Brazilian Supertanker
Monday, 17th October 2005 by Alex Turnbull
Please note that some or all of the objects mentioned in this post are no longer visible on Google Earth or Google Maps.
Here's a totally awesome image of an enormous supertanker speeding along just off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Only ships above 250,000 tonnes are considered true supertankers, and due to their massive size and weight, their stopping distances are generally measured in miles. They're also capable of carrying around two million barrels of oil.
It all seems completely unbelievable somehow, and yet Wikipedia tells us it's true...
Thanks to Gus.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
I think you managed to find the Berge Stahl (Mountains of Steel), a superhuge iron ore tanker. It draws 75 feet (almost 23m) and can only dock in 2 ports in the world.
http://www.machinesupport.com/english/news-6.html
addendum: wikipedia has it listed as the largest bulk cargo ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_cargo
I don’t think its the Berge Stahl. The deck hatches on this one are not as pronounced as these in this picture:
http://www.noordzee.org/Images/4_1868.jpg
And the flyimg wings off the supersructure extend quite a bit less on the Berge Stahl than the one captured in the Google images.
http://www.machinesupport.com/english/news-6-01.html
I watched a show on discovery channel about engineering a floating (ship) city. They said it would weigh 300 million tonnes. At a rather slow 10 knots it would take 5 miles to stop they said.
hope this isn’t to off-topic
http://www.freedomship.com/
Should have googled it before to have just one post, but a URL for anyone interested.
Wow, that’s just nearly as big as the island just to the north of it. An ISLAND. Whoa. Come to Jesus.
I heard about the Freedom Ship a long time ago. Sounds awesome! But I’ll pass on it until it’s sunk once. Then they’ll fix everything they should’ve fixed before it launched.
I’ve been aboard Berge Boss and my father sailed aboard her and (I think) Jahre Viking (see http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jul11/sunday/head3.htm and also see wikipedia). Berge Boss was also a supertanker. I don’t remember them being that big, though.
Oh according to Wikipedia, Knock Nevis is Jahre Viking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahre_Viking
This thing is really impressive – although I would be very curious to find out which tanker it really is.
I think it has been established that it is not the above mentioned Berge Stahl nor the Knock Nevis / Jahre Viking. The Knock Nevis is can be found on Google Maps here: View Placemark
So, the hunt is on: Who is the baby?
The oil tanker seems to be about 275m (900ft) in length. The one I found is not on oil tanker, but a HUGE 290 m (950 ft) container carrier:
View Placemark
Here is an identical tanker in Halifax.
View Placemark
funny that super tanker in halifax shows up on google maps but in google earht is a different photo date as the ship is not there!
Here is a ST near istanbul it shows up in google earth too which lets you see a better resolution you can see the helicopter landing pad on the deck
View Placemark
I don’t think it is the Berge Stahl. In fact, i don’t even think it is a dry bulk carrier. A dry bulk carrier has lateral hatches along his lenght. This tanker has something in his middle running across the whole length: i think this is an oil tanker, and in the middle are pipelines (maybe LNG tanker).
Using the mease tools of google, i have come to the following dimensions: Length: 275-276 metres Widht: 47 metres
These dimensions do not match those of the Berge Stahl.
Also the sattelite photo has been taken in the year 2005, but i did not find any more specific time details (day ??)
The red color points to Berge as builder/owner.
Also the Helicopter pad is clearly to the left, not in the middle, but somehow more to the front.
A great site about super-tankers can be found here:
http://supertankers.topcities.com/
but i have’t found a match -yet-
burge shtil is over 330 meters in length and almost 65 meters wide, displacing 370,000 tonnes and crewed by a crew of 30
i have worked on similar ships not nearly as big but i do know that it does take miles to stop also burge shtill is not a oil tanker she carrys iron ore pellets her name means “mountain of iron”
regards
Hi,
The tanker on the picture is a standard 300.000 dwt (deadewight ton = carrying capacity) crude oil tanker. This one has probably delivered oil from the Middle East or West Africa to Brazil.
Since tankers have become very standardised over the years, it is difficult to tell which one this is. Large tankers these days are usually either 300.000 dwt (2 million barrels of oil), 150.000 dwt (1 million barrels) or 100.000 dwt (700.000 barrels), since these are the lots usually shipped by the oil exporters.
The vessel is not an ore carrier, like Berge Stahl is. By the way, the name “Berge Stahl” may not be too different from the way “mountains of steel” is written in German. However, its Norwegian shipowner Bergesen (now part of Bergesen WorldWide) names all their ships with the prefix “Berge”, for instance “Berge Big” and “Berge Boss”. The Suffix “Stahl” means steel in German and was a tribute to its German charterer, but the suffice Berge is simply derived from the shipowner’s name.
Best regards Mats Oslo, Norway
It’s a standard VLCC (very large crude carrier). I have first calibrated the measure of google earth to something of a known length. If you look in the port of Rio you’ll find the aircraft carrier Sao Paulo (former Foch) it’s maximal length is 860 feet. The measure measures it at 861 feet, so it’s accurate. Measuring the VLCC you get a length of around 280m and a beam of 47m. That will calculate roughly to a DWT of 230.000. Looking at the config of the upper deck I would say it’s made by Hyundai South Korea. My guess it is a shuttle carrier between the Campos basin oilfields and the São Sebastião oil terminal at the São Paulo port.
