Word: tankermen
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Along with ennui, tankermen are prey to fleeting fears. In the past two months, mysterious explosions have sunk three tankers off the coast of Africa. Last week four crewmen were killed when a Swedish tanker blew up in a Hamburg drydock. Loaded, the Europoort carries enough oil to pollute beaches from Holland to Spain, though Esso strictly bans any ocean discharges except in dire emergencies. Empty, the ship is as potentially explosive as nitroglycerin, with a rich mixture of oxygen and oil fumes in its massive tanks. To prevent inadvertent explosions, a Japanese company has designed an automatic system that...
Operators of dry-cargo tramp steamers are in even tougher shape. With transatlantic shipping rates at a postwar low ($3.10 per ton for coal v. $16 per ton a year ago), many shipowners are going $10,000 to $20,000 in the red on each voyage. And like tankermen, Greek tramp operators are busy laying up vessels, have already mothballed about 20% of their ships. Altogether, the Greeks control a 5,500,000-ton fleet comprising half the world's tramp tonnage...
...other hand, tankers as big as 100,000 tons may prove a strategic necessity. Many tankermen have been expecting for months that Egypt's General Nasser would not only seize the Suez Canal (see FOREIGN NEWS), but bar it to Western shipping, to bring pressure on Britain and the U.S. Some supertankers are now bypassing the Canal on the Middle East-California run. If all Europe-and U.S.-bound tankers are forced to round the Cape of Good Hope, more and bigger supertankers will be needed...
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