Tankers

Yeah guys I’m at it again, bringing attention to the lesser ships of any naval force. This post is going to deal with Tankers this time, lets talk about them, how much they hold, how many crew they need and how good they really are. And while we’re at it, lets look at what’s to come in the tanking business in the future.

A few years ago I lost a friend on board the Tanker HMAS Westralia (Petty Officer Sean “Smoo” Smith). He was a good leader, a great friend and best of all, one hell of a hockey team captain (I played Left Wing on the Navy team).

Westralia’s fire was eventually attributed to substandard repairs undertaken by defence contractors while the ship was in dock for scheduled maintanence.

Now that the tanker is getting on in age and the laws governing such ships have also changed, the RAN is finally moving in a positive direction with it’s tanker fleet.

The laws now dictate that all fuel, oil and gas ships must have a double hull thus reducing ther risk of major accidents and spills. The government has purchased the Delos and is now converting it to military standards and she will launch as HMAS Sirius in 2007

She’s getting all the standard features of modernday tankers. A pizzahut in the middle of the ship to manage ship to ship refuelling. A helo pad aft (though many have called for a hanger as well to provide an organic capacity in the light of the Westralia disaster (the ship had to wait 8 hours for medivac to be flown in.

Australia’s other tanker, HMAS Success- an Auastralian version of the French Druance class and also the largest and last ship built on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, will be up for replacment in the next decade. What ships are going to be around then? Will the RAN buy a military standard ship or follow current global trends and buy a commercial tanker then refit it?

Both Ships in the current RAN fleet can only refuel two ships at once, this is ok but when acting in a fleet support role, wouldn’t more be better? RNZN’s HMNZS Endeavour can refuel three ships at once, one on each side and one aft- in which they trail a hose attached to floatation bouys and the aft ships scoops it up, places it and takes on the fuel.

The New Zealand tanker is also unique in the fact that it is also fully automated a small crew work the day from 07:30 till 17:30 then the ship is placed on automatic and the crew go off for food and sleep- though a dutyroster ensures that three people are always in the bridge and two in the engine room, just in case.

Given the success of the RNZN’s automated tanker, will it become a standard thing in the future as fleet maning becomes more of an issue, will the automation costs then start to go up or will they come down as more countries start buying this system?