It will difficult to identify because it is a standard carrier and not a very big one (small VLCC)
Found on the internet that Teekay shipping (www.teekay.com) delivered two shuttle tankers to the PetroBras oil company. When you look on their website you will see that most of their shuttle tankers almost perfectly match the dimensions of the “mystery tanker”. Teekay tankers also have a red upperdeck with same configuration. So for now I would put my money on a Teekay (owned or delivered) shuttle tanker. I will try to put a name to her…
My educated guess would be “MT Nordic Brasilia” Shuttle tanker between Campos Basin and Sao Paulo. The ship didn’t leave the port of Rio, it doesn’t comply with its location on the photo. BTW Rio port doesn’t have a dedicated oil terminal, Sao Paulo has. The location of the ship and direction of the ship could logical for a heading towards the Campos Basin.
ive found that one… but its not what we looking for, right?
http://froogle.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=rhode+island&ll=-22.870111,-43.208204&spn=0.002714,0.004302&t=h
SLR,
I don’t know which ship you’ve found, but it’s not the Nordic Brasilia or Nordic Rio. The beam of the ship in the drydock is around 52 meters. The Brasilia and rio are “SuezMax” tankers which are usually less than 50 meters.
http://www.teekay.com/index.aspx?page=vessel_details&imo=9274513
dunno, but this is bigger that all floating ones which i found somewhere else in the world… spc. in singapure :/
SLR,
You’ve found a VLCC type carrier. And by the looks of it it is being converted to a FSO (floating storage offloading).
You have to know where to look for big floating ones… Try the persian gulf View Placemark
Keppel singapore is also building three 300m+ VLCC
View Placemark
keep searching @ mexico gulf 🙂
check out View Placemark
View Placemark
I’m sorry, but this is not the MS ‘Berge Stahl’. The hatches are different and the helicopter landing spot (for harbour-pilots) is not in the right place (on the BS the H-landing spot is on one of the middle-hatches). The bridge is different too (also the color is something ‘greenish’ on the BS). I’ve often seen the BS in Europoort, Rotterdam, flying pilots to and from the ship (I’m a pilot-pilot). Rotterdam is one of the two harbours in the world where the BS can dock. It docks here about 10 times a year. It’s an amazing ship with an extra-ordinary size and handling. It has to slow down even before entering the ‘Northsea Channel’, somewhere around Cherbourg, France. Then it still has to pass the country of Belgium and the south of Holland. Still an amazing ship though I’ve seen it many times!
Indeed this is not the Berge Stahl. I have been searching for the big ships of the world and am happy to have found and identified 3 so far. Including the Stahl.
I first thought that the gigantic bulk ship in Europoort (one of the 2 ports Berge Stahl docks at) was indeed the Berge Stahl. But measurments with the ruler and comparrison with photographs resulted in a smaller, but still giant ship. I identified it as the Berge Pacific. Other information on websites (from spotters and fan sites) confirmed that. So that set me on the quest of finding the Berge Stahl. The other port this ship docks at is the one near the northern-brasilian city of Sao Luis. Just west of the city you will find a huge ore plant en several ships docked. However the Stahl was still a mystery. I was hoping it wasn’t on its journy in the middle of the atlantic. But luckily i found some ships in the blurry waters (google earth has no clear view of this) a little bit north of Sao Luis. They are obviously waiting for space at the iron ore terminal. One of these, the largest, has the perfect measurements. Around 343 meters in length and around 65 meters in width. Same as the measurements of the Berge Stahl! This is with no doubt this remarkable ship!
I have also been looking for the Emma Maersk, but she is still not spotted by me. I found numerous container vessels larger than 300meters in lenth. However i found 3 contaner ships off around 340-350 meters in length. They all could be the S-series from Maersk One spotted in Singapore, one in Hong Kong and most clear of all the one in Yokohama, Japan. You can read: Maersk Sealand very clearly on the blue side of the ship. I am almost sure it’s the Albert Maersk but i can be wrong. All three are most probably from Maersk. But who knows. It’s very hard to tell from above.
Thanks and have fun spotting! Perhaps you can help me spot the Jahre 😛 I failed in doing so!
Hello,
Has anyone seen Knock Nevis in Google Earth lately? If someone has could he give me coordinates or link, cause I haven’t seen it at all. 🙁
Possibly Berge Stahl?
Nevermind, just read Arjun’s post a little more closely. Happy hunting!
Knock Nevis is outside Quatar, it’s converted from a bulkcarrier to a FPSO
There are two very large tankers docked in the Dubai port and another equally large one on the way into port. Does anybody know which tankers those are?
Google Maps = View Placemark
True, Knock Nevis is somewhere in Qatar not in Rotterdam. This placemark is wrong, Knock Nevis is a tanker. The ship pictured there is a bulk carrier…..
I’m looking for technical blueprints for a supertanker or bulk carrier. Can anybody help me locate these?
Thanks, Jason
I am also looking for specs or dimensions or even blue prints for a super tanker or cargo tanker for a class project. I need to build a model of one!! Can someone offer up a website or any other resource that may help me?
Thanks,
John
Not the Berge Stahl – Hatch covers different, paint different, helipad not even there, superstructure completely different – i’ve seen the Berge Stahl for real. I reckon it’s owened by the same company though. Oh, the Berge Stahl can only go to 2 ports in the world, and the one this ship is near, is not one of those 2.
Most Supertankers cannot berth in the US, however at BP #121 in Long Beach they can if they don’t come in fully laden. You will find this to be the case in most ports that accommodate vessels of this size. They initially lighter off one cargo then come in with 1.5 mil bbls, instead of their 2 mil bbl capacity. These are VLCC’s, the larger ULCC’s stay at sea for the duration of their life and no port can take them in. They load then lighter off all their cargo, and about the Jahre Viking. I was on her 2 last voyages lightering in the US Gulf prior to her heading for FSO duties. She is the largest ship ever constructed. One walk around her deck is close to one mile.