy seas forced them to abandon attempts to take off the Argo Merchant's cargo. The pounding waves rendered booms useless and stymied the Coast Guard's attempts to set the oil on fire...